The Astoria-based Coast Guard cutter Steadfast and her crew are scheduled to arrive home around noon Sunday after seizing thousands of pounds of cocaine while on a drug patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The crew of the Steadfast offloaded approximately 17,160 pounds of cocaine, worth nearly $260-million wholesale, on Monday in San Diego, according to the Coast Guard. The cocaine was seized by the crews of two Astoria-based cutters, the Steadfast and the Alert, from four separate vessels in international waters off the coasts of Central and South America. The patrol lasted from late June to mid-July

The Steadfast docking in San Diego on Monday.

The Coast Guard said more than 11,000 pounds was recovered by the Steadfast's crew after a high-speed chase of a panga-type fishing boat. The smugglers dumped the bales of cocaine and escaped, but the load was one of the largest intercepted from a single small vessel in years.

The Steadfast and Alert are both 210-foot Reliance-Class Medium Endurance cutters with approximately 75 crew members.

- Ted Sickinger

tsickinger@oregonian.com

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger