PORT TOWNSEND –Shiny new bolts on a rusted hatch caught the attention of U.S. Coast Guardsmen boarding the Western Wind.
They had been mustered to intercept a “vessel of interest”‘ 10.5 miles west of Cape Alava — south of the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca — in the early morning hours of Feb. 21.
The Coast Guard cutter Osprey, based in Port Townsend, and its crew were part of the interdiction task force.
Rear Admiral Erroll M. Brown, commander of the 13th Coast Guard District, honored Osprey crewmen Monday for their part in the drug bust.
In a short ceremony aboard the Osprey, moored at the cutter dock on Benedict Street, Brown presented the crew with a “snowflake” decal commemorating the cocaine seizure.
The 12-inch circumference snowflake was affixed to the side of the 87-foot cutter alongside a marijuana leaf issued previously for the Osprey’s role in a marijuana case last year.
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