Coast Guard Cutter Returns Home To Alameda

ALAMEDA, CA —The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro returned home Monday to Alameda following a counter-drug patrol, Coast Guard officials said.

Crewmembers during the 98-day operation in the eastern Pacific Ocean seized $467 million in cocaine. Coast Guard officials said the operation was the crew's first counter-drug patrol since the cutter was commissioned in 2017.

One encounter with an alleged smuggler on June 18 ended with the seizure of 17,000 pounds of cocaine off of a self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel. The cocaine was worth an estimated $232 million and the Coast Guard's largest single seizure since 2015.

The mission netted a total of 31,000 pounds of illegal drugs.

Also during the mission, the crew successfully deployed a helicopter crew that used fire to disable the outboard engines of vessels that were fleeing the Coast Guard. Afterward, crewmembers were able to gain control of the vessels.

"I'm incredibly proud of this crew and their accomplishments," Munro's commanding officer Capt. James Estramonte said in a statement. "As they spend some well-deserved down time with their families, they can rest assured that that they've made a difference by preventing this poison from reaching our streets."

— Bay City News

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