Agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) helped seize over 6,000 pounds of marijuana off the coast of Central America.
The panga-style vessel filled with 6,100 pounds of cannabis, was found by agents patrolling in a Lockheed P-3 Orion submarine.
“Typically most of the illicit traffic in the Eastern Pacific Ocean is smuggling cocaine, but marijuana is also a major source of income for drug trafficking organizations,” said Director of Air and Marine Operations Bob Blanchard. “The important thing is that our agents are there to stop these harmful drugs from getting to our streets.”
The tons of narcotics were taken and the boat was boarded, searched, and sank by a U.S. Coast Guard team in a patrolling U.S. Navy ship.
This isn’t the first time that the Corpus Christi National Air Security Operations Center has helped with a big drug bust. In 2018, with the help of the National Air Security Operations Center in Jacksonville, Florida, officials seized or disrupted 261,939 pounds of cocaine in a similar fashion.
