DHS: U.S. Coast Guard seizures included enough cocaine to equate to over 177 million potential deaths

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Confirm U.S. Coast Guard seizure quantities and the lethal-dose assumptions used to assess whether seized cocaine would be sufficient to cause >177 million deaths.

Source summary

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted an internal message on Jan. 21, 2026 marking the first year of the Trump administration and praising DHS staff for what she described as "record-breaking achievements." She credited DHS with restoring the rule of law, securing the border, and removing nearly 3 million unauthorized migrants (including an estimated 2.2 million "self-deportations" and over 622,000 deportations), said fentanyl trafficking at the southern border was cut by more than half versus 2024, cited a U.S. Coast Guard cocaine seizure metric, and said DHS saved taxpayers more than $13.2 billion. Noem thanked employees and urged continued momentum into 2026.

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Latest fact check

The DHS employee blog post (Jan. 21, 2026) by Secretary Kristi Noem contains the sentence: “The U.S. Coast Guard alone seized enough cocaine to kill more than 177 million Americans.” The U.S. Coast Guard�press release (Nov. 6, 2025) reports nearly 510,000 pounds seized in FY2025 and states that amount equals about 193 million potentially lethal doses, using a 1.2-gram fatal-dose assumption. Medical literature (StatPearls/NCBI) cites ~1.2 g as an estimated fatal single dose while noting substantial individual variability. Verdict: True — DHS did publish that claim, and the Coast Guard ata plus the common 1.2 g lethal-dose assumption support the numeric claim, though the estimate depends on that assumption and simplifies real-world medical variability.

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Update · Jan 22, 2026, 03:14 AMTrue
The DHS employee blog post (Jan. 21, 2026) by Secretary Kristi Noem contains the sentence: “The U.S. Coast Guard alone seized enough cocaine to kill more than 177 million Americans.” The U.S. Coast Guard�press release (Nov. 6, 2025) reports nearly 510,000 pounds seized in FY2025 and states that amount equals about 193 million potentially lethal doses, using a 1.2-gram fatal-dose assumption. Medical literature (StatPearls/NCBI) cites ~1.2 g as an estimated fatal single dose while noting substantial individual variability. Verdict: True — DHS did publish that claim, and the Coast Guard ata plus the common 1.2 g lethal-dose assumption support the numeric claim, though the estimate depends on that assumption and simplifies real-world medical variability.
Original article · Jan 21, 2026
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