NORWAY — The son of a local couple took part  in a $180 million drug bust as a crew member on board a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in the western Caribbean Sea.

The son of Ron and Maury Blake of Pikes Hill Road in Norway, was involved in the capture of a semi-submersible vessel carrying 15,000 pounds of cocaine, Maury Blake said. The street value of the cocaine was estimated at about $180 million.

This week, the U.S. Coast Guard released information on the July 13 interception by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Seneca, which has a home port in Boston. The drug-smuggling vessel was a self-propelled, semi-submersible craft.

According to the release, the crew of the Seneca, a medium-endurance cutter, along with a Customs and Border Patrol airplane, a Seneca-based Coast Guard helicopter and pursuit boat  interdicted and detained the vessel’s crew. The vessel carrying the contraband sank during the interdiction, but about $180 million in contraband was recovered.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the vessel was used regularly to transport illegal narcotics in the Eastern Pacific. The interdiction was the first of a self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean and the first underwater drug removal of this type of craft.

Maury Blake, who works as a librarian at the Hebron Station School and whose family established White’s Marina on Lake Pennesseewassee, moved to Norway with her husband, Ron, about 11 years ago. Her husband works as a substitute teacher and bus driver for the Oxford Hills School District along with running his Orlando-based building/carpentry business.

She said the story is important for all citizens to know about because it shows how tax money is spent in training young men and women for military duties and how they perform their jobs.

“It is important to realize that this training also serves to enhance their future endeavors as citizens of our country,” she said.

Their son joined the U.S. Coast Guard after college graduation and has served in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Neah Bay, Wash.; Kodiak, Alaska and Detroit, Mich., Maury Blake said. His work in the past 10 years has been as a flight mechanic on a rescue helicopter. Her son and daughter-in-law now live in Jacksonville, Fla., where he is presently attached to a Coast Guard drug interdiction unit, Maury Blake said.

“At different times in his Coast Guard career, [his] deployment destinations have included Russia, and on the U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker, The Polar Sea, to Australia, Tasmania and Antarctica,” Maury Blake said. “His return deployment brought the ship up the western coast of South America, Central America, Mexico and the west coast of the United States. While stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, Ron’s work took him all through the Aleutians and his helicopter was deployed on ships in the Bering Sea for the purpose of safeguarding commercial fishermen.”

The drug case is under investigation. The contraband will be turned over later to other U.S. law enforcement agencies for disposition.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Editor’s note: The name of Maury and Ron Blake’s son has been removed from this story post-publication.

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