Pam Bondi And FBI Director Kash Patel Unveil Massive Narcotics Bust In Florida

2 days ago

AG Pam Bondi and FBI Dir. Kash Patel announce a major narcotics bust in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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Transcript

00:30All right. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this morning's press briefing. Today, leaders

00:51will present information on the maritime narcotics interdiction, deployment, and contraband

00:56offload by the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter James and the interagency partnerships

01:01and collaboration that make these results possible. With us today is Attorney General

01:06Pam Bondi. I spell P-A-M-B-O-N-D-I, U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation

01:15Director Cash Patel. I spell K-A-S-H-P-A-T-E-L, U.S. Department of Justice. Vice Admiral Nathan

01:24Moore. I spell N-A-T-H-A-N-M-O-O-R-E, Commander, U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area. Lieutenant General

01:34Evan Pettis. I spell E-V-A-N-P-E-T-T-U-S, Military Deputy Commander, U.S. Southern Command.

01:43And Captain Thomas Rodzevich. I spell T-H-O-M-A-S-R-O-D-Z-E-W-I-C-Z, Commanding Officer of U.S. Coast Guard

01:56Cutter James. We will begin with brief statements from these leaders, and then we will open the

02:01floor to your questions. Following the speaker's remarks, we have about 10 minutes, during which

02:06media may ask one question and one follow-up to allow for other outlets to have an opportunity.

02:12At the conclusion of the press briefing, our public affairs staff will also be available to assist

02:18with any follow-on inquiries or further needs. For those unable to join us today, we will publish

02:23a press release with imagery and information about the James' interdiction operations later

02:28today. I request that any questions you may ask are focused on the Coast Guard's drug interdiction

02:34operations and the Cutter James. I know that we have several leaders here today, and you may have

02:40other questions for them, and we are happy to refer those to the appropriate authority to be answered

02:44at another time. But we invited you here today for the James offload. Thank you, and it is now my

02:51pleasure to introduce the U.S. Attorney General, the Honorable Pam Bondi.

02:58Thank you. Gentlemen, thank you. Cash, thank you. Director Patel, and I've got U.S. Attorney,

03:07Acting U.S. Attorney Greg Kehoe, Middle District of Florida, behind me. Thank you all for being here today.

03:13Today's operation is an example of the unprecedented collaboration between the military and the

03:21Department of Justice components, working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard. And look at all these

03:29great men and women in the Coast Guard. Thank you so much for your dedication. This is a textbook

03:35example of the Justice Department supporting the fight against violent crime. These drugs are worth

03:45over half a billion dollars, 40, almost 45,000 pounds of cocaine, pure cocaine, uncut, and 3,800 pounds

03:59of marijuana. Congratulations again to the Coast Guard. You have done incredible work, Admiral and your

04:08team, Captain, in securing these drugs. This team, with all the agencies I just mentioned, used drones,

04:19aircraft, and ships to interdict the traffickers off the coast of Peru, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands.

04:27What they did saved countless American lives. Countless lives. This cocaine would have been

04:37distributed throughout our country and perhaps throughout our world. Eleven separate prosecutions

04:45will take place as a result of this, and they will be prosecuted in the Middle District of Florida.

04:51These defendants will be held accountable for bringing this poison into our country. I always say if we can save

05:00one life, one life, we have done amazing work. And today, we have saved thousands and thousands of lives

05:09as a result of this incredible cooperation. We believe two cartels, CJNG and Sinaloa, were heavily tied to these shipments.

05:21This is a major blow to their financial operations and their efforts to distribute drugs throughout

05:29our country. It's an example of a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven approach to stopping these criminal enterprises

05:39in their tracks. DOJ and all of the agencies involved will continue to dismantle this transnational criminal

05:49organization, lock these criminals up, and keep our country safe. The drugs that you have seen today

05:58will no longer destroy lives. They will help us lock up the criminals. Thank you all. And it is my honor to

06:09introduce the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel.

06:14Thank you all for being here.

06:21General Bondi, we're here today because of your dedicated leadership to safeguard American lives,

06:28because you have the courage to follow President Trump's courage to put our children first

06:34and to make sure that the narco-traffickers, and make no mistake, this administration has labeled them

06:40foreign terrorist organizations because that's what they are. There is no lethal force on planet Earth that

06:47is responsible for an overdose death of an American citizen every seven minutes, more so than these

06:54federal terrorist organizations, foreign terrorist organizations. We are humbled to be a part of this

07:01Department of Justice, and we are going to continue to safeguard our streets. This is what it looks like

07:09when the United States whole-of-government approach brings every resource to bear, from the Department of

07:15Defense, and the United States Coast Guard, from HSI, from FBI, from DEA, and so many others. They are going

07:23to get all the drugs off the streets, off the markets, and as Attorney General Bondi said, we are going to lock them

07:31up. They are no longer going to be free to roam. We are going to dismantle the next man up theory that has been

07:39breeding in these Mexican cartels for generations. No more. We are here today because of your brave work.

07:47The men and women of the FBI that I lead, I'm humbled and honored to be here in South Florida, where I spent

07:54so much of my career before I moved to Washington, D.C. And looking around, I'm awe-inspired by the fact that when

08:02you take the rules and regulations that blockaded these brave men and women of law enforcement,

08:08military, and you unshackle them, then you should look at this seizure and you should see how much it

08:13multiplies and see how many children and how many young adults and how many adults lives that we have

08:19just saved. They did it. We're fortunate to be their leaders. We're humbled to be here. And you will see

08:26this happen across the country because this is not a one-off for General Bondi. She has made this a

08:32mission priority. And the FBI will follow in every corner of this country and every square centimeter

08:39of this planet to eradicate the narco traffickers and the foreign terrorist organization that are

08:45killing American citizens. They will be held accountable. We will take preventive measures and we

08:51will scour the ends of the earth to find every single one of them. Thank you so much for being here today.

08:56Good morning. We welcome the crew of the James back from a remarkable patrol where they seized 510

09:13million dollars of illegal drugs. That's cocaine and marijuana that was interdicted at sea before

09:18it can reach the U.S. border. So what does that number actually mean? You know, what does the number

09:24besides the dollar sign mean? It means 154 lives saved directly from cocaine-related overdose deaths

09:32in this country. It means that there's almost 11,000 less new cocaine users that are going to get

09:38access to the drugs. It means that we've saved at least 16.5 million dollars on costs related to

09:44inmate care and health care for people inflicted with these drugs. And from the Coast Guard standpoint,

09:50what this really means is a beautiful ship like the James heralds a new time for us,

09:56a new time of assets that impact United States strategies for countering these cartels in new

10:03ways and disrupting the flow of illegal drugs. Just since February, the combined efforts of Coast Guard

10:10Cutters James, Stone, Weishi, and Mohawk yielded over 59 metric tons of narcotics seized. That's 1.5

10:18billion dollars, 1.5 billion dollars of revenue to the cartels. This success is a team success made

10:26possible through the dedication and coordination of our partners in DHS, DOD, and DOJ. Every day,

10:34the Coast Guard controls, secures, and defends the border and maritime approaches of this country,

10:40proudly serving as part of DHS at all times and as a military service and part of the armed forces.

10:47On the water and in the air, the Coast Guard and our partners are on the front lines to fight against

10:52these foreign terrorist organizations, including the cartels and other dangerous criminals who seek

10:57to traffic bulk cocaine, including illegal fentanyl, and other deadly drugs from entering into our

11:03communities. Under our DHS leadership, the Coast Guard has worked diligently to harden and secure

11:09the U.S. southern border and maritime approaches. Our message to the cartels is simple. We own the sea.

11:18You do not. We will find you. We will hunt you down. We will stop you before you reach our border,

11:24before you can smuggle these drugs into our country. To the crew of the James you see here,

11:29and all of our partners gathered, thank you for the great work keeping America safe. Thank you very

11:34much, everyone. Semper Paratus. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

11:43It's a privilege to be here today representing Admiral Alvin Halsey in U.S. Southern Command.

11:47And first, I just want to say thank you. Attorney General Bondi, Director Patel,

11:53Admiral Moore, Captain Rodzovich, my apologies, and to the crew of the James, the brave men and

12:00women of the crew of the James. It's a real privilege to stand with you today. You know,

12:04the most fundamental duty of a DOD organization like U.S. Southern Command is to defend the United

12:09States against threats and defend her people, defend her constitution. But this is a threat that by

12:16law, policy, design, DOD can't get after alone. It takes a team, and it's a privilege to be part of this

12:22team. You've heard the facts of what these amazing men and women have done, what the organizations that

12:27these amazing leaders have accomplished. But I just want to say thanks. You know, there is a

12:34it is amazing to watch in action, the machine that is our government interagency getting after this

12:40problem set. I think it starts and ends with the Department of Justice. The intelligence that we get

12:46from the prosecutions, the intelligence we get from the FBI, intelligence we get from other sources,

12:52tips and cues us to do the DOD detection and monitoring mission. And then we get the actions

12:58on the objective from the brave men and women of the James and crews like them to grab those drugs and

13:03bring them back for further prosecution investigation. And it's a virtuous cycle. It's an amazing thing to

13:09watch. At Joint Interagency Task Force South and U.S. Southern Command, it all comes together

13:14with the addition of 14 interagency partners and law enforcement and defense representatives from 21

13:20partner nations. This is a an incredible achievement, an incredible whole government and partner nation

13:28accomplishment. So I'm just proud to be here today and to say thanks to the brave men and women

13:33defending our nation. Thank you.

13:44With great pride I stand before you today reflecting on the tremendous accomplishments of Coast Guard

13:50Cutter James and the crew. What you see today is a result of the crew executing an unprecedented pace

13:56at sea of interdictions. In only 56 days in theater, James interdicted 11 drug smuggling vessels,

14:03seizing over 22 metric tons of cocaine and marijuana and apprehending 34 narco traffickers.

14:09In all my years working in this vital mission, I've never witnessed such substantial results in

14:13such a short amount of time. What is not on display, though, is the incredibly challenging work done by

14:18our crew that went into these interdictions. We patrolled an area the size of the continental United

14:23States. Finding the narco terrorist tiny drug-laden vessels across the vast waters of the eastern Pacific

14:28is equivalent to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. But the crew of the James showed

14:33narco terrorists that we will find them. We show them that they are no match for the professional

14:38competence, technical expertise, and operational prowess of the James crew. We sent a message loud

14:44clear that we can and that we will continue to stop them bringing harm and devastation to our border.

14:51Or as my ops boss would like to say, you can run, but you can't hide.

14:55Alongside our permanent party crew members,

14:57it's important to mention those who deployed with us, our law enforcement detachment, pilots and air

15:01crew, intelligence professionals, and the operators of our unmanned aircraft systems.

15:06Together, we are James, a team of teams. This team of tirelessly dedicated professionals

15:12traded time with family and friends to carry out our vital mission, stopping the flow of illegal drugs,

15:17cutting off profits that fueled deadly fentanyl trade, and ultimately protecting American

15:21communities and families from unimaginable heartbreak. This crew represents the best of the best,

15:26and I'm incredibly proud to serve with all the dedicated professionals that deployed on James

15:30this patrol. Thank you for your time.

15:38So we have a brief period for question and answer. Before we open up the question and answer,

15:44I'll ask that you raise your hand and then we'll call on you. Please state which speaker your question

15:50is for, what your name is, and which media outlet you're from. And again, as a reminder, we invited

15:56you here for the contraband offloads, so please keep the questions on topic related to the

16:03the interdictions of maritime interdictions of contraband at sea. So with that, I'll ask a first

16:09question over here. Yes, sir.

16:11Evan Brown, this is remarkable.

16:16Right now, you see this very, very often, and you probably know in the future.

16:22How do we go from bucket to drops in the bucket to buckets?

16:26Evan, this is not a drop in the bucket. Behind you is half a billion dollars of pure cocaine,

16:39uncut cocaine. So when they cut this poison with baking soda and whatever else they cut it with,

16:46it will multiply even more times than you can imagine. We are saving thousands and thousands

16:54of lives. These brave men and women, you know, we often talk about the Coast Guard and General,

17:02we talk about all the time our great men and women in law enforcement, in the military,

17:07but sometimes I feel like the Coast Guard is overlooked and how incredibly dangerous your

17:14jobs are. So thank you again for what you've done and the countless lives that you have all saved

17:21today by 11 defendants are going to be locked up. And if this isn't sending a message loud and clear to

17:29Sinaloa and these other cartels, it better be, because they know that these men and women,

17:34all of these agencies working together are coming after them. And if there is more,

17:39they will find them and they will arrest them and we will prosecute them.

17:49Thank you. Next question.

17:54If you'll allow me, I do have an on topic.

17:59On topic, I wanted to ask, can you tell us a little bit more about the 11 defendants who were

18:03arrested? Where are they from? What is their role in this operation? And where were they from?

18:10Have they released that?

18:15Still sealed, I'm sorry, about the 11 defendants.

18:18But they are tied to the two cartels that we mentioned.

18:21Yeah, well, the 261 that we're on that first of all, we're going to stay on topic from here on. But we are

18:43talking about the cartels. We're talking about foreign enemies. So I'll gladly answer that.

18:48The 261 on that first flight are 261 reasons why our country is safer. They are not coming back.

18:56They are staying in a prison in El Salvador. They are not from our country. They are not migrants.

19:01They are illegal aliens who are peddling drugs, guns, and illegal money in a very organized way

19:09throughout our country. And that's another reason why our country is safer today.

19:12Again, we have limited time. So please keep the questions on topic. And we will follow up

19:19with our appropriate public affairs staff to make sure that your needs are met. Yes, over here.

19:24All right. I want to ask you a quick news next. I'm interested in hearing about these cartels.

19:31Has it been rattling them in front of me? Are any of the people being taken into custody,

19:36cooperating and talking about providing valuable and intelligent people, either knowingly or unwittingly

19:43from being taken into custody?

19:44As the team mentioned, it is changing the dynamic. The threat dynamic is changing,

19:51and you're seeing it here because it's a collaboration of law enforcement and military

19:55intelligence sharing along with the intelligence community that leads to these types of seizures.

20:00And as the general and the admiral mentioned, in such speed that they have not seen in their careers.

20:06So it is more than rattling them. And it's not just this mission that the Department of Justice

20:12is leading here. This is one big example that we want to showcase the work of a team-led

20:18interagency process. And that's what it is. No one is taking credit for it. Everyone is putting

20:25the mission first. And the people that are hearing that message the loudest are the cartels and CJNG and

20:32Citinaloa cartels and the others down in the south of the border. But as these brave men and women

20:36have mentioned, there is no border that they will not defend. Every border is an operational offensive

20:43thanks to this interagency process and the brave folks of Jada South and Southern Command.

20:50All right, we have time for one more question. Yes, over here.

20:57I'm wondering, so we talked a little bit about where these people, they've already been designated as

21:02cameras. That wasn't enough to stop them trying to move these drugs. The country kind of had a mistake

21:08who's going to go back some more. So are you thinking about threats or charges for New Mexico

21:14or something that they're going to be in the country to our south when it comes to preventing them

21:19those drugs in the U.S.? Well, I think this sends a very loud message today, Ali.

21:26Sinaloa, all these gangs, TDA, MS-13, the cartels, all of the cartels throughout the world,

21:34I would think they're pretty frightened right now based on what's behind us,

21:38based on 11 defendants in custody as a result of this one bust. Because it's all of these agencies

21:46standing behind me, working hand in hand with Homeland Security to get them off our streets.

21:52You're seeing what's happening. These people are an organized crime unit. And, you know,

21:58we've shut down the borders in Mexico, Canada. So now I think they're probably increasing through

22:03our ships, through our ports, but they're not going to get away with it, thanks to all these

22:07great men and women. It's a multi-faceted approach to catching them. As I said, using drones,

22:14using aircraft, using any technique available to our military, to Homeland Security, to the FBI,

22:21to the DEA, to all of these agencies working together, we are ahead of them. We are going

22:26to stop them. And whenever possible, we're going to lock them up forever or get them out of our

22:31country to keep Americans safe. That was Donald Trump's directive on day one when he got elected.

22:39Keep America safe. Make America safe. And that's what all of these people standing here today are doing.

22:46Is Mexico doing enough to prevent it from going in?

22:50Thank you. That concludes today's press briefing. If you have any other follow-up questions,

22:54a member of the U.S. Coast Guard public affairs staff can help meet those. We also will have a news

23:00release that will be published this afternoon that summarizes all the events as well as has photographs

23:06and videos for each of you to access. Thank you very much.

23:21Thank you, Brian. Thank you, guys. All right, right here.

23:38One, two, three. Thank you. Thank you very much.

23:42One, two, three.

24:05One, two, three.

Pam Bondi And FBI Director Kash Patel Unveil Massive Narcotics Bust In Florida

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