U.S. Border Patrol agents and Puerto Rico police intercepted a vessel carrying more than 560 pounds of cocaine off the coast of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, on Monday, October 5, arresting two U.S. citizens found aboard.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said law enforcement spotted a suspicious boat operating in waters west of Aguadilla. Border Patrol agents, working with Puerto Rico’s Fuerzas Unidas de Rapida Accion (FURA), a tactical operations unit formed in the mid-1980s, moved to intercept it and succeeded in stopping the vessel off the island’s coast.
When agents boarded, they found 231 packages containing a white powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine. The combined weight of the packages came to 562 pounds, with an estimated street value of roughly $7.5 million, according to officials.
The two people aboard the vessel, along with the boat and the seized drugs, were taken to the Ramey Border Patrol Station for processing. The case has since been handed to the Drug Enforcement Administration for further investigation and criminal prosecution.
“This seizure demonstrates the strength of our partnerships and the vigilance of the men and women protecting Puerto Rico’s coastal borders. Working alongside the Puerto Rico Police Department and FURA, our agents prevented a significant quantity of dangerous narcotics from reaching our communities. We remain committed to disrupting transnational criminal organizations and safeguarding the public,” said Chief Patrol Agent Reggie Johnson of the Ramey Border Patrol Sector.
The Ramey Sector is one of twenty Border Patrol sectors nationwide and the only one located outside the continental United States. It covers Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, an area of roughly 6,000 square miles of land and water that includes the twelve-mile band of territorial waters surrounding the islands. The sector’s entire border is coastline.
CBP considers the waters around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands a front-line entry point for narcotics smuggling into the United States, and Border Patrol operations there work alongside a broader network of U.S. law enforcement and military agencies aimed at stopping drug trafficking organizations before they reach the mainland.
