Step onboard the Coast Guard ship that just brought back 18 tons of cocaine

Waesche just finished its patrol near Central and South America, where it seized cocaine and smugglers during seven drug interdictions. It brought drug seizures from fellow cutters still in the region as well, offloading 18 tons of cocaine to the DEA for destruction — worth about $554 million on the street.

"There is a lot of cocaine moving across the water," said Capt. James Passarelli, who originally hails from Phoenix, Arizona but has been serving in the Coast Guard for the past 25 years.

The Waesche went out for about two months this time, though it typically deploys for three. Nowadays, they are fed intelligence leads and use drones and maritime patrol aircraft to "push our borders out" to stop the drugs closer to where they are coming from, according to Passarelli.

Though smugglers are constantly adapting as the Coast Guard gets better. On this latest deployment, the Waesche seized a self-propelled submarine and a low-profile vessel that even the captain admitted was "very stealthy."

Business Insider was invited to tour the cutter with Passarelli to get an understanding of what the service is doing to stop drugs from getting to American shores. As the captain explained, it's a "whole of government story" that involves the Department of Justice, State Department, the US military's Southern Command, and DEA, just to name a few.

Here's what it's like inside.

After patrolling off the coast of South America for the past two months, US Coast Guard Cutter Waesche made a pit stop in San Diego to fuel up and offload its haul of drugs before heading to its home port in Alameda, California.

It brought back a lot of drugs: 18 tons worth, which included what the Waesche was able to nab, along with other drug interdictions carried out by fellow cutters in Central and South America.

We wanted to see what it was like on a Coast Guard Cutter, and the service was happy to oblige.

We met up at the front gate of San Diego's 10th Avenue Marine Terminal, since we needed an escort to go inside the restricted area.

Soon after, we were headed up the "brow" — the naval term for the bridge from ship to shore — and onto the stern of the fairly-new USCGC Waesche, which was commissioned in 2010.

The ship is filled with some fairly small passageways ...

... And narrow stairways to go up and down to various decks.

Though eventually, we make it to the ship's bridge, where personnel navigate, monitor for drug smugglers, and steer the ship.

The ship's commanding officer, Capt. James Passarelli, sits in the chair to the right. He pointed out the keypad on the side of the chair, which allows him to communicate throughout the ship.

We spotted a little cheat sheet on a wall of what kind of radio commands might be passed. The most exciting call for guardsmen on board is to hear, "Now go fast, go fast," which tells them to launch interceptor boats at a smuggling suspect.

There are various screens that give the captain an idea of what's happening throughout the ship. With the one on the right, he can monitor and adjust the ship's power output right from here, if he wanted.

Boatswain's Mate 3rd Class Jessica Smith pointed out the various monitors, radios, and other gear those on the bridge are in charge of.

Back here, Smith takes charge of the ship's logs, writing down everything the Waesche is up to. This stuff is important, since in addition to stopping drugs, Coast Guardsmen also need to gather up evidence against smugglers.

In the middle of the bridge is where the driver stands. He or she controls the ship's heading and speed. The Waesche can hit about 28 knots, or roughly 33 mph.

And what workspace would be complete without a coffee maker?

One thing is certain for those who work on the bridge.

They have the best view.

On our way down from the bridge, we passed the Combat Information Center, which is where they gather up and analyze intelligence reports. It's a secure room, so no cameras were allowed.

The captain went on to show us the officer's mess, where officers on the ship eat, hold meetings, and spend downtime when they have it.

The chief's mess for the top enlisted men and women on board was closed for a meeting.

The vast majority of the 126-person crew eats in the main mess deck.

Sadly, they forgot to bring the steak and lobsters for me.

They did, however, bring tons of cocaine instead. Each pallet represents a different drug case and what was seized. Smugglers pack the cocaine in tight, waterproof bricks.

Sometimes when they know the Coast Guard is close, they'll dump the bricks overboard and let them float, hoping they can come back for the drugs later.

The bays where the drugs were stored usually house two helicopters.

"When you need a forklift and cranes for an offload, that’s a good day," Passarelli said.

The fact this is a helicopter bay is pretty apparent given the wall art.

This wall art boasts of the first time the Waesche had to fire at a drug smuggling boat and disabled the engine in 2013. On this most recent deployment, Capt. Passarelli said, they had 7 drug interdictions that didn't require any shooting.

"The last thing I want is for my boats to get into a shootout," Passarelli said.

When the cutter gets close enough, they'll launch one or all three of its fast interceptor boats in pursuit.

Boatswain's Mate 3rd Class Bryan Alires usually drives or stands behind the M240 machine-gun when that happens.

Pretty much everyone on board the interceptor boats are armed with pistols, M16s, or shotguns, just in case things go south.

Fortunately, that didn't happened this last time. "They know they are not gonna get away," Alires said. "So there's no use in running."

That's especially true with this boat, which is outfitted with all kinds of electronics gear to track them down, to include infrared imaging.

Though the cutter relies on its boats to do much of the work — "My intercept boats are my primary weapons system," Passarelli said — it does have a Mark 110 Bofors cannon up front, which could take out just about any small hostile craft.

Along with .50 caliber machine guns on its side.

But, as the captain explained, smugglers usually stop. And from there, their drugs are seized, the suspects are arrested, and it's either back to their home country or off to the US for trial.

Step onboard the Coast Guard ship that just brought back 18 tons of cocaine

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