More than 33,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $468 million was offloaded by the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday in San Diego.

Officials say the drugs were seized through eight separate smuggling vessel interdictions in February and March of this year.

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Munro, which offloaded the cocaine on Tuesday, seized the drugs from vessels off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America.

Rear Admiral Andrew Sugimoto, commander of Coast Guard District 11, said in a statement, “I am extremely proud of this crew and their dedication to disrupting organized crime in the Eastern Pacific. The effort put in while interdicting more than 33,000 lbs of cocaine in a few weeks’ time is unparalleled.”

The seizures took place on:

• Feb. 21, 3,946 lbs of cocaine seized
• Feb. 24, 3,803 lbs of cocaine seized
• Feb. 26, 3,108 lbs of cocaine seized
• March 10, 4,709 lbs of cocaine seized
• March 17, 7,852 lbs of cocaine seized
• March 18, 2,841 lbs of cocaine seized
• March 18, 2,841 lbs of cocaine seized
• March 23, 4,784 lbs of cocaine seized

“The crew put in an incredible amount of work over very long hours, and I couldn’t be prouder of them,” said Capt. Rula Deisher, Coast Guard Cutter Munro’s commanding officer. “Their dedication and grit goes to show that Munro is one of the best national security cutters in the fleet, and we are committed to keeping the country safe by stopping illegal drugs before they hit the street.”

City News Service contributed to this article.

The U.S. Coast Guard has offloaded more than 18,000 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value near $239 million, in San Diego.

Six separate suspected drug smuggling vessels off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America were intercepted by the crews of the USCGC Waesche and Active. The seizures took place on November missions, according to federal officials.

The Waesche made four of the seizures, totaling more than 14,000 pounds. The largest came on Nov. 20., when the Coast Guard crew took in 5,534 pounds from a self-propelled semi-submersible or “narco-submarine.”

The interdiction of the semi-submersible was the first in the Eastern Pacific since 2020.

The Active had two seizures on Nov. 23-24 totaling nearly 3,900 pounds.

“I am extremely impressed with the crew’s dedication throughout this dynamic patrol. They overcame multiple challenges with collective hard work, ingenuity and positive attitudes to keep us in pursuit of these cartels and their dangerous drugs,” said Capt. Robert Mohr, commanding officer of the Waesche.

Multiple agencies played a role in the counter-narcotic operation, including the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, DEA, and the U.S. Navy, along with international partners.

“I am proud of the unity of effort displayed by U.S. Coast Guard members aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche and our partners who stopped these narcotics from entering our nation through the maritime domain,” said Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson, commander, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area.

The law enforcement phase of counter-smuggling operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean is conducted under the authority of the 11th Coast Guard District, headquartered in Alameda County.

– City News Service

Lifeguards Friday towed a boat with six people aboard, which authorities believe was used for smuggling purposes, back to shore in the Sunset Cliffs area, authorities said.

At roughly 7:15 a.m., lifeguards responding to a call for help found the boat approaching the surfline, according to Monica Munoz of San Diego Fire-Rescue.

The boat was towed back to the lifeguards’ headquarters dock, Munoz said, adding that none of the passengers was hurt.

She said lifeguards gave the boat’s occupants blankets before federal law enforcement officers arrived on the scene.

Believing the boat was being used to smuggle the occupants, lifeguards contacted the San Diego Police Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard, Munoz said.

Coast Guard and CBP officials took the people and the boat into custody, Munoz said. A Coast Guard official had no further information.

President Joe Biden, a day before he is set to visit the scene of another disaster, said his administration “stands ready” to render aid following Tropical Storm Hilary.

In a statement issued Sunday, Biden said he directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to send personnel and supplies to California for impacted communities.

The U.S. Coast Guard was tasked with pre-positioning aircraft for rapid response and search-and-rescue efforts. The government, he said, will continue to coordinate with California, Nevada and Arizona “on any resources they might need.”

He added that he spoke Sunday afternoon with Gov. Gavin Newsom about the emergency preparedness measures in place and the state’s initial response to the storm.

“I continue to be briefed on our preparedness efforts, and the storm’s potential impact – including flooding,” Biden said. “My administration stands ready to provide additional assistance as requested. I urge people to take this storm seriously, and listen to state and local officials.”

In addition, Biden said he is “closely monitoring” the Sunday afternoon earthquake in Ventura County, and any resulting impacts.”

Biden is to travel to Hawaii on Monday to get a firsthand look at the destruction wrought by the Maui wildfires that killed dozens of people.

Biden, his wife Jill, son Hunter and other family members have been in Lake Tahoe for a week of August vacation. They are staying at a home rented from billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer – also a former presidential candidate.

The Bidens arrived late on Friday in the Glenbrook community on the eastern shore of the lake, on the Nevada side. Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, own the home, but are not present.

The White House said the Bidens are renting the home at fair market value.

Hunter Biden flew separately on a commercial flight with his wife Melissa Cohen and their son Beau and were already at the residence when the rest of the family arrived, the White House said.

The president’s son is facing a special counsel investigation on tax evasion charges. President Biden, asked about the case at a Camp David news conference on Friday, declined comment.

– Staff and wire reports

A man who rammed a Coast Guard vessel with a boat off the coast of Coronado during a human smuggling attempt last year was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.

Jesus Jeovanny Alcaraz-Valdez, 33, transported around a dozen undocumented Mexican and Guatemalan migrants on Dec. 17, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Though some of the migrants could not swim, prosecutors say Alcaraz-Valdez instructed them to remove their life jackets and enter waist-deep water. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the migrants agreed to pay between $13,000 and $24,000 in order to be brought into the U.S.

After the people were dropped off, Alcaraz-Valdez’s boat was spotted heading toward Mexico.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said a Coast Guard vessel tried to get him to stop, but he ignored the commands. Later, he turned his boat toward the Coast Guard vessel and rammed it twice with his boat’s bow, prosecutors said.

Alcaraz-Valdez’s boat was disabled after officers shot out its outboard engine. Four of those aboard the Coast Guard vessel sustained minor injuries due to Alcarez-Valdez’s actions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

– City News Service

The Phoenix Air Learjet with three people aboard that went missing Wednesday near San Clemente Island was on a U.S. Navy training exercise, according to their employer.

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search yesterday. Officials said they had searched 334 square miles and found a debris field but no signs of any survivors after the plane went missing Wednesday morning about a mile southwest of San Clemente Island.

Watchstanders at the Coast Guard’s Joint Harbor Operations Center in San Diego received the initial report of a downed aircraft at 7:53 a.m. Wednesday from Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility San Diego, reporting an aircraft emergency aboard the plane.

“The entire Phoenix Air Family grieves over this loss of our friends and fellow employees,” Phoenix Air Group, Inc. of Cartersville, Georgia said in a statement.

The company identified the employees as Captain Eric Tatman, 1st Officer Spencer Geerlings and Systems Specialist Shane Garner.

Phoenix Air Group said the missing plane was one of two Learjets participating in the U.S. Navy training exercise. The other jet landed safely.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations aircraft and the USS San Diego diverted after hearing the emergency broadcast and began searching the area, the Coast Guard reported.

Also, an MH-60 Jayhawk aircrew from Coast Guard Sector San Diego and the crew aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Robert Ward, a 154-foot Fast Response Cutter homeported in Los Angeles/Long Beach, were launched and led the search.

Additionally, a U.S. Air Force C-130, multiple U.S. Air Force land and surface assets from 68th Rescue Squadron, and a U.S. Navy MH-60 Romeo helicopter from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron were launched and assisted in the search.

The area near San Clemente Island where the aircraft was reported down is considered part of Los Angeles County, and is south of Catalina Island.

City News Service contributed to this article.

Four passengers in medical distress were evacuated by U.S. Coast Guard helicopters based in San Diego from three different cruise ships during a 24-hour period this weekend.

The rescues began at 7:10 p.m. Friday, when a woman suffering from a progressive acute illness was hoisted off the cruise ship Carnival Panorama, officials said.

The Coast Guard 11th District Rescue Coordination Center in Alameda received a medevac request from the captain of the cruise ship, which at that time was 165 miles south of San Diego.

The vessel and an MH-60 Jayhawk aircrew from Coast Guard Sector San Diego rendezvoused 100 miles south of the city. The woman, 47, was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego in serious condition.

Later that evening the Coast Guard received reports of a 74-year-old woman suffering from stroke-like symptoms and a 77-year-old woman suffering from kidney failure, both on the cruise ship Majestic Princess.

At the time of the request, the cruise ship was about 500 miles west of Los Angeles. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew met the ship about 10 a.m. Saturday 150 miles southwest of Point Conception. Both patients were transferred to Scripps Memorial.

At 12:20 p.m. Saturday, another woman with stroke-like symptoms was hoisted off the cruise ship Carnival Spirit, about 86 miles west of San Clemente Island.

Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles Long Beach notified Joint Harbor Operations Center San Diego of the medevac request from the Carnival ship. The helicopter crew that was completing the rescue of the two passengers from the Majestic Princess was diverted to respond to the Carnival Spirit.

The woman, 84, was transported for emergency medical services at Coast Guard Sector San Diego.

The Coast Guard Rescue 6019 aircrew flew more than seven hours between the three medical evacuations on Friday and Saturday.

– City News Service

The local Mexican consulate general’s office announced Monday it believes that seven of the eight people who drowned off the San Diego County coast this weekend were Mexican nationals, based on the identification some of them carried.

Eight people drowned late Saturday when two alleged smuggling boats capsized off Black’s Beach in the Torrey Pines area. At a Sunday morning news conference, San Diego Lifeguard Chief James Gartland said an unknown person who spoke Spanish called San Diego dispatch and told them about the two vessels, holding a total of 15 people, overturning. Gartland said that so far, no survivors had been found and added, “We lost eight souls.”

Coast Guard spokesman Adam Stanton said Monday that search efforts were suspended at 4 p.m. Sunday.

In a statement, the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego said it “deeply regretted this tragedy” and “as soon as there is confirmation from the coroner’s office in this regard, it will be informed to their relatives.”

Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, the consul general of Mexico in San Diego, on Monday thanked the U.S Coast Guard for its search-and-rescue efforts. He also asked migrants to avoid putting their lives at risk.

“People planning to cross the border into the United States, either by land or sea, should know that human smugglers will take advantage of their need in order to obtain illicit money, distorting reality, creating false expectations and exposing them to high-risk conditions where they may lose their lives,” Gutierrez said.

According to the Consulate General’s office, those seeking information on missing relatives may contact the consulate’s emergency line at 619-843-6399 or proteccion@consulmexsd.org, or contact the Center for Information and Attention to Mexicans (CIAM) in the United States at 520-623-7874.

U.S. Coast Guard officials got a call from the San Diego Police Department at 11:35 p.m. Saturday about a boat landing on Black’s Beach, Stanton told City News Service.

Thick fog slowed rescue efforts, but Coast Guard and San Diego Fire-Rescue crews searched the water for potential survivors or victims on Sunday.

Lifeguards “did the best we could to recover people from the water, trying to find survivors,” Gartland said Sunday.

After an hour of searching for survivors, “we were in recovery mode for five hours after that,” said Gartland, adding that access was difficult due to the tide and coastal cliffs.

Gartland said some boat passengers “may have left the beach, we’re not sure.” He said both vessels were capsized and inside the shoreline when first responders arrived on the scene, which was hazardous due to sand bars and in-shore rip currents.

He explained that long in-shore holes can cause rip currents to pull people back out to sea, adding that surf conditions on Saturday night were only a 3-foot swell.

“This is one of the worst maritime smuggling tragedies that I can think of in California, certainly here in the city of San Diego,” Gartland said.

“This is not necessarily people trying to find a better life,” said Capt. James Spitler, sector commander for the U.S. Coast Guard San Diego. “This is part of a trans-national criminal organization effort to smuggle people into the United States. These people are often labor-trafficked and sex-trafficked when they arrive.”

San Diego Fire-Rescue officials said the lifeguard dispatcher used GPS coordinates from the reporting party’s cell phone to establish a location, about 800 yards north of the base of Black Gold Road. The first lifeguard unit to arrive couldn’t access the beach due to high tide and headed north, wading through knee- to waist-deep water.

“After a couple hundred yards, lifeguards on the beach reached dry sand and then began to find lifeless bodies and two overturned pangas spread over an area of about 400 yards,” the SDFD stated. “The first lifeguards on scene triaged a total of seven bodies — all were deceased.”

Lifeguards pulled the victims from knee-deep water and the waterline, and onto dry sand. Federal and military responders found the eighth body, the SDFD said. Authorities also found several life jackets and fuel barrels, according to the SDFD.

All the victims were turned over to the county Medical Examiner’s Office at the base of Black Gold Road.

Along with the Coast Guard and the SDFD, San Diego lifeguards were assisted by the San Diego Police Department and UC San Diego police, the state lifeguard agency, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, Air Force and Marine operations.

City News Service contributed to this article.

Crews rescued three migrants near Ocean Beach early Saturday, hours after they were first reported in distress.

Just before 5 a.m. Saturday, San Diego lifeguards were called to the cliffside near New Break Beach south of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park after the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard found the migrants, according to OnScene.TV.

Lifeguards used a boat to extricate the migrants from the rocks and transferred them to a Coast Guard cutter approximately one mile offshore.

The condition of the three migrants, who are undocumented, is unknown.

An earlier search had proven unsuccessful. At about 11:30 p.m. Friday, city lifeguards were first summoned by the Border Patrol to aid in the search for a jet ski with passengers in distress.

The lifeguards, with the help of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department’s Copter 3, combed the shoreline, but after an hour, called off the search without finding the victims.

Baja Ha-Ha, the largest regatta on the West Coast, kicks off Monday morning with more than 130 yachts lining up for a parade out of Shelter Island.

Recreational boaters from all over the globe will be participating in the annual event, through Nov. 12, which is the official start of a 750-mile voyage from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas.

This is the 28th year of the rally, which features sailors from California, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska and more, along with international sailors too, from Canada, England, and Switzerland. Befitting their Halloween launch, many of the vessels will be decorated and some crew members will be decked out in costumes.

The activities begin at about 9:40 a.m. off the Shelter Island Fishing Pier on San Diego Bay. For landlubbers, the best viewing is south of the pier.

The starting sequence of the regatta sounds off with a series of six signal shots fired from the original America’s Cup starting gun on the Dolphin, an 85-foot San Diego-based sport-fishing vessel. The parade will sail past the Dolphin and conclude by 10:30 a.m. as participants make their way to Cabo San Lucas.

Participants include Port of San Diego Chairman Dan Malcolm; Sharon Cloward, president of the San Diego Working Waterfront; Captain of the Port, James Spitler and U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Diego.

The final starting shot signifying the beginning of the regatta will be fired by Ambassador Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, the Consul General of Mexico in San Diego.

“Baja Ha-Ha is a bi-national event that showcases the partnership between San Diego and Mexico,” Malcolm said. “The event highlights the many visitor opportunities on both sides of the border, and also promotes recreational boating, which is a major tourism-boosting activity on San Diego Bay.”

Baja Ha-Ha is organized and sponsored by Latitude 38 Magazine. The port is a sponsor, along with the Sportfishing Association of California, the San Diego Working Waterfront, and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego.