During their deployment, the crew partnered with various Coast Guard and Mexican law enforcement members to prevent over 2,100 pounds of cocaine worth over $41 million from coming into the U.S., the agency said.
The Alert’s crew members went after a suspected smuggling vessel until it ran out of fuel. The matter was moved to Mexican law enforcement officials from the Secretaría de Marina and resulted in arrests and the seizure of 1,600 pounds of illegal narcotics.
Crew members also pursued another suspected smuggling vessel and intercepted about 550 pounds of cocaine and arrested six suspected narco-traffickers. They transferred both to the Department of Justice before continuing on to their deployment.
“Once again, the crew of Alert was able to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and equipment failures on a 50-year-old ship to execute a wide range of Coast Guard missions from the US-Canada Border to the Mexico-Guatemala border over a two-month period,” said Cmdr. Tyson Scofield, Alert’s commanding officer. “Overall, Coast Guard cutter Alert successfully completed a variety of operations through the combined effort of every member of the crew.”
