US Coast Guard offloads $45 million worth of cocaine in St Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG - Someone with a cold heart thought he was going to make money by pushing a white Christmas in the U.S . but thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard, that is not going to happen.

Wednesday morning, more than 50 bales of cocaine were off-loaded from the Coast Guard cutter Decisive in St Pete. The estimated street value, $45 million.

The drugs came from two separate seizures south of Puerto Rico in which one boat jettisoned 38 bales of cocaine and got away, and another, a sail boat, was boarded, 16 bails of cocaine discovered, and the sole crew member detained.

Coast Guard Lt. Knell Rommerdahl says this is part of a stepped up effort to stop the drug running coming up from South America, saying, "There has been a recent rise in crime in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that they suspect is correlated to illegal drug trafficking. So the Coast Guard is concentrating more on Puerto Rico / U.S.V.I. hoping to stem the tide of illegal drugs."

He also admitted though as they do that using all their resources and the latest technology available to them, drug runners are doing the same, even now using submarines to run drugs into the country.

So the war is not over.  But this $45 million battle was won.