Coast Guard offloads more than $411 million of cocaine and pot at Port Everglades

The U.S. Coast Guard offloaded more than $411 million worth of drugs at Port Everglades on Wednesday morning.

According to the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter James and its partners in the drug busts — including the U.S. Navy and international crews from the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands — about 23,000 pounds of cocaine and 8,800 pounds of marijuana were seized at sea.

The drugs were found during multiple Eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea interdictions despite the “increasing challenge” of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last few months, said Coast Guard Capt. Todd Vance and Adm. Karl Schultz during a press conference on the dock.

Members of the crew and the international partners stood before a small, representative palette that held the seized drugs.

Also at the event, which is posted to the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast’s Facebook page, were Col. Jarst de Jong, Capt. Cédric Chetaille and Comm. P.D. Nash, Naval attachés from the Netherlands, France and UK, respectively; Jean-Sébastien Conty, a political counselor of African and Western Hemisphere Affairs from the French embassy; and the National Crime Agency’s Paul Jenkins, the head of region for North America and the Caribbean.