SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, CMC – The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency says officers from its Air and Marine Operations (AMO), along with the Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces for Rapid Action (FURA, for its Spanish acronym), have seized a yola-type vessel and arrested three narcotic smugglers in the Caribbean Sea.
CBP said three migrants from Colombia and Panama were found smuggling 62 bales of cocaine into Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.
CBP said that, during the morning hours of August 6, a Caribbean Air and Marine Operations asset detected a suspect vessel navigating north in the Caribbean Sea in the direction of the municipalities of Lajas and Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.
“The Michel Maceda Marine unit deployed the crew of a Coastal Interceptor Vessel crew, as well as a FURA Marine unit,” CBP said.
It said AMO and FURA intercepted an “Eduardoño yola-type vessel”, two nautical miles from the coast near the “la Pitahaya” sector of Cabo Rojo.
CBP said marine Interdiction Agents arrested two Colombian nationals and one Panamanian national, “without proper documentation to enter or remain in the United States legally and seized a total of 60 extra-large bales and two large bales of cocaine.”
The smugglers and the contraband were transferred to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for investigation and prosecution, CBP said.
and then  agency says officers from its Air and Marine Operations (AMO), along with the Puerto Rico Police){kind=link}