Washington - In a one week time period, U.S. Customs and Border Protection P-3 Operations Center aircrews in Jacksonville, Fla., and Corpus Christi, Texas, stopped more than $82 million worth of cocaine from entering the U.S.
On June 7, an aircraft from the Jacksonville P-3 Operations Center reported the disruption of 1,500 kilograms of cocaine, worth more than $41 million, off the coast of Nicaragua. After making the initial detection of a Go-Fast vessel, the P-3 crew directed both U.S. Coast Guard and Nicaraguan law enforcement units towards the vessel, which Nicaraguan authorities seized and arrested the crew.
On June 16, the P-3 Operations Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, reported a disruption of 1,500 kilograms of cocaine, again worth more than $41 million. A U.S. Navy P-3 located a Go-Fast vessel off the coast of San Jose, Costa Rica, and a CBP P-3 was tasked with relieving the Navy aircraft. The CBP plane established communications with a U.S. Coast Guard cutter while guiding it into position for interdiction of the contraband believed to be on board.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.