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Busted!
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In mid May, a Naval Air Reserve P 3C Orion crew from NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, and a US Coast Guard cutter crew teamed up to record a major drug bust in the eastern Pacific. A VP-69 crew detected and monitored a small, so-called go-fast drug-smuggling vessel during a routine counter narcotics surveillance flight with the P-3’s inverse synthetic aperture radar. The crew maintained contact with the camouflaged, high-performance speedboat for more than eight hours despite the smugglers persistent efforts to evade surveillance. The P-3’s tactical coordinator then orchestrated an intercept of the drug runner with the USCGC Munro, which was initially positioned more than 300 miles from the smugglers. The P-3 crew extended their time on station time by meticulously managing fuel consumption in order to provide constant updates to the Munro crew. The joint effort enabled the cutter’s helicopter and crew to arrest five Colombian nationals and seize more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine. Munro officers estimated the drug smugglers had dumped an additional 4,000 pounds of cocaine overboard prior to their arrest. The total street value of this interdiction was estimated to be $175 million. |
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