US Coast Guard, ICE join search for smuggler lost at sea(Update)

Santo Domingo.- Dominican antinarcotics agents have seize a haul of more than 500 kilos of cocaine for the third time in less than two weeks, this time at Boca Chica beach, where a 24-foot boat tried to smuggle the drug from Venezuela.

File. The Dominican Navy, the National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD), the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the United States Coast Guard conduct a wide search south of the country’s Caribbean shore Thursday, several hours after they intercepting a boat carrying drugs presumably cocaine.

Helicopters search over land and boats comb the beaches of Boca Chica, the rocky coast of Punta Malena and the islet La Matica for at least one man who was on the boat prior to jumping overboard to avoid capture, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Preliminary reports affirm that one Dominican drowned and describe the speedboat as of Colombia registry.

Several bales of drugs were reportedly seized from its occupants, arrested in the tourist town, 40 kilometers east of the capital.