Second Look at Sailboat Yields Big Cocaine Find

St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (ICE) -- A second look at a cocaine-carrying sailboat intercepted by the Coast Guard in May and about to be auctioned off netted almost 1,800 pounds of cocaine.

ICE special agents, along with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and officers of the U.S. Virgin Island Police Department discovered 1,764.4 pounds of cocaine hidden within the walls of a 49-foot sailboat, the British-flagged vessel S/V Gio, docked at the Port of St. Croix.

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) intercepted the Gio on May 11th following a routine patrol off the coast of Anguilla. At that time, the vessel along with its crewmen, were escorted to the Port of St. Thomas after Coast Guard officers discovered 411 pounds of cocaine on board the vessel.

The vessel, which will be auctioned, was being inspected once again by federal agents and local officers when they discovered the additional contraband.

The crewmen have been in U.S. Marshals custody since their arrest in May. They are currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico pending their trial.

“For many years the lesser Antilles archipelago has been the preferred route narcotics smugglers use to bring their contraband into the United States. However, the presence of ICE in this geographical area has changed that dramatically,” said Lydia St. John-Mellado, special agent-in- charge of ICE in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “We are shutting down this route, and with it a vulnerability that once existed in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.”