My Coast Guard News

Coast Guard Cutter Active pictured with an interdicted “fastboat.” By 1990, smugglers had shifted to long-range fastboats as the primary transport platform for cocaine smuggling. (U.S. Coast Guard)

Dec. 13, 2024

With a seizure of opium near San Francisco Bay in 1886, the fight against maritime drug smuggling began, and continues to this day.

U.S. Revenue Cutter Wolcott. The Wolcott was a sail-steamer homeported at Port Townsend, Washington, Territory. Although her crew discovered no drugs aboard the George E Starr, a landing party from the cutter made the earliest yet-known drug seizure by predecessor agencies of the Coast Guard, finding nearly 3,012 pounds of opium hidden in barrels at a fishery in Alaska on January 14, 1886. (U.S. Coast Guard)

July 12, 2024

The service’s first drug seizure at sea? The mostly mistaken case of the George E Starr

The story of the service’s first drug interdiction case (1891) and how it was misrepresented in the history books.

Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton offloads seized contraband

Nov. 24, 2021

Frontline Focus: Coast Guard medevacs passenger from cruise ship 231 miles southeast of Wilmington, N.C., and more

Coast Guard medevacs passenger from cruise ship 231 miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina; Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton offloads approximately $504 million in cocaine, marijuana at Port Everglades, Florida; and Coast Guard taps second ship as party of interest in oil spill

The crew of the Coast Guard Joseph Tezanos offloads nearly $15 million in cocaine and transfers custody of two suspected smugglers at Coast Guard Base San Juan July 12, 2021. Cutter Joseph Tezanos, with the assistance of a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) aircraft, interdicted a go-fast vessel in Mona Passage waters July 10, 2021, which resulted in the apprehension of the smugglers and seizure of 502 kilograms of cocaine. The interdiction resulted from multi-agency efforts in support of U.S. Southern Command's enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere and coordination with the Caribbean Corridor Strike Force (CCSF). (U.S. Coast Guard photo).

July 22, 2021

Frontline Focus: Sector Delaware Bay hoists three from grounded vessel near Cape May, N.J., and more

Frontline Focus: The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay hoists three mariners from grounded vessel near Cape May, New Jersey,Coast Guard offloads $15 million in seized cocaine, transfers custody of two smugglers in San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Liberty crew holds change-of-command ceremony, DHS Science and Technology Directorate and USCG solicit innovative tech solutions to respond to mass-casualty events at sea

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Kathleen Moore interdicts a vessel Monday, Oct. 31, 2016, carrying more than 1,170 pounds of cocaine. The go-fast style vessel was carrying cocaine worth an estimated wholesale value of more than $18 million. U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Coast Guard Cutter Kathleen Moore.

April 6, 2021

Cuttermen: New tech will make it easier to track traffickers

The Coast Guard is working on some major updates to SeaWatch, the situational awareness command and control system on most white hulls.

Dec. 10, 2020

Game changer? Coast Guard tests unmanned surface vehicles

Self-driving boats might help with SAR, crowd control, smuggling and migrant interdiction