After a month-long operation off the coast of South America, the US Coast Guard recovered 70,000 pounds of cocaine and marijuana valued at more than $1 billion.

The US Coast Guard cutter James's haul of illegal narcotics from Fort Lauderdale was one of the largest in recent history, a testament to the US government's increasingly sophisticated arsenal, which includes powerful drones and unique infrared cameras that can detect heat from small cocaine-laden vessels.

However, it demonstrates a recent spike in narcotics exports from Colombia, a close US partner and the world's largest supplier of cocaine.

The Biden administration's senior anti-narcotics officials came to South Florida to greet the vessel's crew upon their return and highlight the Coast Guard's role in intercepting drugs before they reach American streets.

'We are striking drug traffickers where they are most vulnerable: their wallets,' said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy.

According to Gupta, the Biden administration is looking to raise the federal government's funding to strengthen the country's addiction treatment infrastructure and restrict the supply of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and other substances.

However, the Coast Guard's, federal law enforcement's, and partner nations' recent record busts demonstrate how little the flow of cocaine from Latin America has slowed in the half-century since President Richard Nixon declared war on narcotics.

Coca cultivation in Colombia is expected to reach 245,000 hectares (945 square miles) by 2020, enough to produce 1,010 metric tons of cocaine, according to the White House's newest study on harvesting trends in the Andes. In 2014, potential production was less than half of that figure, and Peruvian and Bolivian production increased steadily.

Admiral Karl Schultz, the United States Coast Guard commander, stated that those figures would be substantially higher, and the region's destabilizing influence from transnational criminal organizations would be even worse if not for the United States' interdiction efforts.

'Is it significant? It is critical because it acts as a check on things,' he explained.

Ambassador Todd Robinson, the State Department's bureau chief for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, echoed him.

'It is not only about seizures,' explained Robinson, who formerly served as the United States' senior ambassador in Guatemala and Venezuela, two significant transit hubs for Colombian cocaine. 'It's also about enhancing the capacity of our partners.'