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A crew from the Miami Beach Coast Guard intercepted a suspicious smuggling vessel last Sunday, one mile east of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, near Key Biscayne, and confiscated approximately 900 pounds of cocaine valued at an estimated $6.7 million.
The operation, confirmed this Friday by the Coast Guard on its official account, was carried out in coordination with agents from Air and Marine Operations of Customs and Border Protection (CBP AMO) and officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Three suspects were arrested during the operation and handed over to the Miami Division of the DEA to continue the investigation.
The intercepted vessel was a white sport boat with a navy blue stripe, equipped with GPS and featuring a bird emblem on the hull, according to the images released by the authorities.
The Coast Guard warned that the amount of cocaine seized "has the potential to kill more than 300,000 Americans," a figure that security agencies commonly use to assess the impact of these shipments.
According to the official statement from the Coast Guard, the exact location of the seizure was one mile east of the state park, in the Atlantic Ocean, not far from the shores of Miami-Dade County.
The operation is part of Operation Southern Lance, formally launched on November 13, 2025, by order of President Donald Trump and coordinated by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), aimed at disrupting drug trafficking and illegal activities in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
The campaign has significantly intensified pressure on drug trafficking networks in the region. In early May, another operation by the Coast Guard near the shores of Haiti intercepted a vessel suspected of drug smuggling.
The operation, conducted with the express permission of the Haitian government, resulted in the discovery of approximately 3,200 pounds of marijuana, valued at around 3.8 million dollars, according to the official statement from the Coast Guard. One person was arrested as a suspected smuggler during the operation.
Despite the increased operational pressure, the interception off Key Biscayne demonstrates that smuggling networks continue to attempt to bring shipments directly to the shores of South Florida.
In April, the Coast Guard unloaded more than 2,570 pounds of cocaine in Miami Beach as a result of prior interdiction operations within the framework of the same campaign.
Since the beginning of Operation Southern Lance, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has documented at least 80 deaths in attacks on suspicious vessels over approximately ten weeks of operations, which has raised international controversy over the scope and methods of the campaign.
South Florida, especially the Miami-Dade area and the Keys, remains one of the main entry points for maritime drug trafficking coming from the Caribbean and South America. The Coast Guard Station in Miami Beach operates in ongoing coordination with CBP AMO, DFO Florida, and the DEA to intercept these vessels before they reach shore.
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