As the fight against drugs in San Diego and its surrounding waters has intensified in recent months, the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs has become an everyday occurrence according to Coast Guard commanders.
In 2016, 188 tons of cocaine were seized during a historic series of joint operations in U.S. and Latin American waters, and 32 additional tons of cocaine were seized just months later, for a total value of nearly $1.5 billion, putting the training of the thousands of U.S. Coast Guard elements to the test.
“In the past weeks alone, the Coast Guard has seized 12 tons of cocaine; these are no longer isolated events, for every three months, we are recovering 12 to 30 tons of cocaine,” informed San Diego Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft.
The strategies to combat drug trafficking must be in constant innovation and carried out with extreme care, as members of organized crime seek to deliver more drugs from South America to the U.S.
To combat organized crime, the San Diego Coast Guard works in coordination with 41 other nations, some of which lack an army or armed forces to protect their people against criminals, others in need of reinforcement and quality approaches to counterattack drug cartel leaders.
“This job never changes, it’s always the same. We try to do more and to do it better, anything to stop drugs from entering the United States,” shared San Diego Coast Guard Assistant Commander Jose Maldonado.
The Commander said he will be meeting with the President of Colombia in the coming weeks
to discuss tactics to fight drug trafficking, terrorism, and crime in general, adding that they do the same with their counterparts in Mexico, in an effort to keep drugs off the streets in Southern California and the rest of the U.S.
The San Diego Coast Guard has only 1,000 elements on average; this number grows to about 4,000 once the members of other Homeland Security agencies who join the Coast Guard in emergencies, natural disasters, and/or special operations are added in. This number, however, is expected to increase in the coming months.