DATE: November 05, 2009 03:06:11 EST

US COAST GUARD
News Release

Date: Nov. 5, 2009
Contact:  Petty Officer 3rd Class Sabrina Elgammal
305-415-6683

**Media Availability** Miami Coast Guard cutter to offload 5 tons of cocaine seized at sea

**Local cutter returns to homeport, crewmembers to reunite with loved ones after successful 30-day patrol**

NOTE: Media are invited to attend the offload and interview senior officials and crewmembers from the Seventh Coast Guard District and the Coast Guard Cutter Valiant Thursday. Media are asked to arrive at Coast Guard Base Support Unit Miami located at 100 MacArthur Causeway, Miami Beach, Fla., no later than 11:00 a.m.

WHO:       * Captain Peter Brown, Seventh Coast Guard District Response Chief
                  * Commander Dante Vinciguerra, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Valiant

WHAT:     Coast Guard Cutter Valiant crewmembers will offload 191 bales of cocaine (9,200 pounds), with an estimated street value of $127 million, following the disruption of four separate drug smuggling events in the Caribbean Sea during the month of October.

The contraband will be transferred to various law enforcement agencies in Miami. The suspects were previously transferred to federal agents for further investigation.

Following the offload, the Valiant will receive four cocaine interdiction stickers that will be permanently displayed on the side of the ship.

As part of a time-honored tradition, Coast Guard cutters that make drug seizures earn a snowflake sticker, representing a cocaine bust, or a marijuana leaf sticker, representing a marijuana bust, to display on the side of the bridge.

Synopsis of the four separate events:
* Oct. 10 - Valiant crewmembers recovered 39 bales of cocaine, weighing nearly 1,900 pounds, off the coast of Panama. 
* Oct. 20 – Valiant crewmembers recovered two bales, or 100 pounds of cocaine, jettisoned by suspected smugglers off the coast of Colombia.
* Oct. 25 – Valiant crewmembers recovered 76 bales of cocaine, weighing nearly 3,500 pounds, off the coast of Panama and detained several suspects.
* Oct. 29 – Valiant crewmembers detained several suspects aboard a go-fast carrying 74 bales of cocaine, weighing about 3,700 pounds, off the coast of Nicaragua.

WHEN:       Thursday, 11:00 a.m.

WHERE:     Coast Guard Base Support Unit Miami, 100 MacArthur Causeway, Miami Beach.

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