The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Otter transfers packages of suspected marijuana from a vessel approximately 29 miles southwest of Point Loma, San Diego, on August 6, 2017. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Coast Guard Cutter Sea Otter)
SAN DIEGO − The Coast Guard interdicted approximately 1,200 pounds of suspected marijuana southwest of Point Loma, San Diego, Sunday.
At approximately 9:30 a.m. Sunday, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector San Diego Joint Harbor Operations Center received a distress call over the radio from a mariner who was having battery trouble approximately 29 miles southwest of Point Loma.
A Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento C-27 Spartan medium-range aircraft located the vessel in international waters and vectored in the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Otter.
Once aboard the vessel, Sea Otter’s boarding team discovered multiple packages of suspected marijuana.
Both persons aboard the vessel were taken into custody and Sea Otter’s crew took the vessel in tow to the Customs and Border Protection dock at Shelter Island, San Diego.
“I am extremely proud of the hard work and diligence of the crew,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Justin Eaton, Sea Otter’s officer in charge. “Working together with multiple Coast Guard assets we were able to make another seizure and slow down the flow of illegal drugs into America. It’s never an individual effort, but always a team effort, that make these cases so successful.”
The suspects and contraband were transferred to the custody of the San Diego Marine Task Force pending prosecution. The vessel was turned over to CBP Air and Marine Operations.
The San Diego Regional Coordinating Mechanism is comprised of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, Air and Marine Operations, U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Coast Guard and other federal, state and local partners. Collectively, these regional partners conduct interagency operational planning and leverage agency authorities and jurisdictions to combat threat networks that seek to exploit the maritime approaches to the U.S.
The cutter Sea Otter is an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in San Diego.
