The national security cutter Stratton made history last month when it intercepted a South American narco-submarine packed with more than 12,000 pounds of cocaine, the service’s biggest bust to date.
On Monday the crew stopped in San Diego to offload that haul — and another 28 tons of cocaine nabbed in over 23 seizures on its latest patrol — totaling a $1 billion street value, according to the service.
Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft greeted the crew on the pier for the drop, part of a San Diego layover before the crew returns home to Alameda, California.
Stratton’s patrol was part of a surge in Coast Guard drug interdictions; the service has seized more illegal narcotics in the past 10 months than in the previous three years.
“It’s worth it when you see those drugs and know that they are going off with the DEA and not to people’s homes, and our neighbors’ houses,” said a woman in the video above, identified only as Ensign Brown.
