U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), working with the Caribbean Corridor Strike Force (CCSF), seized $60 million worth of drugs in Puerto Rico in one week and arrested nine people for drug trafficking.[1] From Aug. 23 to Aug. 30, HSI agents and their CCSF counterparts seized 2,386 kilograms of cocaine and 1,010 kilograms of marijuana.[1]

The marijuana came from a single boat: on Aug. 23 a patrol aircraft spotted a fast boat about 44 nautical miles northeast of Blanquilla, Venezuela, that appeared to be adrift.[1] The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Joseph Napier intercepted the boat, and its boarding crew arrested four people and seized 1,010 kilograms of marijuana.[1] The four were Michael Clark, Cedrick Walton and David Mallard, all of Jamaica, and John Benn, of Antigua.[1]

The other arrests in the week came from cocaine seizures, including two Dominican nationals detained on Aug. 28 after a boat landed at Puerto Hermina near Quebradillas, where HSI agents seized 308 kilograms of cocaine.[1] Three more Dominican nationals were arrested on Aug. 25 after the Coast Guard intercepted a 26-foot vessel about 90 nautical miles north of San Juan carrying about 1,078 kilograms of cocaine.[1]

The CBP Air and Marine Operations release, issued a day earlier, gives the same combined figures of 2,386 kilograms of cocaine and 1,010 kilograms of marihuana with a street value of about $60 million, and the same nine arrests.[2] The CBP release says a routine patrol aircraft of Joint Task Force South spotted the boat carrying the marijuana, while the ICE release calls it a routine patrol aircraft.[2] The CCSF is an initiative of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico that brings together HSI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the Coast Guard, CBP and the Puerto Rico Police Department.[1]