New Coast Guard cutter makes cocaine bust before getting to homeport

In July, yet-to-be-commissioned Coast Guard cutter Midgett passed through the Panama Canal and started a roughly 5,000-mile trip to Honolulu.

The Coast Guard accepted the Midgett in April, and it didn’t leave the Mississippi shipyard where it was built until June 11. But the newest national-security cutter was ready as it transited the eastern Pacific, and with good reason — the ship helped intercept more than 2,100 pounds of cocaine before it even made it to its home port.

On July 25, a MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the US Navy destroyer Michael Murphy spotted a low-profile go-fast boat — a kind of vessel often called a “ narco sub.”

Some 80% of the cocaine smuggled to North America comes through the eastern Pacific, often in narco subs — sometimes true submarines or semi-submersibles, but usually low-profile vessels, of which the service has seen a recent resurgence.

As the helicopter approached, a hatch on top of the go-fast boat opened, and, the Navy said, three passengers began tossing objects in the water. The destroyer’s interceptor boat, guided by the helicopter, picked up the objects and pulled alongside, telling the suspects to remain in sight.