Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took a trip to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday where a U.S Coast Guard cutter crew offloaded more than 45,000 pounds of cocaine, the largest amount seized during a single deployment.
In addition to the cocaine — roughly $515.5 million in street value, the Coast Guard said — the agency seized 50 pounds of marijuana during 14 interdictions by the crews of the U.S. Coast Guard cutters Stone and Mohawk in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The cocaine amounts to roughly 20 metric tons, or equivalent to about 17 million doses, said Joint Interagency Task Force Deputy Director Rear Adm. Joshua Lasky.
“Today is a historic day here at Port Everglades,” Noem told reporters standing before the cutter Stone. “Fewer families are going to be torn apart by addiction, that fewer lives are going to be lost to overdoses and that communities will be safer.”…