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What is the total value of drugs seized by the US Coast Guard in 2024?
Executive summary
Available reporting does not provide a single authoritative “total value” for all drugs seized by the U.S. Coast Guard during calendar year 2024; instead, news and Coast Guard press releases list multiple large offloads and seizures with individual assessed street values—examples include seizures valued at about $143 million (nearly 11,000 lbs) [1], more than $63 million (≈4,800 lbs) [2], and a separate multi-ship offload estimated at $335.9 million (≈29,000 lbs) [3]. Sources do not sum these events into one official 2024 total in the material provided here (not found in current reporting).
1. No single official 2024 aggregate published in these sources
There is no single Coast Guard or government number in the provided items that states the total dollar value of all drugs seized during calendar year 2024. The available items are event-specific press releases and news stories reporting assessed street values for particular offloads or interdictions, rather than an agency-wide annual aggregate for 2024 (not found in current reporting).
2. Major event-level valuations reported in 2024
Reporting in 2024 highlights several high-value interdictions: CNN reported a nearly 11,000-pound seizure in the eastern Pacific with an assessed value of more than $143 million [1]. NBC News covered an offload of roughly 4,800 pounds of cocaine with an assessed street value “over $63 million” [2]. USNI News described a large multi-ship operation offloading more than 29,000 pounds of illicit drugs with an officials’ street-value estimate of about $335.9 million [3]. Each of these figures is an event-level assessment, not a yearly total [1] [2] [3].
3. Coast Guard press releases show numerous costly offloads but in different periods
The U.S. Coast Guard’s own press materials in the sample show multiple offloads with assessed values: for example, a Port Everglades offload of about 4,125 pounds was given a value near $54 million [4], and other cutters’ offloads are reported individually in later years [5] [6]. These agency press pieces confirm that large, expensive offloads occur frequently, but the provided press releases are episodic and do not combine into a consolidated 2024 dollar total in the supplied set [4] [5] [6].
4. Why you’ll see different valuations and reporting approaches
Different stories use different metrics and terminology—“assessed street value,” “wholesale value,” and event-specific poundages—so summing reported dollar figures can mislead unless you standardize terms and avoid double-counting interdictions that span reporting items [7] [8]. Media outlets and the Coast Guard also sometimes report the same seizure from different angles (e.g., pounds, number of incidents, or number of detainees), producing overlapping coverage of a single interdiction in separate reports [3] [1].
5. How to get a defensible total if you need one
To produce a reliable 2024 aggregate you would need: (a) an authoritative Coast Guard or Department of Homeland Security annual report that explicitly states total seizures and assessed values for calendar year 2024, or (b) to compile every discrete interdiction/offload from official Coast Guard logs and ensure each event is counted once with a consistent valuation method. The documents and news items provided here do not include such a consolidated Coast Guard annual total for 2024 (not found in current reporting).
6. Context and caveats about “street value” estimates
Media and agency statements routinely cite “street value” or “assessed value” for seized narcotics; those figures are estimates and can vary widely by methodology (wholesale vs. retail, regional price differences). For example, past large offloads have been presented with multi-hundred-million-dollar figures [7] [8], and later reporting shows similar large single-offload valuations exceeding $300 million [3]. Any year-total calculated from media-reported event valuations inherits those methodological uncertainties.
7. What the sources explicitly say and don’t
The provided sources document individual seizures with assessed values: >$143 million for a nearly 11,000-lb seizure [1], >$63 million for a ~4,800-lb offload [2], and ~$335.9 million tied to a 29,000-lb multi-ship seizure [3]. None of the supplied items, however, present a consolidated official tally of “total value of drugs seized by the US Coast Guard in 2024” (not found in current reporting).
If you want, I can (a) compile and sum the discrete event valuations included in these sources with clear caveats about overlap and methodology, or (b) help locate an official Coast Guard or DHS annual report (if you can allow searching beyond the provided items).