Coast Guard seizes 8,000 pounds of cocaine and offloads it at Port Everglades, Florida

David Goodhue, Miami Herald on May 14, 2026

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MIAMI — A U.S. Coast Guard cutter crew unloaded more than 8,000 pounds of cocaine at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday. The agency says the haul is worth almost $62 million.

The drugs were seized in the Caribbean Sea about 90 miles off the coast of Cartagena on May 8, the Coast Guard said in a press release.

The Cutter Tahoma, which is based in Newport, Rhode Island, brought the contraband to South Florida on Thursday upon its return from serving a drug-interdiction tour off Colombia as part of ongoing operations with the U.S. Navy and other agencies in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean.

Most of the cocaine was seized from three vessels stopped at sea by small-vessel crews launched from the Tahoma, as well as a helicopter crew that shot out the engines of one of the smuggling boats, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard released a video showing a helicopter gunner using a machine gun to shoot in front of the smuggling boat, then a sniper rifle to disable the engines. Once the vessel stopped, the gunner threw three flotation devices to the suspected smugglers, who jumped overboard, the video shows.

“This interdiction prevented a significant number of illegal narcotics from reaching America’s shores, and their teamwork underscores the Coast Guard’s mission to protect our nation and saving lives,” Cmdr. Nolan Cuevas, the Tahoma’s commanding officer, said in a statement.

The Coast Guard said it confiscated more than 511,000 pounds of cocaine in similar operations in 2025. That amount is more than three times the agency’s annual average.