The Unit­ed States Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion (CBP) agency says agents from its Air and Ma­rine Op­er­a­tions (AMO) have nabbed a yola-type ves­sel, ar­rest­ing three Venezuela na­tion­als and seiz­ing 1,009 pounds of co­caine in the Caribbean Sea.

The es­ti­mat­ed val­ue of the co­caine seized off south­east­ern Puer­to Ri­co is US$8.2 mil­lion.

CBP said that, at mid­night on Ju­ly 12, a Caribbean AMO as­set de­tect­ed a sus­pect ves­sel nav­i­gat­ing north about six nau­ti­cal miles south of Pun­ta Tu­na, Maun­abo, Puer­to Ri­co.

The AMO Fa­jar­do Ma­rine unit de­ployed the crew of a Coastal In­ter­cep­tor Ves­sel crew, as well as Ma­rine In­ter­dic­tion Agents, by ve­hi­cle, to the vicin­i­ty of Pun­ta Tu­na, CBP said.

“The AMO ves­sel crew in­ter­cept­ed a yola-type ves­sel, which failed to heave, mak­ing land­fall in Playa Mario, Maun­abo,” CBP said.

“Ma­rine In­ter­dic­tion Agents ar­rest­ed three Venezue­lan na­tion­als with­out prop­er doc­u­men­ta­tion to en­ter or re­main in the Unit­ed States legal­ly and seized a to­tal of 16 bales of co­caine.”

CBP said the Venezue­lans and the con­tra­band were trans­ferred to the US Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion (DEA) for in­ves­ti­ga­tion and pros­e­cu­tion. —SAN JUAN, Puer­to Ri­co (CMC)