The Coast Guard has reached a new record of cocaine seizures at sea, for the second year in a row, according to The Washington Post.
As of Sept. 11, the Coast Guard has seized more than 455,000 pounds of cocaine in the fiscal year that will end Oct. 1. The amount last year was 443,790 pounds. The Coast Guard also has detained at least 681 suspected smugglers, an increase from 585 the previous year, the Post reported.
Wednesday, in San Diego, the Coast Guard will highlight the record alongside Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as it offloads 50,550 pounds of cocaine confiscated by four Coast Guard cutters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Captures of massive amounts of drugs have become "just another day in the service," according to Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, the Coast Guard commandant. The amount of cocaine has dramatically increased since the government of Colombia eased back on eradicating coca plants from the air in 2016 as part of a peace deal with the rebel group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), according to the Post.
"We have seen a dramatic increase in cultivation and production. This is almost exclusively coming out of Colombia," Zukunft said.
The goal is to stop drug shipments before they get to the U.S. border, instead of at the border, the commandant said. "I look at a border wall as a goal-line defense, if you will. But what's your offensive strategy? And this, to us, is a very offensive strategy. The fact is that we have awareness of these drug movements and actually are attacking because we know where they're at, and just don't have enough attackers. The border really is your last-stop measure."
The Coast Guard needs more vehicles to do its job better, said Vice Adm. Fred Midgette. "If you did the math and you gave me about five times as many cutters as we have out here, we'd be doing pretty well … I can't send them all to the drug war."
Zukunft said the Coast Guard provides a "tremendous return on investment" in efforts to combat the drug problem in the U.S.
The Coast Guard also was involved in rescue efforts during recent storms. President Donald Trump on Sept. 10 praised the service. "When you go in there, you don't know if you're going to come out… if you talk about branding, no brand has improved more than the United States Coast Guard," Trump said.
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