Crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Midgett offload bales of seized narcotics in San Diego, Sept. 25, 2025. (Richard Uranga/U.S. Navy)
The Coast Guard cutter Midgett has returned to Hawaii after completing a 79-day patrol that included seizure of cocaine street-valued at $156 million.
The cutter’s deployment to the Eastern Pacific supported the counterdrug mission Operation Pacific Viper, the Coast Guard said in a news release Tuesday.
“While patrolling international waters off the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Central America, Midgett’s crew apprehended 19 suspected drug smugglers and interdicted four suspected drug smuggling vessels, preventing 21,126 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated value of more than $156.4 million, from reaching U.S. shores,” the release states.
The drugs were offloaded in San Diego late last month.
Operation Pacific Viper is a partnership between the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy focused on countering drug trafficking and human smuggling in the Eastern Pacific.
The Midgett, which returned to Honolulu on Friday, is one of a pair of Legend-class national security cutters based in Hawaii.
The cutters are 418 feet long, with a top speed of more than 28 knots, or about 32 mph. They have a range of 13,800 miles and hold a crew of up to 150. They can stay at sea for three months.
They are armed with a 57-millimeter gun that fires more than 200 rounds a minute and can be used against a high-speed, maneuvering surface vessel. Other arms include a 20 mm gun and four .50-caliber machine guns.
During the recent deployment, the Midgett’s crew worked with other Coast Guard units, including Tactical Law Enforcement Team South and the Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, or HITRON.
HITRON intercepted its 1,000th suspected drug-trafficking vessel in August while deployed on the Midgett, the Coast Guard said in a Sept. 10 news release.
A helicopter crew with the squadron spied the vessel about 272 nautical miles southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, in the early evening of Aug. 25.
“The helicopter directed the vessel to heave to over the radio and with warning shots,” the news release states. “When the vessel failed to comply, the crew used precision rifle fire from the helicopter to disable the vessel’s engine, in accordance with airborne use of force policy.”
A boarding team from the Midgett seized about 3,000 pounds of cocaine found aboard and dumped around the vessel.
In August, the cutter Hamilton offloaded more than 76,000 pounds of seized cocaine and marijuana at Port Everglades, Fla., the largest such offload in Coast Guard history.
