Coast Guard Unloads Haul With Enough Illegal Drugs 'To Fatally Overdose the Entire Population of the State of Florida'

The U.S. Coast Guard announced it offloaded a record seizure of illegal narcotics at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, totaling 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, valued at $473 million.

Rear Admiral Adam Chamie, commander of the Coast Guard's southeast district, said the cocaine alone represents approximately 23 million potentially lethal doses—enough, he noted, "to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida."

Chamie added in an official statement on the Coast Guard's website that the operation "represents a significant victory in the fight against transnational criminal organizations, highlighting our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the nation from illicit trafficking and its devastating impacts."

The haul, described by the Coast Guard as the largest offload in its history, came from 19 separate interdictions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea between June 26 and August 18. The operations involved three Coast Guard cutters, two U.S. Navy warships, a Netherlands warship, Coast Guard helicopter units, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol teams, and Joint Interagency Task Force personnel.

Captain John B. McWhite, commanding officer of the cutter Hamilton, said his crew intercepted 11 "go-fast" vessels, seizing a record 47,000 pounds of cocaine and detaining 34 suspected traffickers with the Hamilton's onboard drone unit helping locate many of the smuggling vessels.

Rear Admiral Chamie emphasized in an interview with CBS News that maritime interdictions are the most effective way to prevent deadly drugs from reaching U.S. communities, stating, "before they reach our communities, before they destroy lives and tear our families apart."

The operation was supported internationally by the Royal Netherlands Navy and the crew of The Coast Guard reported that since January, it has seized $2.2 billion in illegal narcotics, a figure that includes prior large-scale interdictions near Mexico and in the Eastern Pacific. These included May seizures of cocaine totaling more than 56,000 pounds in multiple operations, emphasizing the ongoing scale of maritime drug interdiction efforts.

Rear Admiral Chase Sargeant told CBS News that the ongoing joint operations are making a difference:

"I think if you want to see, in general, what is keeping America safe from drugs, it's this. The work they are doing out there every day, every night, 365, 24/7, out in the East Pac, in the Eastern Pacific, and the Caribbean. This is what's keeping drugs off the streets of America and this is what's winning the war on drugs"