Coast Guard Offloads 970 Pounds of Cocaine and 550 pounds of Marijuana at Base Miami Beach

MIAMI — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Raymond Evans (WPC-1110) offloaded about 970 pounds of cocaine and 550 pounds of marijuana April 18 at Coast Guard Base Miami Beach worth an estimated total of $13.5 million wholesale seized in international waters, the Coast Guard 7th District said.

This featured Raymond Evans’ first-ever stop, interdiction and seizure of a vessel trafficking illicit narcotics on April 8 while on patrol in the central Caribbean Sea.

The contraband offloaded was interdicted off the coasts of Jamaica, Haiti and Colombia and represented three separate cases involving suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The cutter Raymond Evans was responsible for one case, seizing an estimated 550 pounds of marijuana.

The Coast Guard Cutter Spencer (WMEC-905) was responsible for receiving about 970 pounds of cocaine from a case off the coast of Colombia. The Spencer also interdicted small amounts of marijuana and amphetamines in another case. The contraband from these cases was transferred to the Raymond Evans.

“This was our first deployment outside of the Florida Straits in 18 months, and I’m extremely proud of my crew for the work they did over the past few weeks to make this patrol successful,” said Lt. Patrick Frost, commanding officer of the Raymond Evans. “It was exciting to exercise the capabilities of the fast response cutter in the Caribbean counter-drug narcotics mission, and we’re honored to have played a role in the first drug interdiction for Raymond Evans.”

The interdiction completed by the cutter’s crew was part of a recent interagency operation to increase intelligence and targeting capabilities in order to disrupt criminal organizations in the Caribbean Sea and secure approaches to the U.S. along the southern border. The cutter’s crew collaborated with Department of Homeland Security components to interdict suspected drug smugglers off the coast of Jamaica.

Raymond Evans is a 154-foot fast-response cutter homeported in Key West, Florida. Spencer is a 270-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Boston.