The Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Military personnel from the Navy and Coast Guard handed over about 15 tons of cocaine with a value of about $400 million dollars to federal agents in Jacksonville.
The cocaine was unloaded from the USS McInerney after it was seized in two separate busts in the eastern Pacific Ocean. On the first, the Coast Guard cutter Hamilton stopped a speedboat after a Jacksonville-based Coast Guard helicopter squadron’s gunners shot out its engines. The Hamilton crew seized 41 bales of cocaine from the boat and arrested five suspected smugglers.
On the second bust, a Coast Guard law enforcement team aboard the McInerney boarded the merchant vessel Ocean Song. The Coast Guard team found 457 bales of cocaine in the ship’s cargo hold. Nine suspected smugglers were taken into custody.
Both cases will be prosecuted by the US Attorney’s office based in Tampa.