BOAT RETURNS FROM DRUG MISSION

The Coast Guard Cutter Participated In The Seizure Of 7.5 Tons Of
Cocaine Last Month

ST. PETERSBURG - A 210-foot Coast Guard cutter returned to its home
port in St. Petersburg on Friday morning after its crew helped seize
7.5 tons of cocaine and arrest nine alleged drug smugglers in
international waters near Columbia last month.

The Coast Guard cutter Venturous was participating in Operation
Panama Express, a joint counternarcotics operation that includes the
Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals
Service and several foreign countries.

On Aug. 16, a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft noticed a 93-foot freighter,
Mr. Simon, 225 miles northwest of Cartagena, Colombia. Venturous
stopped the freighter and found a hidden compartment in the bow
filled with 7,410 pounds of cocaine.

Two days later, the Coast Guard cutter stopped a 69-foot fishing
vessel from Honduras.

Once aboard, Venturous crew members found 7,800 pounds of cocaine
hidden in a compartment beneath a fishing winch.

The Coast Guard has been involved in other seizures of cocaine during
the past year, including the seizure of 30,000 pounds of cocaine from
a fishing boat about 300 miles west of the Galapagos Islands about a year ago.

The 7.5 tons seized this past August has a street value of
$500-million, Coast Guard officials said.

A Coast Guard spokesman was not sure where the drugs were headed.

"We're mainly concerned with it coming to the United States," said
Coast Guard Petty Officer Tasha Tully. "That's why do it. To keep it
from coming here."