Groovstarr
Bluelighter
^ dude you stole my avater. I want it back. Please change it
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DPMC Moderators: tryptakid
Boat with 19.4 TONS of cocaine seized in one of the biggest busts in history [MERGED]
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its just so fucking sad...
StratMan172
Bluelighter
hehe, I live in Concord, not far from Alameda, My best bet is that when I used to be hooked on coke doing it all day it was probably coming from Panama, it was always shitty but there's no way for me to tell if the people in Panama cut it as well. The hard to find shit must've come from somewhere else. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the decoy so the real load could get through unnoticed hehe.
The title of this article alone is funny
Huge Cocaine Bust 'Exciting' For Crew
By Steve Liewer, San Diego Union-Tribune
April 28, 2007
On a moonless night off Panama, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Keith Madle unfastened the chains and cracked open a cargo container aboard the darkened freighter Gatun.
Even in the dim light, Madle's eyes grew wide. Hundreds of bales that looked unmistakably like cocaine lay stacked in front of him.
"It was all the way up to the ceiling," recalled Madle, 26, of Suquamish, Wash. "You couldn't even see all the way to the back."
Madle and five of his shipmates from the San Diego-based cutter Hamilton - along with a dozen sailors from the cutter Sherman - had discovered 19 tons of cocaine. They didn't yet know it, but the haul March 18 would represent the biggest drug seizure in maritime history.
The bales covered the entire deck of the 330-foot Panamanian-flagged freighter, Madle said. There was enough to fill two semi-trailer trucks.
"It was exciting. No one had ever seen that much before," said Ensign Brian Sattler, 22, of Silver Spring, Md., the leader of the Hamilton's boarding team.
This week, the Coast Guard displayed the cocaine at a news conference in Alameda, the Sherman's home port. And the crew of the Hamilton, now back in San Diego for a $2.4 million overhaul, spoke to the media for the first time.
The 1960s-vintage ship is the Coast Guard's largest, at 378 feet. The Hamilton's mission includes homeland defense, search-and-rescue, and drug and immigration enforcement. In spite of its age, the ship and its crew typically deploy for two three-month missions each year, said Capt. Jeffrey Lee, 48, a San Diego native.
The Hamilton steered out to sea Dec. 30. Just a few days into the new year, the crew made its first drug seizure of the year: a loose bale of marijuana floating in the Pacific.
Though the ship's voyages range from the Arctic Circle to below the equator, and west to Tahiti, this one focused on stopping smugglers off the Pacific coast of Central and South America.
On March 17, a C-130 maritime patrol aircraft had spotted the Gatun and directed the Sherman toward it, according to the newspaper Defense Daily. The Coast Guard invoked an agreement with Panama that allows it to board vessels in search of contraband.
"In the course of routine patrolling, we may board any vessel we see," Lee said.
Because of the Gatun's size, the Sherman's commander sought the Hamilton's help. By the time Coast Guardsmen Madle and Sattler climbed aboard, Sherman crew members had mustered the freighter's 14-man crew near the bridge and searched the ship for hidden spaces.
Nothing seemed unusual about the Gatun, Madle said, except the captain and chief engineer couldn't tell them how to open the containers. Falling back on his own background as a heavy equipment operator, Madle found some tools and pried them open.
The team searched 12 cargo containers and found cocaine in only the first two. But the haul totalled more than 38,000 pounds in 765 bales, with a street value of about $300 million. It broke the Coast Guard's previous seizure record of 30,000 pounds, set in 2004.
The boarding teams spent all night stacking and counting the bales.
"Everybody was tired after that. They ended up sleeping on top of the bales," Madle said. "It was an awfully long night, but it made the crew feel real good."
The bust proved to be an unexpected birthday gift for the Hamilton's crew. That day was the 40th anniversary of the ship's commissioning. Lee, the captain, gave most of the crew the day off, allowing them to fish and barbecue and sunbathe on deck.
Plenty of critics have derided the government's 40-year war on drugs, in which the Coast Guard plays a central role. Madle doesn't care. He said the adrenaline rush he gets every time he climbs over the rail of a strange ship keeps him going.
"I just love doing these kinds of boardings," he said. "It's one of the best things I've done in the Coast Guard."
Lee takes pride in the Hamilton's record. Since 2005, it has seized 121,000 pounds of cocaine, worth $1.6 billion. That's more than any other Coast Guard vessel, and about 17 percent of the agency's total haul in that time.
The Hamilton sailed home a few weeks after the seizure.
"It was a very exciting time for us," Lee said. "We were on top of the world."
Link
Huge Cocaine Bust 'Exciting' For Crew
By Steve Liewer, San Diego Union-Tribune
April 28, 2007
On a moonless night off Panama, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Keith Madle unfastened the chains and cracked open a cargo container aboard the darkened freighter Gatun.
Even in the dim light, Madle's eyes grew wide. Hundreds of bales that looked unmistakably like cocaine lay stacked in front of him.
"It was all the way up to the ceiling," recalled Madle, 26, of Suquamish, Wash. "You couldn't even see all the way to the back."
Madle and five of his shipmates from the San Diego-based cutter Hamilton - along with a dozen sailors from the cutter Sherman - had discovered 19 tons of cocaine. They didn't yet know it, but the haul March 18 would represent the biggest drug seizure in maritime history.
The bales covered the entire deck of the 330-foot Panamanian-flagged freighter, Madle said. There was enough to fill two semi-trailer trucks.
"It was exciting. No one had ever seen that much before," said Ensign Brian Sattler, 22, of Silver Spring, Md., the leader of the Hamilton's boarding team.
This week, the Coast Guard displayed the cocaine at a news conference in Alameda, the Sherman's home port. And the crew of the Hamilton, now back in San Diego for a $2.4 million overhaul, spoke to the media for the first time.
The 1960s-vintage ship is the Coast Guard's largest, at 378 feet. The Hamilton's mission includes homeland defense, search-and-rescue, and drug and immigration enforcement. In spite of its age, the ship and its crew typically deploy for two three-month missions each year, said Capt. Jeffrey Lee, 48, a San Diego native.
The Hamilton steered out to sea Dec. 30. Just a few days into the new year, the crew made its first drug seizure of the year: a loose bale of marijuana floating in the Pacific.
Though the ship's voyages range from the Arctic Circle to below the equator, and west to Tahiti, this one focused on stopping smugglers off the Pacific coast of Central and South America.
On March 17, a C-130 maritime patrol aircraft had spotted the Gatun and directed the Sherman toward it, according to the newspaper Defense Daily. The Coast Guard invoked an agreement with Panama that allows it to board vessels in search of contraband.
"In the course of routine patrolling, we may board any vessel we see," Lee said.
Because of the Gatun's size, the Sherman's commander sought the Hamilton's help. By the time Coast Guardsmen Madle and Sattler climbed aboard, Sherman crew members had mustered the freighter's 14-man crew near the bridge and searched the ship for hidden spaces.
Nothing seemed unusual about the Gatun, Madle said, except the captain and chief engineer couldn't tell them how to open the containers. Falling back on his own background as a heavy equipment operator, Madle found some tools and pried them open.
The team searched 12 cargo containers and found cocaine in only the first two. But the haul totalled more than 38,000 pounds in 765 bales, with a street value of about $300 million. It broke the Coast Guard's previous seizure record of 30,000 pounds, set in 2004.
The boarding teams spent all night stacking and counting the bales.
"Everybody was tired after that. They ended up sleeping on top of the bales," Madle said. "It was an awfully long night, but it made the crew feel real good."
The bust proved to be an unexpected birthday gift for the Hamilton's crew. That day was the 40th anniversary of the ship's commissioning. Lee, the captain, gave most of the crew the day off, allowing them to fish and barbecue and sunbathe on deck.
Plenty of critics have derided the government's 40-year war on drugs, in which the Coast Guard plays a central role. Madle doesn't care. He said the adrenaline rush he gets every time he climbs over the rail of a strange ship keeps him going.
"I just love doing these kinds of boardings," he said. "It's one of the best things I've done in the Coast Guard."
Lee takes pride in the Hamilton's record. Since 2005, it has seized 121,000 pounds of cocaine, worth $1.6 billion. That's more than any other Coast Guard vessel, and about 17 percent of the agency's total haul in that time.
The Hamilton sailed home a few weeks after the seizure.
"It was a very exciting time for us," Lee said. "We were on top of the world."
Link