Coast Guard seizes $3.8B in drugs in record 2025

According to records, the U.S. Coast Guard seized more than 511,000 pounds of drugs valued at over $3.8 billion in 2025, as confirmed by Military.com. This was the highest annual drug-interdiction total in the service's history.

Coast Guard officials said the record haul stopped well over 193 million possibly lethal doses of drugs from coming into the United States. This saved taxpayers more than $10 billion in costs that would have been paid otherwise, including about $2.3 billion in health care costs related to cocaine use alone.

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard informed Military.com that the service's average annual seizure weight before 2025 was approximately 167,000 pounds. They also said that one kilogram of cocaine is worth about $16,588, which shows how many more drugs were being caught last year.

In a release, acting Commandant Adm. Kevin E. Lunday said, "The men and women of the Coast Guard did amazing things for our country in 2025." "Their success is what will carry us into 2026, from keeping the border safe and stopping the flow of illegal drugs to making maritime trade easier and responding quickly to emergencies."

Many of the new cases came from operations in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean, where drug dealers bring vast amounts of cocaine and other drugs to North America. The service started Operation Pacific Viper in August. It is a more intense operation that uses cutters. The operation involved aircraft, unmanned systems, and specialized forces to disrupt drug cartels and smuggling networks located far from U.S. shores. Shores.

The Coast Guard said that the operation alone caught 86 people they thought were drug dealers and seized more than 100,000 pounds of cocaine, which exceeds 1,600 pounds a day on average.

Rear Adm. Jeffrey Novak, who is deputy commander of the Coast Guard's Pacific Area, called the results a "remarkable achievement" when they were first outlined in October.

In August, the Coast Guard's Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, or HITRON, achieved its 1,000th drug arrest. The airborne unit stopped a smuggler ship in the Eastern Pacific by firing from helicopters, which turned off the boat. This was one of many times that year that the unit helped stop more than $2.1 billion worth of drugs in the Pacific and Caribbean.

The Coast Guard said that while covering more than 100,000 miles of the U.S. maritime border, it stopped or helped more than 11,000 migrants. Operation Border Trident, which began in March 2025 along the California coast, increased the number of people caught sneaking into or trying to enter the country illegally by 44% compared to 2024.

The service also said it had the most new members it had seen since 1991. During disasters and maritime situations, it saved or helped more than 19,000 people, saved 5,220 lives, and protected or recovered more than $1 billion in property.