A crewman aboard the Portsmouth, Va.- based Coast Guard Cutter Tampa, throws a heaving line to the pier as the ship returns from a recent patrol, June 17. During the 53-day patrol, the Tampa crew succesfully disrupted the illegal drug trade in the Caribbean Sea in a joint operation with Panamanian authorities, a Dutch warship and a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment. The multinational counterdrug operation led to an intensive dockside boarding of a suspect vessle, yielding 750 lbs of cocaine, worth an estimated street value of $10 million. The Tampa crew was tasked to support the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response and recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, serving as a command and control platform in the vicinity of Pensacola Fla., and Mobile Bay, Ala.
<dl><dd>Unit: U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area</dd>
<dd>DVIDS Tags: drugs; cocaine; trafficking; seizure; Coast Guard</dd></dl>
Senior Chief Petty Officer Steve Carleton
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