The Unit­ed States Coast Guard on Wednes­day said the crew of the Coast Guard Cut­ter Tam­pa end­ed Fleet Week Fort Laud­erdale with the of­fload, at Port Ever­glades, of about 3,750 pounds of co­caine and mar­i­jua­na, worth an es­ti­mat­ed US$12.3 mil­lion, seized in the Caribbean Sea.

The Coast Guard said the seized con­tra­band was the re­sult of two in­ter­dic­tions in the Caribbean Sea by the crew of USS Min­neapo­lis-Saint Paul and their em­barked Navy he­li­copter and Coast Guard law en­force­ment de­tach­ments.

“We train dili­gent­ly and stand ready to ex­e­cute in­ter­dic­tion mis­sions at mo­ment’s no­tice,” said Com­man­der Steven Fresse, Min­neapo­lis-Saint Paul com­mand­ing of­fi­cer.

“To be able to make an im­me­di­ate im­pact so ear­ly on dur­ing our maid­en de­ploy­ment is a tes­ta­ment to the hard work and skills of the ship’s crew,” he added.

Com­man­der Wal­ter Krol­man, Tam­pa com­mand­ing of­fi­cer, said Fleet Week Fort Laud­erdale was “a great op­por­tu­ni­ty for our Coast Guard, Navy and Ma­rine Corps crews to show­case our sea ser­vices to com­mu­ni­ties here in South Flori­da.

“To­day’s of­fload demon­strates the val­ue of our col­lab­o­ra­tive joint force op­er­a­tions far out to sea in pro­tect­ing and de­fend­ing Amer­i­cans here at home from threats abroad,” he added.

The Coast Guard said de­tect­ing and in­ter­dict­ing il­lic­it drug traf­fick­ers on the high seas in­volves sig­nif­i­cant in­ter­a­gency and in­ter­na­tion­al co­or­di­na­tion.

It said Joint In­ter­a­gency Task Force-South, in Key West, Flori­da con­ducts the de­tec­tion and mon­i­tor­ing of aer­i­al and mar­itime tran­sit of il­le­gal drugs.

“Once an in­ter­dic­tion be­comes im­mi­nent, the law en­force­ment phase of the op­er­a­tion be­gins, and con­trol of the op­er­a­tion shifts to the US Coast Guard for the in­ter­dic­tion and ap­pre­hen­sion phas­es,” the US Coast Guard said.

In­ter­dic­tions in the Caribbean Sea are per­formed by mem­bers of the US Coast Guard un­der the au­thor­i­ty and con­trol of the Sev­enth Coast Guard Dis­trict, head­quar­tered in Mi­a­mi. —MI­A­MI (CMC)