How many drug interdictions did the US Coast Guard conduct in 2024 and where occurred?
Executive summary
The available sources do not provide a single, definitive count of “how many drug interdictions the U.S. Coast Guard conducted in 2024.” Public documents and reporting give quantity metrics in multiple forms—tons of cocaine intercepted (106.3 metric tons), selected interdiction counts (e.g., 125 boat boardings with 91 disruptions in the FY2024 reporting window), and major multi-interdiction operations in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean—but those items come from different reports and date-ranges and are not assembled into one nationwide 2024 interdiction total in the material provided [1] [2] [3].
1. What the sources do say about 2024 volumes and drug tonnage
The Coast Guard intercepted large bulk quantities of cocaine in 2024: one service-wide estimate cited in professional reporting lists 106.3 metric tons of cocaine interdicted in 2024, compared with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s 28.4 metric tons for the same year [1]. That metric documents the scale of contraband seized at sea but is not the same as an interdiction-count total [1].
2. Reporting on interdiction counts and “boat interdictions”
Fiscal-year reporting language used by the Coast Guard and cited in later fact-checks frames outcomes in terms of boat boardings, interdictions, and “drug disruptions.” A 2024 Coast Guard fiscal report covering October 2023–September 2024 is cited as saying the agency “disrupted drug runs in 91 out of 125 boat interdictions,” implying 125 recorded interdiction events in that reporting window [2]. Multiple outlets repeat that 73% interception (drug disruption) rate and the 125-boat figure in their coverage of related controversies [2] [4].
3. Geographic focus: where interdictions occurred
Available sources repeatedly place the bulk of maritime interdiction activity in three zones: the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the broader Western Hemisphere Transit Zone off Central and South America. Reporting about specific seizures and offloads identifies interdictions occurring in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean and stresses operations hundreds of miles from U.S. shores [5] [1] [3]. Large-scale offloads and multi-ship patrols highlighted in November 2024 involved interdictions in international waters of the eastern Pacific [5].
4. Examples of major interdictions and operations in 2024
News accounts describe concentrated hauls tied to multiple interdictions: for example, Coast Guard and Navy vessels seized nearly 15 tons (about 29,000 pounds) of drugs during September–October patrols off the eastern Pacific and offloaded that contraband in San Diego in November 2024 [5]. Separate Navy–Coast Guard releases reported interdictions in the eastern Pacific that yielded thousands of pounds in singular events (e.g., ~7,850 pounds in one press release) [6]. These examples illustrate how a relatively small number of large interdictions can account for a disproportionate share of tonnage [5] [6].
5. Data gaps, definitional disagreements, and reporting limits
The documents show concrete figures for tonnage and some boat-interdiction tallies, but they do not present a single authoritative nationwide count of interdictions in calendar-year 2024 in the material provided. GAO and other oversight reports stress inconsistent documentation and data-quality issues in Coast Guard records, and a later Coast Guard review found reporting did not always include seizure results or required documentation—limiting confidence in simple aggregation without access to raw agency datasets [7] [2]. The Office of Homeland Security summary material indicates most maritime drug flows and interdiction activity concentrate in Districts 7 and 11 and the Western Hemisphere Transit Zone, but it does not publish a single national interdiction number in the excerpts provided [3].
6. Competing perspectives and why counts vary
One perspective emphasizes tonnage as the key metric of success—Coast Guard and defense reporting highlight record amounts of cocaine seized in 2024 and later years [1] [5]. Another perspective emphasizes event-level measures (boat boardings, interdictions, disruptions) and highlights that a notable share of boardings yield no contraband, which feeds political debate about the accuracy and meaning of interdiction statistics [2] [4]. Oversight bodies warn that counting methods and incomplete reports can skew interpretations: GAO found persistent challenges that affect the Coast Guard’s ability to measure and fully account for interdiction activity [7].
7. Bottom line and what’s needed to answer your question definitively
Available sources give partial answers—tonnage intercepted (106.3 MT cited), and an FY2024-style boat-interdiction snapshot (125 boat interdictions with drugs found in 91)—but they do not provide a single, validated nationwide count of all Coast Guard drug interdictions for calendar-year 2024 in the provided material [1] [2]. To produce a definitive interdiction count and precise geographic breakdown you would need the Coast Guard’s primary FY2024 and calendar-2024 interdiction datasets or an authoritative Coast Guard national summary that explicitly states the total number of interdictions and their locations—documents not included in the sources provided here [7] [3].