Patrol boat off Venezuelan coast shoots and sinks vessel suspected of carrying drugs as three people go overboard

Patrol boat off Venezuelan coast shoots and sinks vessel suspected of carrying drugs as three people go overboard

A high-seas shootout pitting drug runners against the law ended with the smugglers’ boat at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea and the US Coast Guard seizing $63m worth of cocaine, authorities in Florida said on Friday.

The dramatic encounter took place on Tuesday about 25 miles (40km) north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, when the coast guard cutter Resolute – patrolling with the Dutch navy ship Groningen – identified a vessel in international waters suspected of carrying narcotics, according to a press releasefrom the USCG south-east region.

The crew of a joint forces fast interception craft fired on the suspected smugglers when the “non-compliant vessel” was turned at speed towards them, and the boat caught fire and sank. The US and Dutch sailors acted “in self-defense and defense of others in response to the life-threatening situation”, the press release said.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      71·
      5 months ago

      I foresee many rich people, especially republicans, complaining about “inflation” if the nose candy boats keep sinking.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    2212·
    5 months ago

    Imagine if this sort of money and effort was put into, I don’t know, providing people with free resources beyond shitty 12-step programs to fight alcohol and tobacco addictions in the U.S.

    I had to explain to my daughter how lobbying groups with big corporate money behind them are the reason tobacco is still legal in America but cannabis is (federally) not so.

    Someone might ask me what my tobacco cessation solution would be. This is what it would be: make tobacco and other nicotine products available by prescription. Doctors can then slowly wean addicts off of them by lessening the amount prescribed each time.

    Will some doctors do it wrong? Yes. Will some doctors just keep writing a “40 cigarettes a day” prescription for any patient who wants it? Yes. I still think it would work a lot better than what we have now… although it would need to be a subsidized program as well in the beginning so that poor addicts could also deal with this issue. But we have subsidized methadone clinics, so that should be doable as well.

    • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      5 months ago

      I’ve heard of some places where they ban tobacco products for everyone born after a certain date. There are also problems with that obviously but it’s another potential solution.

    • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 months ago

      The problem is worth more than the solution though. It’s all about the [insert addictive product]…

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        7·
        5 months ago

        Right. Tobacco is legal because of the money involved. They can afford the lobbyists to keep it legal. Those aren’t cannabis fields all over North Carolina.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    31·
    5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    A high-seas shootout pitting drug runners against the law ended with the smugglers’ boat at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea and the US Coast Guard seizing $63m worth of cocaine, authorities in Florida said on Friday.

    The dramatic encounter took place on Tuesday about 25 miles (40km) north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, when the coast guard cutter Resolute – patrolling with the Dutch navy ship Groningen – identified a vessel in international waters suspected of carrying narcotics, according to a press release from the USCG south-east region.

    “Our crews work hard to safely bring suspected smugglers to face federal prosecution in the US for alleged crimes,” Lt Cmdr John Beal, public affairs officer for USCG district seven, headquartered in Miami, said in a statement.

    “The missions our coast guard service members and allied partners do every day to deny transnational criminal organizations access to maritime smuggling routes are inherently dangerous.

    Also on Friday, in a separate case, the crew of the coast guard cutter Charles David Jr offloaded 540lb (245kg) of cocaine in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and transferred nine suspected smugglers into the custody of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

    Denise Foster, DEA special agent in charge of the investigation, said: “The successful interdiction and seizure underscore the relentless commitment and collaboration of our federal, local, and regional partners in combating drug trafficking in the Caribbean.”

    The original article contains 525 words, the summary contains 229 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!