Anti-drug smuggling unit seizes enough cocaine to kill more than 1,400,000 people

An American coast guard crew has seized more than 1.7 tons of cocaine worth more than £21million ($28.7million).

The crew of the Cutter Tampa brought ashore the mammoth haul on Thursday at Base Miami Beach following two separate interceptions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The amount of cocaine is enough to kill 1.4million people.

The seizures were carried out as part of Operation Pacific Viper, the Coast Guard said, adding the scale of the bust highlights the ongoing threat posed by transnational drug trafficking networks.

‘This crew’s performance over the last 74 days has been nothing short of phenomenal,’ said Commander Joshua DiPietro, commanding officer of Tampa.

‘They met every challenge head-on, working seamlessly with our partner agencies and international allies to disrupt transnational criminal organisations.’

Operation Pacific Viper was launched last August with the aim of intercepting drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific.

The area is one of the main routes for bringing narcotics to the US from central Central and South America.

So far the Coast Guard has seized more than 215,000 pound of cocaine and taken 160 suspected narco-traffickers into custody.

According to officials, around 80% of drug interceptions targeting the US take place at sea.