World News for Students of English

17-08-2015 07:00

One billion dollars’ worth of cocaine and heroin seized from narcotics smugglers at sea has returned from the Pacific coast of Mexico, Central and South America. The contraband was seized during around 30 separate drug-running vessel finds, including two submarines and dozens of small outboard powered boats called paners.

The US Coast Guard said the wholesale value alone of the drugs exceeded one billion dollars. The narcotics unloaded at the US naval base at San Diego are among the largest haul from a single Coast Guard mission.

The 32 tons of pure uncut cocaine would have been enough to produce street sales of the drug roughly equivalent to 33 million lines.

Coast Guard anti-smuggling operations have netted 59 tons of narcotics off the shores of Mexico and Central America during the past year – more than were seized during the three previous years combined. The seized narcotics labeled with evidence tags are to be moved to a secret location where they will be eventually destroyed.

Difficult words: contraband (things which have been imported or exported illegally), haul (a quantity of something which has been possessed illegally), uncut (100% pure), net (to get in money in total).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com