The U.S. Coast Guard announced that it has seized records amounts of cocaine over the previous year, highlighting the ongoing drug crisis in the country. President Donald Trump pointed to the report in justifying his administration’s decision to launch precision strikes on drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and other coastlines along Latin America, arguing that traditional seizures are not enough.

Specific year-to-date figures for 2025 cocaine seizures are not detailed in the report; however, it notes ongoing successes, such as a major haul of 20 tons (valued at over $500 million) by the Coast Guard cutter James during operations amid the federal government shutdown. Additional operations
under Operation Pacific Viper, the U.S. government’s codename for a broader crackdown on drug-smuggling, have led to the seizure of 38 tons seized by the cutter Hamilton over a two-month patrol in the Caribbean Transit Zone.

In 2024, the Coast Guard achieved a record seizure of 225 metric tons of cocaine, marking nearly a 40 percent increase over the annual average of the past decade. While 2025 data is not yet complete, Coast Guard officials are estimating that it will be another record year while pointing to the recent seizures.

In total, the Coast Guard estimates that roughly 10 percent of illegal cocaine trafficked by small boats from Colombia across the Caribbean is seized.

President Donald Trump has argued that the figures are a justification of his administration’s decision to launch strikes on drug-trafficking vessels. Over the last several weeks, the War Department has confirmed at least 17 strikes targeting drug-trafficking organizations like Tren de Aragua, a designated foreign terrorist organization with links to Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime.

“We’ve been doing that for 30 years,” the president said last month, adding, “and it’s been totally ineffective.”

In conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the departments of State and Justice as well as U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force-South in Key West, the Coast Guard’s seizure operations are intended to inflict heavy losses on drug-traffickers and seize illegal narcotics. Despite record-setting seizures, the Coast Guard has long lobbied for additional funding in order to increase seizures even further.

“The Coast Guard has extraordinary powers and authorities to do effective drug interdiction without killing unidentified people on small boats,” Douglas Farah, a national security expert on Latin America and president of IBI Consultants, told Newsmax. “When resourced, they are far more effective, sustainable and likely legal than the current Pentagon-led operations.”

While praising efforts from the Coast Guard, DEA and others, the Trump Administration has still contended that the ongoing strikes on drug-trafficking vessels are necessary. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that “interdictions alone are not effective.”

“Interdictions have limited to no deterrent effect,” he added. “These drug organizations, they’ve already baked in the fact they may lose 5% of their drug shipments. It doesn’t stop them from coming.”

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