Coast Guard Cutter Delivers Massive $57 Million Drug Haul at Port Everglades

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba offloaded approximately $57 million worth of illegal drugs at Port Everglades, Florida, on Monday, according to a Coast Guard news release. The seized contraband included thousands of pounds of cocaine and marijuana.

The haul contained approximately 7,250 pounds of cocaine and 2,082 pounds of marijuana, the Coast Guard said. Both types of narcotics were seized while Escanaba was patrolling in the Caribbean Sea.

Coast Guard imagery showed pallets of the interdicted contraband staged at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Sept. 21, 2026. The Escanaba crew offloaded the drugs before they were transferred to a partnering agency.

The operation involved Escanaba and additional Coast Guard resources. Other cutters, embarked law enforcement personnel and interagency partners assisted during the interdiction operations, according to the release.

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Petty Officer 1st Class Douglas Strong, a boatswain’s mate assigned to Escanaba, credited the crew’s alertness and rapid decisions for the successful interdiction. His statement emphasized the role of personnel monitoring the situation as it unfolded.

“The excellent watchstanding, and quick, crucial decisions enabled success in this interdiction,” Strong said.

The Escanaba crew did not carry out the operation alone. The Coast Guard specifically identified help from other cutters, law enforcement personnel aboard participating vessels and partners from other agencies.

Those supporting forces included the crews of Coast Guard Cutter Richard Dixon and Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean. Strong described their involvement as part of a unified effort to stop the narcotics from reaching communities.

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“It was a textbook team effort that ensured over 2,000 pounds of illicit narcotics never made it into our communities. Thanks to the crews of Coast Guard Cutter Richard Dixon and Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean for their partnership — one team one fight,” Strong said.

Coast Guard photographs also documented part of the operation at sea. One image showed a small boat crew from Escanaba transferring seized narcotics to the cutter while underway off Haiti on Aug. 29, 2026.

Escanaba’s crew and additional Coast Guard units recovered 2,082 pounds of marijuana during that interdiction, according to the Coast Guard caption accompanying the image. The recovered marijuana matched the amount included in the haul offloaded at Port Everglades.

A separate Coast Guard image showed Escanaba sinking a drug smuggling vessel off Haiti on Aug. 29, 2026. The service again reported that Escanaba’s crew and additional Coast Guard units recovered 2,082 pounds of marijuana during the interdiction.

The imagery captured both the transfer of the seized narcotics and the destruction of the smuggling vessel. The Coast Guard identified the location as waters off Haiti and dated both photographed events to Aug. 29.

At Port Everglades, the contraband was arranged on pallets after being removed from the cutter. The drugs were then prepared for transfer to the partnering agency identified in the Coast Guard caption.

The cocaine made up the larger portion of the reported haul by weight, totaling approximately 7,250 pounds. The marijuana added another 2,082 pounds, bringing the combined reported weight of the two seized drugs to more than 9,000 pounds.

The Coast Guard valued the total offload at approximately $57 million. Its release connected the seizure to Escanaba’s Caribbean Sea patrol and credited cutters, law enforcement personnel and interagency partners with assisting in the interdiction operations.

Strong’s comments placed particular emphasis on watchstanding, quick decisions and cooperation among participating crews. The offload at Port Everglades marked the final publicly described stage of an operation that included seizures at sea, a vessel sinking and the transfer of contraband ashore.

The Escanaba crew’s offload put the full scale of the seizure on display in Fort Lauderdale. Thousands of pounds of cocaine and marijuana, intercepted during the Caribbean patrol, were moved from the cutter for transfer to the partnering agency.

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