2019 Philadelphia Packer Marine Terminal cocaine seizure
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On June 18, 2019, United States federal authorities seized 39,525 pounds (nearly twenty tons) of cocaine[1][2][3] with a street value estimated at $1.3 billion (equivalent to more than $1.6 billion in 2025)[4][3] at the Port of Philadelphia's Packer Marine Terminal. This was the largest cocaine seizure in U.S. Customs and Border Protection's 230-year history, the largest cocaine seizure in U.S. history,[5] and the fourth largest worldwide.[6][failed verification]
The MSC Gayané (IMO number 9770763), operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company and owned by JPMorgan Chase,[7] was heading from Chile to Rotterdam with a cargo of wine and nuts.[1][8] It had previously stopped in Peru, Colombia and the Bahamas.[1]
Authorities in the US and other countries had been monitoring MSC vessels for several years, suspecting that the company's crews had been infiltrated by members of the Balkan Cartel in order to facilitate cocaine smuggling into Europe.[8] US authorities had boarded and searched several other MSC ships and were tracking the Gayané before it entered American waters.[8]