The U.S. Coast Guard has achieved a new record for cocaine seizures in a fiscal year, capturing more than 225 tonnes in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations between October 2024 and October 2025. The achievement is a testament to heightened patrol operations in the region, as well as the continued boom in cocaine production in Columbia and other countries of origin. Colombia alone manufactured an estimated 1,800 tonnes of cocaine in 2022, and output has been on a steep upward trajectory as the acreage covered by coca producers continues to rise.
“The Coast Guard’s top priority is to achieve complete operational control of the U.S. border and maritime approaches,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant and commandant nominee of the Coast Guard. “We own the sea, and this historic amount of cocaine seized shows we are defeating narco-terrorist and cartel operations to protect our communities and keep dangerous drugs off our streets.”
The FY2025 effort resulted in the seizure of more than three times the annual average, normally about 75 tonnes. In August through October, the service was seizing an average of more than 1,500 pounds per day.
The service’s nonlethal interdiction operation runs in parallel with the military-led effort to destroy drug boats in transit in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean. Using airstrikes, the Trump Administration has eliminated 16 suspected smuggling craft, killed 67 suspects and rescued two known survivors. That campaign has drawn criticism from legal scholars and many judge advocates general, as well as a warning from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. Last week, Türk called for an international investigation and described the strike campaign as a program of “extrajudicial killing” that “violate[s] international human rights law.”
By contrast, the U.S. Coast Guard’s drug boat intercepts have a long record of nonlethality, with few exceptions. One individual was accidentally shot and killed in January 2024 when a Coast Guard helicopter sniper team used force to disable his boat’s engine off the Dominican Republic; the interdiction team made an effort to save his life, and he was flown to a shoreside hospital for treatment. An investigation followed to determine root causes and lessons-learned.
