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Coast Guard crew offloads more than $239 million worth of cocaine in San Diego

https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3609652/multimedia-release-coast-guard-crew-offloads-more-than-239-million-worth-of-coc/

Excerpt:

Over 9 tons of cocaine from six separate drug smuggling events were seized last month and offloaded in San Diego on Wednesday, authorities said.

The cocaine has an estimated street value of more than $239 million. It was recovered off the coasts of Mexico, Central America, and South America by two US. Coast Guard ships in November, the USCG said in a press release.

The largest seizure, weighing more than 5,500 pounds, was recovered by Coast Guard Cutter Waesche on Nov. 20. It was found on a narco-submarine.

.....Coast Guard Cutter Waesche is a 418-foot-long National Security Cutter, a type of ship used to support maritime homeland security and defense missions. The ship is one of eight in its class operated by the Coast Guard and has a home port in Alameda, California.

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) offloaded approximately 18,219 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $239 million, on Wednesday in San Diego.

The offload is a result of six separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions or events off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America by the Coast Guard Cutters Waesche and Active in November.

USCGC Waesche – 1,550 kg (3,417 lbs) cocaine (Nov. 7)
USCGC Waesche – 1,309 kg (2,886 lbs) cocaine (Nov. 15)
USCGC Waesche – 1,140 kg (2,513 lbs) cocaine (Nov. 16)
USCGC Waesche – 2,510 kg (5,534 lbs) cocaine (Nov. 20)

Coast Guard Active, a smaller ship assigned primarily to law enforcement and search-and-rescue missions, recovered nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine from two of the six operations.

USCGC Active – 1,735 kg (3,825 lbs) cocaine (Nov. 23)
USCGC Active – 20 kg (44 lbs) cocaine (Nov. 24)

More than 40 tons of cocaine were seized in 2023 according to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, making it the third most seized drug behind marijuana and methamphetamines.
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Just a drop in the bucket compared to what successfully gets into the US without detection.

Despite sanctions: Russia delivers free grain to Africa

http://eurobrics.de/?module=articles&action=view&id=2295

Translated excerpt with translator comments:

Despite the harsh sanctions policy of the collective West, Russia is recording consistently positive or even record results in most of its economic sectors. In the agricultural and food sector, for example, Moscow achieved a historic high last year — a total harvest of almost 160 million tons of grain.

As a result, Russian exports also increased significantly: in the 2022/23 agricultural year, Russian grain deliveries abroad totaled around 60 million tons. The export of wheat, flour and wheat products is expected to amount to 45 million tonnes, which corresponds to a global market share of around 20%.

This means that the turnover of the Russian agricultural sector is also increasing. According to the TASS news agency, which refers to preliminary information from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, Russia was able to increase its income from agricultural exports by 12% to a record US$41.5 billion in the summer compared to 2021. The Ministry of Agriculture officially expects an increase to US$45 billion.

For Russia, this recovery is essentially vital after the catastrophic decline of its entire agricultural sector in the 1990s and the associated food supply crises. In this respect, the decision in Russia was correct to even manifest the guarantee of food self-sufficiency as part of the national doctrine on food security in 2010.

Thanks to billions of euros in subsidies or support programs that have since flowed to agricultural producers, a 90% self-sufficiency level for the most important staple foods in the country, as defined by the doctrine, has been guaranteed for several years, so that the Russian government is now focusing on an agricultural policy set on Export.

Free grain for African crisis countries

Countries in Africa and Asia that repeatedly struggle with food crises will benefit from this. In this regard, at the Russia-Africa Summit last July, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his intention to provide free grain as humanitarian aid to six African countries on the World Food Program list. These crisis states are Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Mali, Zimbabwe, Somalia and the Central African Republic, which were originally supposed to receive up to 50,000 tons of grain from Russia. The scope of this aid has now been increased by the Russian Foreign Ministry to 200,000 tons of wheat.

The move came after Moscow previously refused to extend the grain agreement with Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations Organization. This deal was intended to enable exports of Ukrainian grain, food and fertilizer from Ukrainian Black Sea ports along a secure maritime corridor to countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In addition, the contract should, among other things, lift those Western sanctions that are directed against the Russian agricultural sector. This included, for example, lifting the ban on grain and fertilizer exports, lifting certain sanctions in the banking sector or on the import of agricultural machinery.

Despite the fact that Western sanctions — which curb Russian agricultural exports — remain in place, Russia is already implementing its agricultural aid promise, sending the first Russian ship with free grain to Africa in November. As Russian media recently reported, citing the Somali national news agency SONNA, a ship carrying 25,000 tons of free wheat from Russia arrived in Somalia last week.

“Somalia has received an urgently needed aid shipment of 25,000 tons of wheat from Russia to combat the consequences of floods in the country. The aid shipment, which arrived in Mogadishu on Thursday, was handed over to the Somali Disaster Management Authority (SoDMA),” it said.

Burkina Faso will be the next country to receive Russian agricultural aid. According to the Interfax agency, a delivery of 25,000 tons of wheat from Russia is expected in this African country in the first half of December. As far as wheat deliveries to Zimbabwe, Mali, Eritrea and the Central African Republic are concerned, transports are scheduled to take place by the end of the year.

In this context, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “We are diligent and responsible in fulfilling our obligations under trade agreements for the export of agricultural products and fertilizers, as well as in humanitarian activities. We want to donate and deliver another 200,000 tons of wheat by the end of the year to six African countries.”

In addition, 20,000 tons of fertilizer have already been delivered to Malawi and 34,000 tons to Kenya. It added: “Approval for three additional deliveries is in the final stages: 23,000 tonnes for Zimbabwe, 34,000 tonnes for Nigeria and 55,000 tonnes for Sri Lanka.”

*****I don’t know about you, but to me this looks as if ALL sanctions imposed by the sanctimonious Western puppeticians have backfired dramatically. That happens when the own ideology and greed comes before the wellbeing of their own citizens, which they seem to despise and want to replace. I hope that that will backfire so badly back into their faces that the Devil will be hard-pressed to accommodate all their filthy souls afterwards.
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