In St. Petersburg, Coast Guard crews are offloading 168 bales of cocaine worth $135 million.

The drugs were seized from four separate drug busts in the Caribbean. The cocaine arrived in St. Pete on the Coast Guard Cutter Resolute on Thursday morning.



On May 21, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection agents seized 1,288 kilograms of cocaine packaged in 50 large bales.

According to officials, Crews patrolling international waters in the Caribbean noticed a suspicious vessel and watched as four men onboard the boat threw suspicious objects overboard and later returned for a two-day search.

Less than a dozen kilograms will remain as evidence until the smugglers can be prosecuted. The rest of the drugs will be taken to South Florida and destroyed, officials said.

Commander James Passarelli, Acting Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Resolute, told Bay News 9, "The numbers of seizures ebbs and flows. The drug smugglers are constantly trying new techniques and we’re trying to stay on top of them all the time."