The Coast Guard is celebrating its second major victory this month in President Donald Trump’s war against illegal drugs.
On Thursday, the Coast Guard cutter Tampa offloaded about 3,825 pounds of cocaine after two seizures in the Eastern Pacific, according to a Coast Guard news release.
That haul came on the heels of an Easter Sunday seizure of 4,510 pounds of cocaine, worth $33.9 million, by the Coast Guard cutter Escanaba, according to a Department of Homeland Security news release.
The Coast Guard has estimated that 1.2 grams of cocaine is a potentially lethal dose.
Protecting our homeland through Operation Pacific Viper.
Today in Miami, the crew of @USCG Cutter Tampa offloaded 3,825 lbs of cocaine worth an estimated $28.7M. The drugs offloaded today were seized in two interdictions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean through Operation Pacific… pic.twitter.com/gY1FFnoUsu
— U.S. Coast Guard (@USCG) April 17, 2026
That means the latest haul offloaded by the Tampa, which had a value of more than $28.7 million, was enough to kill 1.4 million Americans.
The Coast Guard’s aggressive tactics to stop drugs from flowing into the country is part of Operation Pacific Viper.
“This crew’s performance over the last 74 days has been nothing short of phenomenal,” Cmdr. Joshua DiPietro, the commanding officer of the Tampa, said.
“From qualifying several pilots, tie downs, landing safety officers, and helicopter control officers for aviation operations at the start of the patrol to seizing nearly $45 million in illicit narcotics, their teamwork during complex operations was truly impressive. They met every challenge head-on, working seamlessly with our partner agencies and international allies to disrupt transnational criminal organizations.”
Operation Pacific Viper was one part of Trump’s effort to fight back against drug cartels, along with efforts to sink drug running boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
“These efforts are a critical component of the broader U.S. strategy to combat narco-terrorism and dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” the release said.
“Under the leadership of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the men and women of the Coast Guard will continue deploying overwhelming force against the cartels, cutting off the flow of drugs into the United States and put an end to the cartel’s reign of terror,” the release added.
Operation Pacific Viper was launched in August and has seized more than 215,000 pounds of cocaine, as well as detained 160 suspected narco-traffickers.
The operation is a partnership that involves the Coast Guard and U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force South.
The release noted that 80 percent of interdictions of drugs bound for America take place at sea.
In one November 2025 seizure, the Coast Guard cutter Stone offloaded more than 49,000 pounds of illicit drugs worth $362 million.
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