Pubdate: Mon, 05 Mar 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Section: Pg A20
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
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Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Email:  2000 The Washington Post Company
Author: Associated Press

BOAT SEIZED FEB. 24 HAD 8.8 TONS OF COCAINE, U.S. SAYS

SAN DIEGO, March 4 -- U.S. authorities today unloaded 8.8 tons of cocaine 
that they said was seized on a rusty fishing boat off the coast of Mexico. 
It was the government's fourth-largest seizure.

The Coast Guard said a Navy destroyer with a Coast Guard law enforcement 
unit on board seized the boat Feb. 24 about 250 miles west of Acapulco. The 
boat was towed to San Diego.

The seizure capped what the agency called one of its most productive weeks 
of anti-drug patrols.

In six days, the Coast Guard -- from Miami to the Caribbean, and in the 
Pacific from Mexico to Washington state -- seized 28,845 pounds of cocaine, 
about the same amount it captured in all of 1996.

"We've never had a week like this where our border has been assaulted all 
the way from the Bahamas to Seattle," said Cmdr. Jim McPherson.

The 10 crew members of the Belize-flagged boat, Forever My Friend, will 
face drug-smuggling charges that carry a minimum 10-year sentence and a 
maximum of life in prison on conviction, U.S. Attorney Gregory Vega said. 
The crew members were to appear in federal court in San Diego on Monday.

Eight of the men are from Nicaragua, one is from El Salvador and one is 
from Ukraine. The cocaine was found in a secret compartment, authorities said.

Agents wearing surgical masks, gloves and protective white jumpsuits spent 
this morning unloading the large blocks of cocaine from the boat. Federal 
agents with automatic weapons guarded it on the pier.

The string of recent seizures reflects a general increase in the amount of 
cocaine seized at sea by the Coast Guard working with the Navy, the Customs 
Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies.

In 1999, the Coast Guard seized a record 55 tons of cocaine, which broke 
the previous record of 40.7 tons. In 2000, the agency captured 66 tons.

The Coast Guard estimates it captures only a fraction of U.S.-bound 
cocaine. The cocaine generally is produced in Colombia and shipped either 
through the Caribbean or via the Pacific to Mexico. From Mexico, the drugs 
are smuggled into the United States through the Southwest.

Navy ships on drug patrols travel with Coast Guard contingents on board 
because the U.S. military is prohibited from law- enforcement activities. 
The Coast Guard, which is part of the Transportation Department, faces no 
such restriction.

During the string of seizures from Feb. 21 to Feb. 27, the agencies also 
captured 5,154 pounds from a Canadian trawler off Washington's Pacific 
Coast on Feb. 21 and 3,920 pounds from a small powerboat north of San Juan, 
Puerto Rico, on Feb. 25. In all, 24 people were arrested.
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