PORT EVERGLADES, FL — The U.S. Coast Guard is unloading cocaine from 20 seizure in the Pacific Ocean in South Florida.
Coast Guard officials said the drugs totaled about 18.5 tons of cocaine, worth nearly $500 million.
Coast Guard cutters intercepted the cocaine along the Central and South American coasts, as the Eastern Pacific is a prime smuggling route for cocaine headed to Mexico. The drugs are then typically brought to te U.S.
Numerous suspected smugglers are being prosecuted in California and along the East Coast because of the operations.