U.S. Customs and Border Protection upped its estimated the size of last week’s cocaine seizure to 39,525 with an estimated street value of $1.3 billion.
The CBP and Homeland Security Investigations led multi-agency team continues to remove and scan all containers from the MSC Gayane, a 1,030-foot Liberian-flagged container ship. Once the containers are removed, the team will conduct a thorough examination of all spaces aboard the vessel in the search for any additional concealed cocaine.
CBP initially issued an approximate weight based on the number of bricks that authorities took from the containers.
“Today, I can officially report that CBP has seized a historic amount of cocaine, in fact, the largest cocaine seizure in our 230-year history, with a weight of 39,525 pounds and a street value of about $1.3 billion dollars,” said Casey Durst, CBP’s Director of Field Operations in Baltimore. “This is a momentous accomplishment for the CBP team here in Philadelphia – and highlights the importance of our critical homeland security mission.”
The multi-agency team initially detected anomalies in seven shipping containers the evening of June 16 that CBP x-ray examination confirmed June 17. Those anomalies proved to be the largest cocaine seizure in the 230-year history of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Read more about CBP’s record cocaine seizure.
Cocaine has also found at the Port of Wilmington, with one recent seizure in a shipment of pineapples totaling a couple of hundred pounds.
Wilmington PD’s drug-sniffing dog finds another 100 pounds of cocaine in joint operation at port
CBP officers screen international travelers and cargo and search for illicit narcotics, unreported currency, weapons, counterfeit consumer goods, prohibited agriculture, and other illicit products that could potentially harm the American public, U.S. businesses, and our nation’s safety and economic vitality.
