Operation Pacific Viper yields massive 20,000 pound cocaine seizure

EXCLUSIVE: The Coast Guard cutter Munro seized more than 20,000 pounds of cocaine in a single drug interdiction mission Tuesday — marking the largest seizure a national security cutter had completed involving a go-fast vessel. 

New video footage shared with Fox News Digital depicts Coast Guard forces, including a sniper from the service’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) based in Jacksonville, Florida, utilizing disabling fire against a go-fast vessel as it completes a drug interdiction mission for Operation Pacific Viper. 

The amount of cocaine seized in the mission, which occurred in the Eastern Pacific south of Mexico, amounts to more than 7.5 million potentially lethal doses, according to the service.

Operation Pacific Viper launched in August and is a combined initiative between the Coast Guard and Navy that seeks to counter the flow of illegal drugs to the U.S. in alignment with President Donald Trump’s broader effort to crack down on drug cartels in Latin America.

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As of October, the Coast Guard reported it had snatched 100,000 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean under Operation Pacific Viper. That translates to roughly 1,600 pounds of cocaine nabbed daily, according to the service.

The Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron snipers are used in missions to disable vessels carrying illicit drugs by targeting their engines with rifles. Disabling potential drug vessels paves the way for other Coast Guard assets to board and capture drugs stowed away on the boats. 

Go-fast vessels are common vessels employed to ferry drugs in the Caribbean.

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The Coast Guard reported in November that it seized almost 510,000 pounds of cocaine in fiscal year 2025 at that time — the largest amount of the drug snatched in the service’s entire history.

The amount the service seized translates to 193 million potentially lethal doses — enough to jeopardize more than half of the U.S. population, according to the Coast Guard. Additionally, it amounts to more than three times the service’s annual average, which comes out to roughly 167,000 pounds of cocaine each year.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has adopted a hard-line approach dealing with drugs coming into the United States, and designated drug cartel groups like Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

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Separate from Operation Pacific Viper, the Trump administration also has conducted at least 21 strikes against alleged drug vessels in Latin American waters since September. 

While lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes — particularly after the White House revealed that a second strike was conducted against a vessel after the first one left survivors in September — the Trump administration has stated it has the authority to conduct those attacks. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a war powers resolution Wednesday to bar Trump from using U.S. armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has indicated that the strikes will continue. 

“We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they’ve been poisoning the American people,” Hegseth said Tuesday.