Federal authorities in Puerto Rico detained three Dominicans, two men and a woman, who were in possession of 477 kilograms of cocaine, worth about $ 20 million, that they wanted to introduce by boat along the northwest coast of the island. .
As reported by the U.S. Coast Guard in San Juan on Wednesday, in a press release, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) aircraft spotted a ship 45 nautical miles (83 kilometers) to the north last Saturday. From Aguadilla, on the northwest coast of Puerto Rico.
Following the sighting, CBP officers warned their Coast Guard colleagues by sending their “Paul Clark” boat from Miami (US) and their “MH-60” helicopter to San Juan to reinforce the operation.
Likewise, a few Coast Guard helicopters were dispatched to assist in the intervention.
However, it was a crew on board the Coast Guard “Jayhawk” helicopter who managed to stop the suspected ship containing the two men and the woman.
Authorities indicated that one of the three inmates was injured, so the “MH-65 Dolphin” helicopter, installed at Borinquen Air Base, in Aguadilla, transported the person to a hospital in Puerto Rico to receive medical attention.
Meanwhile, the crew of the boat “Paul Clark” was the one to discover 18 bales of cocaine weighing 1052 pounds (477 kilograms).
This crew, in turn, took charge of the other two detainees.
Following the arrest, the Puerto Rico Department of Justice, along with the federal prosecutor’s office on the island, is working on the detainees’ allegations.
“The detention of ships dealing illegal drugs, as happened last Saturday, is inherently dangerous and involves great skill and risk,” San Juan Coast Guard commander Captain Gregory H. Magee said in the statement. .
Magee also assured that these suspicious ships “pose a major threat to the Caribbean.”
Likewise, he stressed that the professionalism of the crews involved in this operation, along with the federal and local security forces, led to the arrest of the three traffickers and helped protect the residents of Puerto Rico and the Virgin. Islands of the USA.