COCAINE WORTH BILLIONS SEIZED IN RAIDS

KEY WEST, Fla. - More than 37 tons of cocaine, with an estimated
street value of $2.3 billion, were confiscated during five seizures at
sea this fall, the Coast Guard said.

The cocaine, seized between Aug. 21 and Sept. 26, was being hauled off
a Navy frigate Friday.

The largest cocaine discovery in the history of Coast Guard's East
Coast operations was made Sept. 17, when a detachment from the frigate
the USS Curts found 15 tons of the drug on a fishing vessel about 300
miles west of the Galapagos Islands.

On Sept. 23, a Coast Guard team aboard the USS Crommelin discovered
more than 13 tons of cocaine aboard a fishing vessel some 650 miles
southwest of the Galapagos.

August and September seizures brought the total cocaine confiscated by
the Coast Guard during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 to a record
240,519 pounds, worth approximately $7.7 billion.

Thirty-one people arrested face prosecution in federal court in Tampa.