Ship Carrying 72 Tons of Pot Towed to Port
A ship carrying 72 tons of well-packaged marijuana worth more than $280 million was towed into Seattle today by a Coast Guard cutter that had fired 60 rounds into its engine and control compartments to stop it in international waters.
Coast Guard spokesman Bruce Pimental said the seizure of the Panamanian-registered Encounter Bay and its 18 crew members on the high seas was the largest drug haul ever on the West Coast.
Officials said the pot was probably from the Far East, with California the eventual destination.
The captain of the Coast Guard cutter Boutwell, Cecil Allison, said the marijuana consisted of about 8,000 bales. Each bale, in a blue nylon sack, contained eight packets of marijuana vacuum-sealed in double plastic wrappings.
“You would like to get some of your freeze-dried food packed this well,” the captain said.
Family members of the Boutwell crew were at dockside to greet the ship, waving signs that read: “For Rent: U.S. Coast Guard Clipper Boutwell--Grass Clipper,” and “Noriega, Put This in Your Pipe and Smoke It.”
The cutter crew was sent last Thursday to the ship’s location, about 600 miles off the Washington coast, after a Coast Guard airplane spotted what appeared to be an oil-supply vessel in waters where such ships were unlikely to sail.
The Coast Guard cutter fired at the Encounter Bay when its captain refused to respond to radio calls to stop for a boarding party, Allison said.
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