Navy Helps Keep Drugs Off Streets

The offload consisted of nearly $400 million worth of cocaine seized by U.S. Navy units supporting U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement efforts in the eastern Pacific Ocean from September through December 2006.

U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSO), in direct support of Joint Interagency Task Force South, coordinated with U.S. government interagencies and partner nations to disrupt the smuggling of 99 metric tons of cocaine in 2005 and more than 106 metric tons through December 2006, with 2,250 flight hours flown in support of the counter-narcotics mission.

NAVSO is the naval component command for U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). Its mission is to direct U.S. naval forces operating in the 16 milion square miles of seas and oceans encompassing the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific, and interact with Coast Guards and navies in Central and South America to enhance maritime security.

Sailors aboard the guided missile frigate USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49) prepare to off-load 23 tons of illegal drugs that were seized in a multi-national and interagency effort to interdict the flow of narcotics into the United States.