MIAMI — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Venturous, while on routine patrol in the Caribbean Sea Thursday, interdicted a vessel with four people and 107 bales of marijuana aboard.
The marijuana, with an estimated street value of $1.6 million, was interdicted after the Venturous deployed its smallboat crew to pursue the vessel. The Coast Guard stopped the vessel using warning shots and then disabling fire directed at the vessel’s engines after the people aboard the vessel ignored orders to heave to.
The marijuana and the vessel were seized by the Venturous crew and offloaded to authorities Coast Guard Base Support Unit Miami in Miami Saturday.
The U.S. Coast Guard, working closely with its partner law-enforcement agencies, seized more than 276,203 pounds of cocaine and 63,184 pounds of marijuana in 2009.
