E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Spc. Andy Barrera / U.S. Army
U.S Navy and Coast Guard personnel pick up bales of narcotics out of the Caribbean Sea last Friday.
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy has seized nearly 5,000 pounds of cocaine from drug-running "fast boats" off the coast of Panama, NBC News has learned. Drug enforcement officials estimate the street value to be more than $360 million.
The illicit drugs were recovered on Friday during Operation Martillo (Hammer), an ongoing drug enforcement operation comprised of US, Central American and South American countries.
A US Customs and Border Protection P-3 surveillance aircraft spotted two fast boats loaded with what appeared to be a large amount of illicit drugs about 25 miles off the east coast of Panama in the Caribbean. As two Panamanian military helicopters gave chase, the drug smugglers tossed their cargo into the sea.
The suspects escaped but the USS Elfrod, a U.S. Navy frigate patrolling the area, recovered 89 bales of cocaine weighing 4,840 pounds.
Spc. Andy Barrera / U.S. Army
U.S Navy and Coast Guard personnel, transport bales of cocaine seized from drug runners in the Caribbean Sea last Friday.
It's estimated that 80 percent of the cocaine sold in the US is smuggled via the Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
Jim Miklaszewski is NBC News' chief Pentagon correspondent and Courtney Kube is NBC News' Pentagon producer.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Autistic boy's father: Why hasn't teacher been fired over 'bullying'?
- Unborn baby shot in Los Angeles riots: 'I'm still here'
- Wanted: Poacher who cut off cougar's paws
- Marine who criticized Obama on Facebook: I wish I could take it back
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Great job boys!! That's gonna put a black mark on somebody's weekend! Too bad they didn't catch the creeps.
I 2nd that..
The drug smugglers got away—how convenient—so tomorrow the fast boats can run again with the same men at the wheel—anyone ever get the idea this is just a game people in the government play
@Tiger:Not me. I still have faith in my government to do as much as they can to stop all illegal drugs being put in the hands of, primarily, our youth.
Let Darwin worry about drug taking youngsters.
It's nice to have faith...but faith in our Gov to stop drugs!?? They can't even slow it down much less stop it. Sorry to say, while admirable, truly should be labeled "blind faith".
I thought Ollie North was in that police drug boat, in the photo, picking up cocaine to be sold as crack in LA.
How fast you all forget the Iran Contra Affair... the US government is IN THE DRUG business people.
Sink them then you can cut down on return trips, let the wheel men swim home if they can, otherwise to bad, if the load goes down then you just get a lot of very happy fish.
@ Tiger...I agree it is a game. Its the timeless dance of the criminal against the law. They commit crimes, the good guys try to stop them, the good guys develop new methods of doing thatn, at the same time the criminals are developing methods to counter the good guys! lol
I would say that these smugglers were dead for not planning out the trip better, I mean theyve been using fast boats for years...by now they should know the proper way to travel. Even if they are punished there are more just waiting to take their spot.
If there were helicopters following them....how did they "get away"?
Dog catches tail, tail gets loose, dog spends another hour trying to catch it.
This will have zero effect on the availability of cocaine anywhere in the US.
Call the Secret Service to get in on this. It's time to party at the strip clubs. The hookers are waiting. Colombian and Salvadoran hookers only please.
Good thing the Coast Guard got this stuff. Imagine the TSA being involved? The headline would read 'TSA Officials seize 1000 pounds of cocaine'.
But then again, the TSA would never have caught it anyway.
Imagine what awaits the runners when they report back to their boss that they lost $360 MILLION worth of product. I have a feeling there won't be any second chances given.
:)
I wonder if the "containers" had any of those "shell" grenades that was taken into Mexico by that drug king pin.
Notice that there is no article concerning the Fast and Furious LOST "shell" grenades ?
Good thing you know about it IDO, I would hate to think that we would miss out on this info. How is that tin foil hat fitting.
robiscoole....."Good thing you know about it IDO, I would hate to think that we would miss out on this info. How is that tin foil hat fitting."
Sheeesh, comon robiscoole.....KEEP UP WITH THE NEWS !!! ....before slamming someone.
No "TIN HAT" required to see what this administration is doing. The DOJ has done it again. Compile this with GSA, DHS, DOE, DSHS, etc., and they are all LOSERS. Looks like this administration is chalked with incompetent "appointees".
Anybody but Obama 2012, and that person could even be Barney Frank on the Democratic ticket, or maybe even the Democratic spokes people: Ed Shultz, Hilary Rosen, or Chris Matthews.
they got away from the feds...but they wont get away from their boss...somebody is going to pay for with their life....and here comes the dried up drug market this summer....5000 pounds of coke....1500 pounds of weed busted in atlanta and another 1000 pounds busted in tennesse all in a 3 week span....the drugies are going to go crazy this summer with such a limited supply, this summer.....someone on the inside is a RAT, thats how these big shipments keep getting busted
I dont give a @!$%#-- The govt is shady no matter who runs it. Your comment had nothing to do with the article--you are just a political hack.
Raygun-- Iran contra-- Central America drug wars with no goal-- American lives lost
Bush -- War in Iraq without a reason ---- American lives lost
alaskagirl
wow.
you have more faith than me. you are familiar with afghanistan, right? you do know we are fighting an opium war right now, right? we are not necessarily on the right side in that one.
Tony Montana wet dream right there!!!
Just a drop in the bucket............
How will Keith Richards make it through Summer vacation ?
Whats Charlie Sheen going to do tonight between 11-3?
Notice that the bales were pink? Even drug lords support breast Cancer research.
Oh yeah our borders are secure. They got this load but how many get through?
@DEN: Geez, Debbie Downer. Every bit helps. That's a big get anyway you slice it, or in this case line it up. LOL
Every little bit helps.
The cost of what got through just went up. LOL.
The war on drugs, just as the war on ALL crime must continue.
$360 million retail value but there are transportation, marketing, and retail sales expenses, all which cut way into the profit margin.
Those who say, "legalize drugs, take the profit out of illegal sales; regulate and tax legal sales by prescription. Then there wouldn't be enough profit in illegal drugs to make it worthwhile" don't bother to think about the abuse of legal prescription drugs is going on.
What is the connection you are drawing? Yes, abuse of legal prescription drugs happens... a lot. Yes, consumption of illegal substances like cocaine continues to happen... a lot. Making something legal or illegal does not change people's desire to get high.
This behavior has existed in one form or another since the dawn of human history. Some have even argued that it is the cultural traditions of growing grain and grapes and brewing into beer and wine which is hwat has shaped human culture into what it is today, including the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece, the Irish Druids, the Belgian Monks, and right on down to the hippies and stoners of today.
The only thing which is accomplished by making the desired substances illegal is that we drive the growth, manufacture and trade in these things underground and create a vast and thriving black market criminal economy. This is what happened during the prohibition of alcohol during the thirties. Making it illegal didn't stop people from getting their drink on. I t just provided Al Capone and the other gangsters a reason to shoot each other up in turf battles over distribution rights.
The same thing is happening in larger form today. The drug cartels and street gangs are fueled by the rich and unending flow of cash which moves like a river in the opposite direction from the products themselves.
Why has this happened? Some would argue that if it were possible to corner the market on the production of any of these substances then Eli-Lilly, Bayer, or Merck would have made sure to do so long ago. The problem is that this is impossible. It's too easy to grow your own, if it were allowed, so there is no vested interest and no lobbying group to pressure congress.
Look into the history of drugs both legal and illegal in this country. Back in the late 1800's you could flip open your Sears & Roebuck catalog and order a few syringes of heroin if you wanted it. Laudanum, a liquid form of opium was available at the corner drug store. Was there abuse? Sure. Were there addicts? Of course! Did making the stuff illegal stop the abuse and the addiction? Not for one second.
The illegal status of various drugs has led to an explosion of the U.S. Prison population as we have tried miserably to incerate our way out of this problem. People argue that addiction ruins families. Perhaps it does, but so does locking up a quarter of the fathers in the poor and destitute neighborhoods where drug use tyends to run rampant. And does locking up Dad because he caught with a bag of weed make it more likely that Jr will stick to the straight and narrow? No! The opposite. The children of these petty users and dealers who get thrown in the slammer are the ones who end up joining street gangs and having drive by shoot outs that end up killing innocent children in their nearby cribs.
Fer crissakes! If people want to get high, let 'em get high. If they want to get a buzz on, what's it hurting anyone else? If they can't handle the stuff and start getting addicted, lets have and support social programs like AA and NA and other voluntary 12 step methods.
But once and for all, lets stop fooling ourselves that by making this stuff illegal we are going to stop people from using it. Get over it. That doesn't work.
incarcerate*
Oh thank God, I thought you were going for incinerate!
All true and well said!
Ladies & Gentlemen, we could outlaw milk this morning at 10 am and somebody would be selling it in the back alley by 6 pm. In the early 70's a DC 3 was busted in the upstate of SC with 50000 lbs of columbian red bud, 2 days later there was more columbian pot on the street than you could shake a stick at. The only people that could have sold that pot was law enforcement. They sell as much as they confiscate minus the small amount they burn on tv for PR.
Don't forget that the CIA is allowed to fund itself free of Congressional oversight, mainly through the drug trade.
Why do you think out troops are guarding and helping to harvest the poppy in Afghanistan ?
But V.I., isn't abusing prescription drug illega ? Why hasn't that stopped it ?
Hey its better than nothing...and how do they escape ,out in the middle of the ocean,with helicopeters? flying overhead? I guess the fast boats are REALLY fast. Anyway that is a huge pile of coke off the street.....and someone will be Oh so pissed....i'm glad they found it...good job boys. thanks Toddnick
How does a boat on the ocean escape 2 helicopters????
They had to stay with the drugs.
I'd imagined that one helicopter would've stayed with the goods and the other in pursuit of the fast boat(s), but I'm just an innocent reader! In all actuality I wonder if they have more information on these runners than exposed through the media for a bigger later catch? That, my friends, would be the cat's pajama's!
I'm sorry. The way I read it, there was more than one boat. And if they were dumping in different locations, then.................................
Exactly. Maybe it was a drop to the middlemen.
Very valid question...the eassiest way to answer would be for you to look up where they were and some videos on fast boats...Theve been outrunnig aircraft for years, Its insane!
there goes my weekend...
...will they be up all nite counting the money. lol. J/K. But really, i dont feel any safer. In fact i know some is going to die because they lost that load. i feel bad for them. not much but a little. I really think we should legalize it all and tax it to high heaven. a joint should cost 20$. and buying age should be 30. and i also would like to be able to get meds with out a RX. i dont this idea that our govt does not want us to depend on it but it wants to mommy us TOO?!?!?
This is cocaine where' talking about not marijuana...geeesh!!!!
Well you got the drugs, that's awesome. The suspects escaped but no worries they will be killed. Good riddance!
It is really a meaningless bust. There is so much Blow already stored in the US that not 1 user will find it difficult to get their weekend party drug. It's a monetary loss to the Cartels, however they can absorb this type of loss. Our Country totals less than 5% of the Worlds population yet we incarcerate 25% of all prisoners worldwide. The War on Drugs is a battle that is as wasteful in lives and financial costs as our foolish Middle Eastern Wars. You can't beat religious fanatic's and you can't keep people from getting high...or as we found out 80 years ago keep people from getting drunk..
can they spare, just a teenie/ weenie bit, i got a toothache.......jk
lol...
This sounds just like a scene from Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy! According to him though, the cartels factor in the cost of big busts, arrests and so on and the boat drivers aren't likely to suffer too much because it just 'wasteage' and even if it weren't, there are thousands of other potential drivers. I don't know what the solution to the drug problem is. I've about come to the conclusion that, as long as users stay home and do their thing there, I really don't care WHAT they do. It's when they go out rampaging, robbing, raping, beating people, and so on that I have a problem. Making drugs legal won't solve those problems (as evidenced by alcohol and prescription drug addicts) but AA and NA only work if the users want to change. Maybe we should put them in separate communities (not prisons) and let them prey on each other. I know, I know, it wouldn't work, but I can dream, right?
I wouldn't be surprised if the feds planted the drugs to give the LOL appearance that the so-called "war on drugs" is actually working (as if this is a big deal because 90% of the drugs do make it through due to the rather elementary concept of supply and demand). That way the worthless and unconstitutional DEA can say, "Look! We are winning! More tax payer funding please!"
In the time it took them to round it up, 20 times that had gotten through into the US
Warondrugsfail,
I do think marijuana should be legalized. That's it. Hard drugs like coke, amphetamine and heroin destroy societies. We need to do more to decriminalize the users of those drugs, but no relief for the suppliers, they are the scum of the earth for polluting with that poison.
Every criminal thinks that their crime should be legal.
The boats got away from TWO choppers? I wonder what their bonus from the cartel will be.
Nothing, they will be back out tomorow if they are not killed for messing this run up.
Depends on what kind of helicopters, they couldn't outrun a blackhawk, but some of the older huey's would be unable to pursue at speed because of fuel restrictions.
Cocaine is very cheap to grow and manufacture and ship. I wonder if those two boars were just simple decoys while several other larger vessels were chugging along with double that amount of cocaine? You work in a Cocaine factory, wear a mask and gloves and get about three bucks a day and if you complain, they shoot you. Costs are very very low, therefore wasting two tons or so is just marked in the debit column while the credit column swells disproportionately. Just a thought. I wonder who is the foc and who is the hen? Tricksters are everywhere.
I dont know, money is money...this about money. You may be able to take the hit if busted..Every good drug dealer has bail money and lawyers on speed dial. but you dont get rich by foolishly wasting your product as decoys.
William Smith-543063
Ding ding ding, we have a winner. We sacrificed 2.5 tons of product to keep officials busy while the 5000 tons on our freighter steamed through unmolested. Tell him what he's won Johnny!
How the @!$%# do you know what goes on in the cocaine factory? TV perhaps. The war on drugs is a sham put up by raygun and his loser wife Nancy. Wow I sure do feel safe.
too bad they don't produce in this country, at least these currencies would stick around.
I wonder how many pounds get in the country?
I wonder how many people die per pound sold on the streets of America from coca leaves to end users? (including various cancers from cutting products).
anybody has data?
Those smuggler's boats ARE fast! The helicopter pursuit can fly 150 miles an hour, the spyplane can do more than 200 miles an hour! Let's see... excuses..., the sun was in my eyes, my gun jammed, we all ran out of gas, the smugglers had a rocket motor, simultaneous mechanical malfunctions, the smugglers crossed the border and submerged like a submarine, outside our jurisdiction, and the Bermuda Triangle.
The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, D.E.A, Coast Guard, and Secret Service are all a bunch of foul-ups. The drug runners should have thrown a prostitute in the water, and they could have gotten away with their tons of stash.
Seriously, I love those guys. The Three Stooges, and Intergalactic Homeworld Security are hilarious. I see the storyline for a sequel.
Legalize drugs and this and more would disappear
I sort of agree with you. If cocaine was one dollar a gram on the street, I do believe it would be much less attractive to people. Getting hooked up and destroy your life for $100 bucks might be looked at differently.
What's rare is expensive, if it's expensive it must be for a good reason, if it's very expensive it must be real good for you.
The "war on drugs" has added value to drugs, economically and psychologically and thereby turned into a "war on the people". It's an economic bubble, just like the real estate bubble except it's gone on for decades.
Wrong! Then why is coke cheaper and more pure now than it was when the war on drugs started?
I don't know, i can only guess. Maybe they produce more of it because it's lucrative, maybe Americans can't afford it and realize it's bad for you and demand is less so no need to cut it.
The best way to stop a fast boat is with a machine gun..then they won't get away though I do believe that the so called war on drugs is a waste of money.As long as people take drugs, drugs will be sold.I so on the news that kids are now drinking hand sanitizer.
So whats more important the drugs or the drug runners that will be back at it tomorrow???? Just saying...
Perhaps this was the drop off. You bring the boat close, some of the "police" spot you, for some reason you think you can still drive a boat throught this part of the water and not be sene. They dump the contents, the police are able to recover it out of the water, they get the credit for a bust..they open the packages to find just a little amount in them or empty, while the ones full are distributed to the local gang leaders and independent retailers to be broken down and sold on the stree. The cartel keeps their guys, gets paid, the police get awards and prestige and keep their jobs while getting paid, the retailers have no worries from the cops since they are bringing it to them and they get paid, the streets get paid, and even the public gets paid (which drugs and for those who dont do drugs, its seems like we are winning the war on drugs)
It actually isnt a bad plan, that I just came out of thin air with! ;)
Don't quit your day job!
Perhaps we should be operating drones off the Pacific coasts instead of Afghanistan?
We Do!