Posts Tagged ‘Cutter Key Largo’
Coast Guard repatriates 70 Dominicans to La Romana, Dominican Republic
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo repatriated 70 Dominican migrants to La Romana, Dominican Republic Wednesday morning, while 20 others were detained for prosecution following an at-sea interdiction by Coast Guard law enforcement authorities Tuesday.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Chincoteague located and interdicted a migrant yola Tuesday morning, while patrolling Mona Passage waters, approximately four nautical miles southwest of Rincón, Puerto Rico.
Coast Guard Repatriates 146 Dominicans to La Romana, Dominican Republic
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo repatriated 146 Dominican migrants to La Romana, Dominican Republic Friday morning, following an at-sea interdiction by Caribbean Border Interagency Group (CBIG) agencies Wednesday.
Coast Guard law enforcement personnel detained 11 Dominicans of the 157 migrants aboard the interdicted yola, for attempting to enter illegally into the United States or a U.S. Territory on multiple occasions. The United States Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico accepted to prosecute their cases.
Coast Guard repatriates 22 Dominicans, Detains 10 others for Prosecution
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Coast Guard cutter personnel and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered 32 Dominicans traveling illegally from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico aboard a migrant boat Saturday night.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo repatriated 22 of the Dominican migrants to La Romana, Dominican Republic Sunday, following an at-sea interdiction by Department of Homeland Security law enforcement authorities Saturday, while the 10 other Dominican migrants were brought ashore for prosecution.
The crew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Dash-8 aircraft detected and tracked the migrant boat Saturday night while patrolling Mona Passage waters, approximately 23 nautical miles southwest of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.
Coast Guard Sector San Juan controllers diverted Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo to the scene. The Key Largo interdicted the migrant vessel late Saturday night embarking 21 men and 11 women, who requested to be taken off the 25-foot grossly overloaded boat that was disabled and adrift. The crew of an Air Station Borinquen HH-65 Dolphin helicopter flew rescue support at the scene, while the migrants disembarked their boat and went on board the Key Largo.
The crew of the Key Largo collected the migrant’s biometric information and destroyed the yola as a hazard to navigation. Coast Guard law enforcement personnel detained 10 Dominicans, nine men and one woman, for attempting to enter illegally into the United States or a U.S. Territory on multiple occasions. The United States Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico accepted to prosecute their cases.
The Key Largo proceeded to rendezvous with U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Mayaguez Harbor, Puerto Rico and brought them on board the cutter Saturday night to conduct migrant interviews and background checks on their biographic information. The crew of the Key Largo turned custody of the 10 detained Dominican migrants over to U.S. Border Patrol agents, and then proceeded to the Dominican Republic to repatriate the remaining 22 migrants.
The Key Largo arrived at La Romana, Dominican Republic at 9 a.m. Sunday, where the crew transferred custody of the remaining 22 migrants to awaiting Dominican Republic naval authorities.
The biometric capability employed in this case provides the Coast Guard with an important tool to definitively establish the identity of those interdicted at sea who may attempt to enter or re-enter the United States illegally, or who may pose a threat to national security.
Collecting biometric identification supports the U.S. Government’s efforts to target human smugglers and protect migrants put at risk attempting to enter the United States illegally from the sea.
Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo is a 110-foot patrol boat home ported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Coast Guard searches for possible downed aircraft in waters south of Santo Domingo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Coast Guard, Puerto Rico Police and Dominican Republic Navy rescue crews are searching for a possible downed aircraft that failed to arrive to its final destination in San Juan, Puerto Rico Monday night.
Missing is the aircraft pilot, Antonio Fernandez, 67, a U.S. citizen resident of Dorado, Puerto Rico, who reportedly departed at approximately 8:26 p.m. Monday from the Las Americas International Airport, Dominican Republic aboard a company owned Cessna Citation 501 multi-jet engine aircraft; tail number N223LC. Fernandez was expected to fly his aircraft into the Isla Grande Airport, San Juan by 9:30 p.m. Monday, but there are no reports of the aircraft landing there.
Coast Guard Sector San Juan Joint Rescue Sub Center controllers received a call at 12 a.m. Tuesday from Marta Fernandez, wife of the missing pilot, who reported that her husband had not arrived to Puerto Rico from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Coast Guard controllers launched HH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Borinquen Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and diverted Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo to initiate the search for the missing pilot.
Coast Guard controllers received at approximately 8:30 a.m. Tuesday additional information on the case from the Coast Guard Attaché in the Dominican Republic. The Coast Guard Attaché reported that Dominican aviation authorities last recorded the missing aircraft on radar at approximately three miles south of Santo Domingo, where Coast Guard air and surface rescue crews are currently focusing their search efforts.
Anyone with information that would assist in finding the whereabouts of this missing pilot and aircraft can contact the Sector San Juan Command Center at 787-289-2041.
Coast Guard Nabs Drug Smuggler and $11 Million Cocaine Shipment
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - U.S. Coast Guard personnel, working with their partners in the Caribbean Border Interagency Group (CBIG), Puerto Rico, under the Caribbean Corridor Initiative, conducted a drug interdiction Tuesday off the west coast of Puerto Rico, arresting a purported drug smuggler and seizing approximately 1,248 pounds of cocaine and less than a pound of marijuana, with a street value of approximately $11 million.
Details of the drug busting interdiction are as follows:
The crew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft detected a suspicious vessel Tuesday at approximately 8:30 a.m. traveling towards the west coast of Puerto Rico. The crew of the Customs and Border Protection aircraft contacted the Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo which diverted and intercepted the vessel. This vessel was being operated by Carlos González Méndez, who was the sole occupant inside.
Upon boarding the vessel, the crew of the Key Largo proceeded to conduct a safety inspection. As a result of the inspection, the boarding team observed square brick-like packages in several ice coolers located on the vessel. The bricks were field tested and yielded positive to cocaine. The vessel was transported into the Port of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, where a further search conducted by the crew of the Key Largo alongside Customs and Border Protection officers and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, revealed that the vessel contained approximately 1,248 pounds of cocaine.
Carlos González Méndez was placed under arrest and transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Elba Gorbea and Carlos R. Cardona.
The concept of CBIG resulted from a March 2006 collaboration of local Homeland Security components that effectively stemmed the increased flow of traffic across the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. In July 2006, CBIG was formally created to unify efforts of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Air & Marine (A&M), Office of Field Operations (OFO), and Office of Border Patrol (OBP), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the United States Attorney ‘ s Office, District of Puerto Rico, in their common goal of securing Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands against illegal maritime traffic and gaining control of our nation’s Caribbean borders.
Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo is 110-foot patrol boat home ported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.