Coast Guard Cutter Seizes Marijuana

CORONA DEL MAR, Calif. -- Crews aboard an Orange County-based Coast Guard cutter seized 336 pounds of marijuana after being notified it was visible on a 25-foot boat about 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said Monday.

The Cutter Narwhal, home ported in Corona del Mar, was on routine patrol Thursday when it received a report from Customs and Border Protection about the sighting of the smaller boat, which carried two or three people, said Ensign Stephanie Young of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Coast Guard operations in San Diego sent the Narwhal to intercept the smaller boat.

A helicopter was sent from San Diego, Young said.

The Mexican Navy also diverted a patrol boat to the area, she said.

The helicopter located the boat and notified the Mexican Navy.

As the boats closed in, the suspected smugglers turned toward Mexican territorial waters and began throwing the bales off the boat, Young said.

After the boat entered Mexican waters, it was lost from sight, but customs and Coast Guard personnel focused on finding the bales thrown overboard.

The operation was hampered by low light conditions, and with assistance from helicopter crews who dropped a buoy at the spot where the marijuana was jettisoned, the Coast Guard crews were able to recovered a portion of the marijuana that had been thrown overboard, Young said.

Officials attributed the interdiction to interagency cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican Navy crews, Young said.