Photo Release: Coast Guard Cutter Dependable crew returns home after multinational cocaine seizures

U.S. Coast Guard sent this bulletin at 05/24/2018 03:29 PM EDT

united states coast guard 

Photo Release  

May 24, 2018
U.S. Coast Guard 5th District Mid-Atlantic
Contact: 5th District Public Affairs
Office: (757) 398-6272
After Hours: (757) 434-7712
5th District online newsroom

Coast Guard Cutter Dependable crew returns home after multinational cocaine seizures

The Coast Guard Cutter Dependable underway in the Eastern Pacific Ocean on patrol. The Cutter Dependable's crew returned to their homeport, Virginia Beach, Virginia, after a two-month patrol of the Eastern Pacific Ocean May 4, 2017. During this patrol, the crew seized over 8,000 pounds of cocaine with an estimated value of $122 million which will be used as evidence to prosecute 19 suspected smugglers. (U.S. Coast Guard photograph courtesy of Coast Guard Cutter Dependable)

Editors' Note: Click on images to download high resolution version.

Virginia Beach, Va. — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Dependable returned to Virginia Beach Thursday afternoon after a successful two-month patrol in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South.

The Dependable’s crew patrolled the Eastern Pacific Ocean and interdicted two suspected smuggling vessels, seizing more than five and one-half tons of cocaine valued at approximately $146 million.

The contraband was seized during a Department of Homeland Security Joint Task Force-East-led coordination among various DHS agencies and the Department of Justice. It showcases the threat posed by dangerous cartels, gangs and criminal groups that make up extensive transnational criminal organizations, and highlights the commitment of JTF-E, the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard’s interagency partners’ efforts to detect, interdict, investigate and prosecute operatives for these criminal networks.

A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, based in Jacksonville, Florida, embarked aboard the Dependable and provided the cutter with airborne use-of-force capabilities. Over the course of the patrol, HITRON completed 60 ship-helicopter evolutions and provided valuable training to Dependable’s flight deck crew.

During their patrol of vast areas of the drug transit zones in the Eastern Pacific, Dependable’s crew coordinated with several other U.S. Coast Guard cutters, as well as ships from the Royal Canadian Navy and Ecuadorian Coast Guard.

The Dependable is a 210-foot medium endurance cutter with a crew of over 75. The crew conducts homeland security missions in the offshore waters of the Western Hemisphere from New England to the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.

Nearing its 50th year of service, Cutter Dependable and the other 26 aging medium endurance cutters are slated for replacement by new offshore patrol cutters in 2021.

For more information about the Dependable’s recent patrol or for media interviews, please contact Ensign Jezel Huston by e-mailing Jezel.C.Huston@uscg.mil.

 

-USCG-