Federal authorities seized 33,000 pounds of cocaine from a ship at Philadelphia’s port in what they described as one of the largest drug busts in U.S. history. They said the haul could have been worth more than $1 billion on the street, the Associated Press reports. The U.S. Attorney’s office said agents found the cocaine on a ship at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal. Two members of the crew were arrested. Agents with dogs swarmed the colossal ship Tuesday afternoon. An affidavit alleged that crew members helped load the cocaine onto the MSC Gayane while it was at sea off the west coast of South America.
Authorities said 14 boats approached the vessel on two separate occasions during its voyage. Several crew members allegedly helped transfer bales of cocaine.The ship’s second mate, Ivan Durasevic, and crew member Fonofaavae Tiasage were charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine aboard a ship. It was the latest in a series of large cocaine busts along the East Coast. In a March bust in Philadelphia, drug dogs sniffed out 1,185 pounds of cocaine worth about $38 million, at that time the city’s largest seizure of the drug in more than two decades. In February, customs agents seized 3,200 pounds at the Port of New York and New Jersey with a street value estimated at $77 million. That was the largest cocaine bust at the ports since 1994. The vessel detained in Philadelphia previously stopped at the Bahamas, Panama, Peru and Colombia. Federal authorities say Colombia is the primary supplier of cocaine to the U.S.