NORFOLK, Va. (WVEC) -- Norfolk-based USS Kauffman took part in a drug bust on the high seas.
The guided-missile frigate, which left Hampton Roads in January, worked with the Coast Guard to recover about $23 million worth of cocaine (630 kg).
The bust was made May 6 during routine patrol in an area dubbed the drug transit zone of the Eastern Pacific, the Navy said.
Kauffman's helicopter squadron HSL 60, which is based at Mayport, Florida, spotted suspicious packages in the water. They were brought onto the ship and a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment identified the bales as cocaine.
Kauffman is taking part in Operation Martillo, a joint, international law enforcement and military operation involving the U.S., European and Western Hemisphere partner nations, targets illicit trafficking routes used by transnational criminal organizations in the waters off Central America.
The ship, the Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy seized nearly $34 million worth of cocaine in the Western Caribbean on February 28.
Kauffman is on its final deployment and it marks the last scheduled tour of duty by any Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate. She'll be decommissioned in September.
When she left, commanding officer Cmdr. Michael Concannon said, "What a fitting mission for this great ship and crew to leave as its final legacy, keeping drugs off the streets of America by stopping them at the source. We are up for the task. We are ready."
