Port Everglades is a humming part of Florida’s economy. Trade ships, cruise vessels, and boats come through the port constantly. More recently, though, it was the scene of a historic drug offload.

The US Coast Guard, in its biggest drug offload ever, seized over 76,000 lbs of cocaine and marijuana. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the authorities say the value of the contraband was nearly half a billion dollars.  

The US Coast Guard says it found almost $500 million in cocaine and marijuana during a recent operation 

The US Coast Guard recently held a press conference to show off its latest haul of illegal substances as part of a drug offload at Port Everglades in Florida. Just how big of a haul? The USCG says it was 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, around 76,140 lbs of illegal substances. 

That’s a huge number. But things get even wilder when you look at the breakdown through another lens. For starters, the Coast Guard estimates the value of the drugs at around $473 million, almost half a billion bucks. That’s billion with a “b.”

Troublingly, USCG Rear Admiral Adam Chamie said that the amount of cocaine seized in the operation was enough for 23 million lethal doses, per FOX 13. That’s a bigger figure than the populations of the top eight most densely populated cities in the United States combined.

Unsurprisingly, the drug “offload” is the largest one of its kind in USCG history. You might hear offload and think bust. Not quite.

An offload, as it sounds, is the process wherein an agency like the Coast Guard unloads mass quantities of drugs and contraband at once. In this case, the offload was the culmination of a two-month operation spearheaded by the US Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton.

The USCGC Hamilton, often referred to as the Coast Guard’s “National Security Cutter,” worked with “other ships and agencies” to pull off the drug-interdiction operation.