January 24, 2017
The Coast Guard measures annual narcotics removal according to the U.S. Government’s Fiscal Year (FY), which runs from Oct.1 to Sept. 30. The Coast Guard’s newest recording-breaking year was Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16), which ran from Oct. 1, 2015, to Sept. 30, 2016.
Coast Guard counterdrug operations in FY16 by the numbers:
- Cocaine Removed in FY16 – more than 443,790 pounds (200,941 kilograms) (Coast Guard’s new record)
- Cocaine Removed in FY08 – 367,700 (166,785 kilograms) (previous record)
- Value of FY16 Cocaine Removals - $5.9 Billion wholesale
- # of drug interdictions – 282
- Number of suspects detained – 585 (new Coast Guard record up from 503 in FY15)
- Suspects transferred to the U.S. for prosecution – 465 (up from 373 in FY15)
- Smuggling vessels seized - 172
- FY16 self-propelled semisubmersible (SPSS) interdictions – 6
- Total Coast Guard SPSS interdictions – 43 (as of Oct. 12, 2016)
- In FY16, National Security Cutters removed over 85,970 pounds of cocaine worth more than $1.1 billion
- In FY16, medium endurance cutters removed nearly 177,600 pounds of cocaine worth more than $2.38 billion
- Tactical law enforcement teams removed 79,300 pounds of cocaine worth more than $1 billion in FY16
- In an average year, Coast Guard interdictions at sea amount to more than three times the quality of cocaine seized at U.S. borders and within the country combined.