MIAMI, United States (CMC) – The United States Coast Guard says it has seized 515 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated wholesale value of US$17 million during an operation in the Caribbean Sea last week.

It said that on November 15, a joint interagency task force patrol aircraft located a suspicious go-fast vessel with multiple packages aboard southeast of Isla Beata, Dominican Republic.

It said after the vessel was intercepted 22 packages, later found to be cocaine were discovered. Four suspects were held.

“This seizure highlights how effectively the US Coast Guard and our Allied partners are working together to disrupt the flow of illicit drugs from South America into the United States, the Caribbean and Europe,” said Commander Timothy Cronin, deputy chief of law enforcement for the Coast Guard 7th District.

“We have to keep these drugs from penetrating our borders. More importantly, we have to get after the organised criminal networks that fuel the violence and instability in the Western Hemisphere,” he added.

Since October 2014, the US Coast Guard said it has removed and seized over 222 metric tons of cocaine estimated at US$7.4 billion.