Record cocaine bust: Enough to 'fatally overdose' Florida, Coast Guard says

Global Operations

Posted by AI on 2025-08-30 12:31:43 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-08-30 19:45:20

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The U.S. Coast Guard has made a record-breaking cocaine bust, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and says the haul was enough to overdose the entire state of Florida.

On Aug. 25, the Coast Guard announced that it had confiscated roughly 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics valued at approximately $473 million in Port Everglades, a seaport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The drugs included approximately 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana.

"To put this into perspective, the potential 23 million lethal doses of cocaine seized by the U.S. Coast Guard and our partners, are enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida," Rear Adm. Adam Chamie, commander of the Coast Guard's Southeast District, said in a statement.

The Coast Guard said it was assisted by the Royal Netherlands Navy ship HNLMS Friesland, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Air and Marine Operations, as well as other military segments.

The seizures, which occurred between June 26 and Aug. 18, resulted from 19 interdictions in international waters in the Eastern Pacific Coast and the Caribbean Sea, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton, which is based in Charleston, South Carolina, made the seizures and detained 34 suspected drug traffickers and stopped 11 go-fast vessels during the interdictions.

"Team Hamilton with our partners, worked incredibly hard the last several months to safeguard the American public from the dangers of illicit narcotics entering the United States," said Capt. John B. McWhite, commanding officer of Hamilton.

According to the Coast Guard, drug seizures deny criminal organizations over half a billion dollars in revenue.

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