Savannah CBP detail seizes record cocaine shipment

Port of Savannah, Georgia, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers recently seized a port-record 2,133-pounds of cocaine via scrap aluminum and copper being shipped from South America to Europe.

“Drug Trafficking Organizations are relentless in their attempts to smuggle drugs into the U.S.” Christopher Kennally, Savannah Area Port director, said. “Through hard work, dedication, and tireless efforts of Customs and Border Protection officers in Savannah, we will continue to hit back at the Drug Trafficking Organizations by intercepting their dangerous drugs at our ports of entry before they can harm our communities.”

The work involved officers detecting an anomaly during a non-intrusive examination of a shipping container aboard a vessel docked in Savannah from South America. When officers opened the container, they discovered 21 duffel bags containing 818 bricks of a white powdery substance that field-tested positive for cocaine.

“In response to emerging narcotics smuggling trends and threats in the maritime environment, Customs and Border Protection has enhanced our enforcement strategy on targeting high-risk shipments from source narcotics nations that are either destined to Ports in the United States or that pass through sovereign United States waters,” Donald. F. Yando, director of Field Operations, Atlanta, said. “The scourge of illicit narcotics is a very serious international health and security threat, and CBP will continue to partner with our federal, state, local and international partners by intercepting these dangerous drugs when and where we can.”

The cocaine weighed a combined 967 kilograms, or 2,133 pounds, and has a street value of about $31 million.

While CBP authorities have made no arrests, Homeland Security Investigations continues to investigate.