USS Pinckney lands 120kg cocaine

The guided missile destroyer USS Pinckney intercepted a small boat about 200 nm to the southwest of Jamaica and seized 120kg of cocaine on July 24. In a shift from years past, research indicates that most of the cocaine headed north from Colombia is ultimately bound for Europe and other overseas markets, where prices are higher than in the United States. Container ports like Kingston serve as transshipment hubs for these cargoes.

The majority of the northbound trafficking across the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific may be aimed primarily at moving cocaine closer to these seaports - not to the U.S. border.