U.S. Coast Guard: 1,200 kilograms of cocaine seized
By Dialogo November 18, 2013
MIAMI, U.S.A. – The U.S. Coast Guard seized a total of 1,200 kilograms of cocaine valued at US$40 million as part of Operation Martillo during two operations in the Caribbean Sea.
The raids, which occurred on Nov. 2 and Nov. 6 and weren’t made public until the cocaine was unloaded at Port Everglades, which is north of Miami, were carried out by a U.S. Coast Guard squad aboard the Royal Dutch Navy’s HNLMS Amsterdam.
The cocaine was seized from go-fast boats.
Three suspects were taken into custody during the operations, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Operation Martillo, which is led by the U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force South and includes Canada, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain, and the United Kingdom, strives to disrupt transnational criminal organizations by limiting their ability to use Central America as a transit zone.
From Jan. 15, 2012 to July 17, 2013, Operation Martillo, which was launched in January 2012, resulted in the seizure of 207,740 kilograms of cocaine and 37,397 kilograms of marijuana, 472 arrests and the confiscation of 152 assets.
[EFE (United States), 15/11/2013; El Nuevo Herald (USA), 16/11/2013; Diario Libre (Dominican Republic), 15/11/2013]
