Humboldt Bay Team Helped Seize $78 million of Cocaine, Says Coast Guard

Humboldt Bay helicopter cocaine

Humboldt Bay Coast Guard helicopter sits near pallets of seized suspected contraband on the deck of the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf prior to being offloaded by Bertholf’s crew at B Street Pier, San Diego, March 20, 2018. Over 36,000 pounds of cocaine was seized in 17 interdictions by five different cutters in the Eastern Pacific between February and early March. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Fireman Taylor Bacon/released).

Press release from the US Coast Guard:

A Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and crew returned home Thursday following a 77-day counterdrug patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf.

A maintenance team of three Sector Humboldt Bay flight mechanics deployed with the helicopter to the cutter in January to support the Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON).

“This was definitely a unique opportunity for us, to have a Humboldt aircraft and crew with HITRON pilots and a gunner,” said Cmdr. Brendan Hilleary, the Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay operations officer. “It’s something that’s not normally done, but they worked together, and it turned out really well.”

While deployed, the Humboldt Bay crew kept the helicopter operational for the HITRON team, who flew it to search for vessels suspected of smuggling narcotics.

The Bertholf crew completed four law-enforcement boardings that resulted in the seizure of 5,045 pounds of cocaine and seven gallons of liquid cocaine with an estimated street value of more than $78 million wholesale.

The crew completed the patrol Tuesday with a 36,000-pound bulk cocaine offload, worth more than $539 million wholesale, in San Diego. The offload represented 17 separate interdictions made by the Coast Guard cutters Bertholf, Diligence, Harriet Lane, Venturous and Bear since Feb. 8.

“The patrol is a great example of how Coast Guard men and women from different units work together to support this important mission,” said Hilleary. “I’m proud we were able to be part of an operation that can ultimately help keep our country and community’s streets safer.”

-USCG-

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Veteran's Friend
Guest
Veteran's Friend
6 years ago

WOW

RedwoodDan
Guest
RedwoodDan
6 years ago

36,000pounds =16,363kilos =16,363,000 grams @ $100/gram= $1,636,300,000 If the product is cut 2:1 the value would = $2,454,450,000. If the grams weren’t cut and sold for $60, the street value would be $981,780,000. So there is 900 million to 2.4 billion dollars of cocaine in one place that our government is in charge of. Does anybody believe that 100% of it will be destroyed?

Helllbilly
Guest
Helllbilly
6 years ago

Prices just went up boys.

t
Guest
t
6 years ago
Reply to  Helllbilly

Well I do not do CIA death drugs, so it does not affect my lifestyle like some complacent thus complicit Americans. Anyway…must be that inter-agency feuding again…

...
Guest
...
6 years ago

A border wall will stop that smuggling.

RT
Guest
RT
6 years ago
Reply to  ...

How? These drugs were being smuggled aboard ships….on the ocean.

Muddy Black Dodge
Guest
Muddy Black Dodge
6 years ago
Reply to  ...

Dumbist think I have ever heard

Freedom Club
Guest
Freedom Club
6 years ago

The irony…

Ice
Guest
Ice
6 years ago
Reply to  ...

Wall stops ships and submarines, does it? Must go pretty far out to sea…

food for thought
Guest
food for thought
6 years ago
Reply to  Ice

it does.. goes out as far as the chain link fence at the tijuanna rivermouth. must go real far, as i cant see where it ends! they flush the poop out real far too. mexican system flushes it out with the river water. it goes as far as water goes. and the american system flushes it out 3 miles off point loma. in the winter it goes to mexico, in the summer it goes to so-cal. sharing is caring. dont worry its treated. the wall of shit is how we stoppet these very vessels. but thats a classified project. i cant talk more about it. thats why no prototyes were chosen by congress. a multinationa multilayer wall of feces is free, and continuously being built bigger and bigger!

Mogtx
Guest
6 years ago

Awesome bust that ass.

Water is life.
Guest
Water is life.
6 years ago

How much coke is really coke and not tweak or some cheaper powdered drug? Is real, pure cocaine rare? Would it be safe to assume the stuff in that pic has already been cut with who knows what?

“I do not sniff da coke I only smoke da sensimilla”

Loon
Guest
Loon
6 years ago

What a bunch of dopers you all are.

Scooter
Guest
Scooter
6 years ago

Drip!

Cindy
Guest
Cindy
6 years ago

Very good job to all that made this a big successful seize possible~ thank you for your service.

Juniper Jim
Guest
Juniper Jim
6 years ago

take the smugglers out for a Pinochet-style helicopter flight over the ocean.

Brian
Guest
Brian
6 years ago
Reply to  Juniper Jim

Yikes, Pinochet killed thousands of innocents.

Then, maybe we can harbor former Nazis like Pinochet did too- as well as receive marching orders from Henry Kissinger and the CIA.

We then can embezzle money from our dirty works and hide it from who we stole from.

We can continue the “caravan of death” around the states for all who don’t like my opinion about it, too.

That what you want Jim?

Brian
Guest
Brian
6 years ago
Reply to  Juniper Jim

Kym, just toss my comments here, I’m fine with it. If you feel like I’m wasting time, id rather not.

Brief history of me: I was born in Chile under Pinochet. I care to inform, but I know I can be an asshole sometimes.

Ping May
Guest
Ping May
6 years ago

Did this happen to be on a ship owned by Senator Mitch McConnell’s wife’s family? If so, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Yellow
Guest
Yellow
6 years ago

Go Cutters ! That MH-65 Dolphin helicopter is one of my favorites I can always here it from miles away yep that’s the coastie.

Yellow
Guest
Yellow
6 years ago

Go Cutters!

The Hermit of Grizzly Mountain
Guest
The Hermit of Grizzly Mountain
6 years ago
Reply to  Yellow

Breaking Away from the topic of discussion in this article, are we?

Emma
Guest
Emma
6 years ago

Good job boys!!! You are one of the few things about Humboldt County that I am truly proud of! Thank you for all you do!

Taurus Ballzhoff
Guest
Taurus Ballzhoff
6 years ago
Reply to  Emma

This is an amazing photo!

Now if we could just keep all that weed off the street…

I have recently learned that contact with Amethyst crystals is highly therapeutic for nervous conditions, people with insomnia, persons in care homes and assisted living who are anxious, and for people in withdrawal and in rehab!

Get a good heavy Amethyst bead necklace, and kick those drugs now!

rudolph's mom
Guest
rudolph's mom
6 years ago

If that were true, they’d outlaw amethysts.

Jorge Cervantes
Guest
Jorge Cervantes
6 years ago

There goes my skiing trip! Love those Gary Webb (San Jose Mercury News) articles from the 90’s “dark alliance” series. Exposing whose really responsible for bringing the bulk of the nose candy to USA. Looks like our local Coasties are in on the racket as well.

Timothy McVeigh's ghost
Guest
Timothy McVeigh's ghost
6 years ago

Apperently the CIA memo was ignored by the costies. Where will they get their black budget funding this year now?