A video showing a speedboat with drug smugglers fleeing from the US Coast Guard in an encounter on 18 July has been published on the Internet by the law enforcement branch. In the footage, the smugglers are seen desperately dumping their cargo of cocaine overboard, with the total estimated value of the shipment estimated at $350 million, NBC News reported.
The video has spurred an array of reactions across social media, with many netizens praising the actions of the coast guard, who won the hot pursuit.
Others responded to the publication of the pursuit recording, sarcastically pointing to US President Trump's remarks that a wall on the border with Mexico would stop the influx of drugs entering the country.
Many Twitterians responded to the news jokingly, suggesting that the local fish population must have had a "good time" due to all the cocaine that was thrown out of the boat.
Some, though, suggested that not everyone in the country was happy about the coast guard’s successful operation.
One social media user recalled the recent seizure of a JPMorgan-owned cargo ship that was loaded with bags full of cocaine.
The MSC Gayane, owned by JPMorgan Chase via a transportation fund, was leased to Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping (MSC), which was operating the ship and its crew. The vessel was detained in Philadelphia in June 2019, with authorities finding some 20 tonnes of cocaine on board, valued at around $1.3 billion. US Customs and Border Protection reported that it was the largest shipment that the agency had ever seized.