Port Angeles cutter seizes record cocaine haul off Mexico

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SAN DIEGO — A Port Angeles-based Coast Guard cutter 2,600 miles from home has made the largest drug seizure in maritime history.

The cutter Active, which moors at City Pier in downtown Port Angeles, discovered more than 13 tons of cocaine aboard a Belize-flagged fishing boat in the Pacific off Mexico.

U.S. Attorney Gregory Vega put the drug’s street value at about $500 million.

The drugs were uncovered May 3 on a vessel about 1,700 miles south of San Diego, the Coast Guard said.

On Monday, the drug haul, the fishing vessel and the Active were the center of national attention at a pier at San Diego Naval Station.

This full report, including exclusive comments from the Port Angeles-based crew, appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News, on sale throughout Clallam and Jefferson counties. Click on “AP Wire” at left for the latest on the cocaine haul from San Diego.

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