The Coast Guard cutter Active, one of the oldest medium-endurance cutters in the fleet, intercepted a small flotilla of smuggling craft off Central America in mid-May that netted $78 million worth of cocaine.
The crew of the 210’x34’x10’9” cutter, based at Port Angeles, Wash., seized more than 5,271 lbs. of cocaine during two back-to-back interdictions on May 18 and May 19, according to Coast Guard officials. Six suspected smugglers were arrested in the incidents and will be prosecuted in the United States, they said.
During their patrol, the Active in all interdicted three panga-style open speedboats and one recreational vessel, finding more than three tons of illicit narcotics worth an estimated $95 million at U.S. wholesale prices, and apprehended 11 suspected drug smugglers.
The crew of the cutter Active interdicts more than 1 ton of cocaine from four suspected drug smugglers May 18, 2018. Coast Guard photo/PO1 Michael De Nyse.
The 53-year-old Active is one of the oldest in the Reliance class of cutters, started in the mid-1960s as a replacement for cutters dating back to World War II. Since a mid-life extension project in the late 1980s they have continued as a backbone of the offshore fleet, to be replaced by the new offshore patrol cutters in the 2020s.
“The crew of Active should be proud of all they’ve accomplished to combat dangerous transnational criminal organizations that spread violence and instability throughout the Western Hemisphere,” said Vice Adm. Fred Midgette, commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area, in announcing the seizures. “Their ability to complete the mission on this aging platform is a testament their abilities as cuttermen and devotion to duty as Coast Guard women and men.”
While the Active and other old cutters are operating beyond their originally expected 40-year service lives, engineering challenges are increasing. The crew of the cutter Alert based at Astoria, Ore., was forced to end a counterdrug patrol early and return to the U.S. early from a counterdrug patrol near Central America following a series of engineering malfunctions in March 2018.
"I’m incredibly proud of this crew and their accomplishments. The success of this patrol is a testament to their hard work and dedication. Just to keep a 53-year-old ship in prime condition is a feat in and of itself, and they have done that and much more,” said Cmdr. Chris German, commanding officer of the Active.
Offshore patrol cutters will in time make up 70% of the Coast Guard surface force in offshore waters, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft has said. Until then, the medium endurance cutters will do the work in the eastern Pacific; they stopped nearly a third of all drugs seized by the Coast Guard in fiscal year 2017, more than 138,000 pounds.
