U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) recently intercepted two vessels carrying more than 2,900 pounds of cocaine traveling in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
“This latest seizure provides a glimpse of the vigilance our experienced aircrews exhibit when patrolling the open waters,” Robert Blanchard, director of the National Air Security Operations Center in Jacksonville, said. “Our crews remain committed to disrupting transnational criminal organizations’ attempts to smuggle illicit narcotics.”
Early this month, CBP AMO crews aboard a P-3 aircraft detected two go-fast style vessels suspected of narcotics trafficking. Once detected, the AMO crews informed a Miami-based DHC-8 crew of the suspect vessels who continued surveillance operations from there.
The DHC-8 crew then coordinated with the Joint Interagency Task Force – South, who sent a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter-style boat to intercept the vessels. The interception resulted in the arrest of three suspects and the seizure of approximately 2,923 pounds of cocaine.
The vessel’s detection occurred in an area AMO calls the Source and Transit Zone, which spans more than 42 million square miles around the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of the nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry.