$19M Worth Of Cocaine Seized By US Coast Guard Off Coast Of Costa Rica

Roughly $19 million worth of cocaine was confiscated by U.S. authorities off the coast of Costa Rica.

According to the Associated Press, the 1,250 pounds of cocaine will be offloaded Monday morning at the Coast Guard base in Miami Beach. The bust came after officials say Coast Guard crew on routine patrol in the eastern Pacific caught up with a go-fast vessel on May 29 about 305 miles southwest of Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The crew confiscated the drugs and detained six people on board the boat.

Citing the U.S. Coast Guard, AP reports that the suspects were transferred to Drug Enforcement Agency officials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that the drugs will be transferred to DEA agents in Miami Beach.

News of the bust comes just days after the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and Royal Netherlands Navy in a joint effort made a $24 million drug bust. The multi-agency seizure of 1,517 pounds of cocaine -- estimated to have a wholesale value of more than $24 million -- came after the crew of an Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane was on patrol June 11 and detected three men aboard a loitering go-fast vessel 105 miles southeast of Ponce, Puerto Rico.