Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Cocaine seizure sets record
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 22, 2007
WASHINGTON - A Coast Guard boarding of a suspicious vessel off the coast of Panama led to a record seizure of cocaine - nearly 43,000 pounds of the drug hidden in two containers on the vessel Gatun. The Gatun was initially spotted by a Coast Guard patrol aircraft about 20 miles southwest of Isla de Coiba, Panama, on Saturday. After obtaining permission from Panama's government, a Coast Guard boarding team searched the Gatun on Sunday and discovered the drug cache. The 14 crew members, Panamanians and Mexicans, were arrested and are being transferred to Tampa and Panama, where they will be prosecuted. The seizure is part of an ongoing multiagency operation known as "Panama Express," according to a Homeland Security Department official who requested anonymity because the official announcement had not yet been made. Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard, said his agency's "hard-working crews overcame significant challenges in maintaining a 40-year-old deepwater cutter to prosecute this mission far from U.S. shores."
[Last modified March 22, 2007, 01:45:59]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
