Cocaine: Bale Me Out?

Cocaine smuggling is big business, and the drug traffickers pull out all the stops when it comes to getting the illegal white powder into the United States.

Bulk cocaine is normally packaged into individual kilos (2.2046 lbs.), or bricks, and then bundled together into plastic or cloth-wrapped bales (pictured above). Each brick costs between $15,000 – $35,000 depending upon the location. The price is normally in the higher range in larger urban areas.

Deputy Chris Welte holds a single brick (kilo) of cocaine he confiscated during s traffic stop

Cocaine bales normally contain approximately 20 bricks for a total weight of a little over 44 pounds each.

Cocaine bales

The U.S. Coast Guard siezes tons of cocaine every year. They find the stuff in boats and planes, and they even find it floating at sea or washed up on beaches, like the plastic-wrapped kilos worth $2 million found on the shore in the Boca Raton, Fl. Inlet.

Lately, the Coast Guard is dealing with a new means of trafficking—personal, self-propelled submersibles (mini-submarines).

In 2009, the USCG managed to seize 11 of these underwater boats and confiscated 64 metric tons of cocaine.

The U.S. Coast Guard does a wonderful job of intercepting drugs before they enter the country. How effective are they? Well…

Coast Guard Drug Removal Statistics by Fiscal Year * As of Date Below
Fiscal Year	Events	Vessels Seized	Detainees	Marijuana (lbs.)	Cocaine (lbs.)
2011*	9	5	15	3,150	1,092.4
2010	122	56	229	36,739	202,402.1
2009	123	58	322	71,234.1	352,862.8
2008	85	43	209	22,173.8	367,926.1
2007	65	37	188	12,380.0	355,754.6
2006	64	23	200	9,059.3	287,035.4
2005	87	66	364	10,026.0	338,205.6
2004	104	71	326	25,915.0	293,993.0
2003	65	56	283	14,059.0	136,865.0
2002	58	40	207	40,316.0	117,780.0
2001	65	30	114	34,520.0	138,393.0
2000	92	56	204	50,463.0	132,480.0
1999	118	74	304	61,506.0	111,689.0
1998	129	75	297	31,390.0	82,623.0
1997	122	64	233	102,538.0	103,617.0
1996	36	41	112	42,063.0	44,462.0
1995	44	34	56	40,164.0	33,629.0
1994	67	28	73	33,895.0	47,333.0

 

You know, sometimes tunnel vision, something cops should avoid like the plague, gets the best of us. When the question of cocaine bales came up on a popular writer’s group all I pictured was what you see above, a bale of hay. And I know better. Shoot, I worked narcotics for years and a friend of mine does this stuff in the Coast Guard. We even had a USCG helicopter help us out on a few drug operations. AND, I was certified as a DEA intelligence investigator. Still, I had this image in my mind when I incorrectly answered a question (and I bet it won’t be the last time I do). But…

Maybe my old brain knew what it was doing after all…

* USCG images and stats