FBI Announces $509 Million Drug Seizure

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel walk past pallets of shrink-wrapped narcotics and a drone used in the investigations as they arrive for a news conference at Port Everglades, Fla., on April 9, 2025. Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP

FBI Director Kash Patel announced a major narcotics seizure totaling 48,400 pounds of drugs in Port Everglades, Florida.

According to a social media post from Patel, the drugs seized by federal agents had a monetary value of $509 million.

“This is what happens when you let cops be cops,” Patel wrote of the seizure.

“There is no lethal force on planet Earth that is responsible for an overdose death of an American citizen every seven minutes more so than these ... foreign terrorist organizations. We are humbled to be a part of this Department of Justice, and we are going to continue to safeguard our streets,” Patel said in a video of a news conference on the post.

The FBI director cited a number of agencies that are part of the Trump administration’s “whole of government” approach to reigning in drug trafficking, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard, and the Homeland Security Investigations.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaking to reporters after the seizure, said: “This is a textbook example of the Justice Department supporting the fight against violent crime. These drugs are worth over half a billion dollars. Almost 45,000 pounds of cocaine, pure cocaine, uncut, and 3,800 pounds of marijuana. Congratulations again to the Coast Guard, you have done admirable work.”

According to Patel, the Department of Justice has made the mitigation of drugs on the streets a “mission priority,” and the FBI supports that mission.

“They are going to get all the drugs off the streets, off the markets, and as AG Bondi said, we are going to lock [cartel members] up, they are no longer going to be free to roam,” Patel said.

The announcement came the same day as six drug-related arrests were made in New York following a months-long investigation into drug trafficking networks in the western part of Orange County, New York.

In February of this year, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the HALT Fentanyl Act in a 312–108 vote, sending it to the Senate. In a show of bipartisan support, 98 Democrats joined all but one Republican to pass the bill.

In 2023, over 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States, with illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids accounting for almost 70 percent of the deaths. Currently, fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death among U.S. citizens aged 18–45.