Crew members with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball on March 31 delivered over 11,300 pounds of seized cocaine and over 4,000 pounds of apprehended marijuana in San Diego.
The more than $223 million worth of drugs was taken during eight interdictions in February and March in the Eastern Pacific Ocean with the help of partnering vessels.
The Kimball, a 420-foot Legend-Class National Security Cutter homeported in Honolulu, played a major role in the drug seizures, including one interdiction resulting in roughly 2,295 pounds of cocaine; a joint effort with Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Yellowknife to seize about 331 pounds of cocaine; and a team up with USCG cutter Legare on an interdiction capturing about 3,326 pounds of cocaine.
“This marks the first of likely many counter-drug patrols for Kimball and I am extremely proud of our crew’s preparation and hard work to make this an extremely successful deployment,” Capt. Thomas D’Arcy, the Kimball’s commanding officer, said. “Kimball’s crew demonstrated that through teamwork we were able to remove over $100 million dollars of cocaine, preventing it from ever crossing our borders or entering our neighborhoods, and further removing a source of illicit revenue from transnational criminal networks.”