US seizes nearly 1.5 metric tons of cocaine in New York

NEW YORK: US authorities on Monday announced the seizure of nearly 1.5 metric tons of cocaine with a street value of $77 million, the biggest drug haul in nearly 25 years at the port of New York/Newark.

Sixty bundles of the white powder weighing 3,200 pounds were found in a container at the port on February 28, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said.

No arrests have been made in the case, which remains under investigation.

"Cocaine, New York's nemesis of the 90s, is back," DEA special agent in-charge Ray Donovan said.

Donovan said the size of the seizure — the second largest in the port's history and the largest there since May 1994 — reflected a push by traffickers to build a market for a mixture of cocaine with fentanyl.

The United States, the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs, is currently experiencing a deadly epidemic of opioid use.

Deaths from drug overdoses in the United States hit an average of 197 a day in 2017, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.