The guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely intercepted a vessel in the Caribbean Sea in May 2025, confiscating a $13.7 million shipment of cocaine. A U.S. Coast Guard law-enforcement detachment embedded on the Gravely boarded the vessel and executed the bust. The operation was the latest success in a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) effort to stem illegal trafficking in the southern approaches to the United States.
The Gravely and P-8 Poseidon U.S Navy planes spotted the vessel on May 25 and quickly apprehended it. On board, Coast Guardsmen found 19 bales of cocaine weighing more than 400 kilograms, according to multiple media reports. “I am incredibly impressed by the professionalism and prompt action executed by the Sailors and Coast Guardsmen aboard Gravely,” said Vice Adm. Doug Perry, commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet, according to 13 News Now, a broadcast news station in Norfolk, Virginia, home base for the 2nd Fleet. “Seamless integration of U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard maritime assets is integral to border protection — this is an excellent example of that teamwork.”
The Gravely has been part of an ongoing joint maritime interdiction strategy to counter drug trafficking in U.S. and international waters. The Coast Guard provides the legal authority to board and search vessels, performed by its law enforcement detachment (LEDET) teams while interdiction operations have gained speed, range and technology with the Navy’s participation. “Gravely employs LEDET personnel to perform vessel boardings, searches, and seizures in U.S. and international waters, targeting drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and transnational crime with a nexus at the U.S. southern border,” the Navy’s 2nd Fleet said in a statement.
At the time of the bust, the Gravely was en route to The Bahamas, a key U.S. partner in that effort. The Gravely deployed March 15, 2025, along with P-8s from Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida, to combat illegal trafficking of drugs, people and other contraband. The ship is one of several deployed by the U.S. this year to add a maritime component to DOD efforts to secure operational control of the Mexico-U.S. border and the maritime approaches in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Charleston left its home port of Naval Base San Diego on May 20 to support the nation’s southern border operations, led by United States Northern Command. The Charleston is replacing the San Diego-based guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale, which was dispatched to the region in April. “You can think of operations in the Gulf of America being a predominant part of [southern border enforcement] for the East Coast ship, and then on the West Coast ship, you can think of the area in and around the San Diego area, and that traffic area coming in between Mexico and the United States,” U.S. Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Daryl Caudle said in March, according to USNI, a news site tracking Navy activities.