13 tons of cocaine headed for US seized by Panama: authorities

“A total of 11,562 packages containing suspected illicit substances were seized in an operation carried out by the Drug Prosecutor’s Office with units from [Aeronaval Panama, the country’s national security force responsible for air and naval operations], prosecutor Julio Villareal said of the operation. Photos of the illicit substance were also shared on social media by Villareal's office.

The office added that the interception of the drugs took place “southwest of San José Island" and said that "ten people of different nationalities were apprehended" during the bust.

Villareal said that Venezuelans, Ecuadorians, and Nicaraguans were among those individuals who were arrested during the drug bust. The show of force against the drug trafficking ferry also comes as the United States has been targeting drug boats in the Caribbean with military strikes in order to stop narcoterrorists from bringing cocaine and fentanyl into the United States.

President Donald Trump has pointed to Venezuela and the Maduro regime in particular as being complicit in the drug trafficking that has taken place, going from South and Latin American countries and flowing up to the US.

When Trump was asked in a 60 Minutes interview recently if he thought that Maduro's days were numbered, he replied, "I would say yeah. I think so." There have been other large drug busts as well, with the illicit substances being carried by way of boat, per CBS News.

In April, there were 10,000 pounds of cocaine seized by the Coast Guard on a fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean. In this fiscal year alone, the Coast Guard has said that there have been over half a million pounds of cocaine seized in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean.