U.S. and Puerto Rican authorities seized 136 bricks of cocaine valued at 3.1 million dollars in two operations in the island-municipalities of Culebra and Vieques, both in the extreme east of Puerto Rico.
As the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office explained in a press release, yesterday, a crew of a CBP Air and Marine Operations (AMO) aircraft sighted two vessels without navigation lights near the island of Saint Thomas.
The encounter between boats was brief and both separated immediately.
The aircraft followed the vessel sailing west reaching the area of ”Las Pelas” in Culebra, where it drifted away from a pier, for which an AMO launch approached and detained the captain.
The agents found inside the boat a bundle of canvas that contained 23 bricks of cocainearresting the captain, a US citizen.
Meanwhile, this Thursday, agents of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau seized a shipment of 113 blocks of cocaine at La Yallis beach in Vieques at dawn, and arrested two people in relation to it.
According to the statement, an AMO plane detected a suspicious vessel, with three occupants, without lights that was sailing from Saint Thomas to Vieques.
Thus, two AMO vessels caught up and pursued the boat, which evaded the order to stop and fled.
The three occupants of the suspected vessel disembarked in Vieques, unloaded some canvas bags in the brush, and fled.
Subsequently, several agents from the CBP Tactical Unit disembarked and pursued the suspects with the support of the Puerto Rico Police Department and a unit of boats from the United Rapid Action Forces of the local Police.
Agents were able to find and arrest two people, seizing 113 bricks of cocaine.
A helicopter crew is currently searching the area to try to locate the third individual.
The two arrested are adult men, United States citizens residing in Vieques.
Those arrested and the contraband were transferred to the custody of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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