The ''Night Train'' drug seizure was a December 1977 seizure of 54 tons of

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

by the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

off the southeastern coast of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

which marked the beginning of ''Operation Stopgap'', a United States federal law enforcement inter-agency drug interdiction operation focusing on interdicting drugs from Colombian cartels and other illicit Central and South American drug sources. The Night Train seizure was the largest single drug seizure in history at the time it occurred, and it remains one of the largest marijuana seizures made in the territorial waters of the United States. ''Operation Stopgap'' was one of the first inter-agency law enforcement efforts focused on the interdiction of illegal drugs from Central and South America, and it featured personnel of the Coast Guard, DEA and US Federal Marshals Service working together, as well as the resources of the Intelligence Section of the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

and Coast Guard Intelligence (CGI). The ''Night Train'' was a 189-foot coastal cargo vessel that had become legendary in the

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

community and smuggling circles due to its repeated ability to elude US law enforcement for nearly two years before being captured off of

West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

as the first seizure of ''Stopgap''. ''Operation Stopgap'' was but the first of a number of highly successful inter-agency intelligence and interdiction operations that led to a large number of successful seizures and prosecutions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, garnering the U.S. Coast Guard considerable press coverage during this period as seizure records continued to be broken. ''Stopgap'' was also one of the earliest interdiction operations to effectively use satellite technology in the pursuit and interdiction of drug smugglers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Night Train Seizure 1978 in Florida Cannabis in Florida 1978 in cannabis Anti-cannabis operations Cannabis and the United States military

See also

References