US Coast Guard nabs two smugglers, seizes cocaine in Caribbean Sea

Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | 1:14 PM    

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CMC) – The United States Coast Guard says it has detained two suspected smugglers and seized 71 pounds of cocaine during an operation in the Caribbean Sea.

The Coast Guard said that the operation on Tuesday was a multi-agency law enforcement effort in support of Operation Caribbean Guard and Coast Guard Operation Unified Resolve.

It said a marine surveillance aircraft last week detected a suspicious 20-foot go-fast vessel with two people aboard “transiting the area without the use of their navigational lights”.

It said the Cutter Dependable was diverted to interdict the suspect vessel and observed the suspected smugglers jettisoning multiple packages overboard during the pursuit.

“The small-boat crew employed warning shots and disabling fire, stopping the vessel and recovering one of the jettisoned bales from the water,” the Coast Guard said.

Since September 2012, the Coast Guard, in partnership with regional law enforcement authorities and international partners in the Caribbean, seized over 25,500 kilograms of cocaine and 8,000 pounds of marijuana during multiple law enforcement at-sea interdictions under Operation Unified Resolve.

The Coast Guard said that the drugs seized since 2012 are worth more than US$640 million.

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US Coast Guard nabs two smugglers, seizes cocaine in Caribbean Sea

China busts smugglers of iPhone 6 in Shanghai

BEIJING (AP) — China in recent days has busted a slew of smugglers bringing Apple iPhone 6 models into the country ahead of their official release here, with officials on Sunday reporting the latest seizure of 453 smartphones in Shanghai.

Hundreds more were seized during three separate busts Thursday through Saturday in Hong Kong, including from men with a speedboat who were loading contraband onto a wooden sampan-style boat in a mangrove, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The latest seizure was from the luggage of two passengers arriving at the Shanghai airport from Tokyo, one of them Chinese and one of them Japanese, a woman at the Shanghai customs agency said, confirming state media reports. She said hundreds more have been confiscated individually from passengers who did not declare them.

Apple delayed its original plans to introduce the iPhone 6 in China this month, but did not comment on reports that it still hadn’t received Chinese regulatory approval. The already-thriving black market for the phones in China, where Apple competes with less-expensive alternatives from local powerhouse Xiaomi, plus Lenovo and Samsung, has drawn a rebuke in Chinese state media.

The Global Times said in an editorial Friday that the frenzy over iPhone 6 — including a scuffle among Chinese nationals queuing up at an Apple store in the U.S. — was making China “lose face.” It said iPhones apparently were hip, but that buyer’s shouldn’t buy into their marketing hype. “Please show that you despise those who already have the iPhone 6,” the editorial read.

Apple became a target of state media critiques in March 2013 over alleged unfairness when it was reported that, under its warranty policy, it was fixing internal components of faulty iPhones in China while elsewhere it was replacing the entire phone. Apple later clarified that it would be replacing handsets in China and apologized about the concerns, and the furor subsided.

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China busts smugglers of iPhone 6 in Shanghai

US Coast Guard sends cocaine smugglers to Guantanamo Bay

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Sunday, July 07, 2013 | 7:55 AM

MIAMI (CMC) – The United States Coast Guard says crew from the Cutter Northland and Coast Guard Station Miami Beach have offloaded over 1,000 pounds of cocaine and transferred the alleged smugglers to US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.On Saturday, the Coast Guard reported that the estimated street value of the drugs was US$19 million.According to Coast Guard officials, while on routine patrol on May 29, 2013, the crew of the Cutter Bertholf received a report from a US Customs and Border Protection aircraft crew of a go-fast vessel about 305 miles southwest of Cocos Island, Costa Rica.The crew of the Bertholf was diverted and eventually launched a helicopter and small boat crew.The Coast Guard said a helicopter crew located the go fast vessel and informed a small boat crew which intercepted the vessel and located a package with about 1,250 pounds of cocaine.Six suspected smugglers were detained; the security officials also sank the vessel “as a hazard to navigation.”The cocaine was later transferred to crew-members on the Cutter Northland and passed on to DEA agents at Coast Guard Base Miami Beach.The Coast Guard said it is constantly surveying the Caribbean Sea for the increased trans-shipment of illegal drugs and alleged drug traffickers.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

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US Coast Guard sends cocaine smugglers to Guantanamo Bay