7074: DRUGS ON THE MIAMI RIVER (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nozier <nozier@tradewind.net>

Published Friday, February 16, 2001, in the Miami Herald
DRUGS ON THE MIAMI RIVER

 November 1999-June 2000: Customs agents targeting ships originating
from Haiti
 seize about 6,000 pounds of cocaine on 12 ships, including over 500
pounds
 welded into the ballast tanks of a 150-foot freighter.

 July 1997: Five men are murdered on the 150-foot freighter Vanderpool
Express,
 by men who demand to know where drugs are hidden. No drugs are found,
but
 later that year the ship's former owners are arrested, accused of
leading a
 drug-smuggling network.

 December 1988: U.S. Customs Service agents in Miami confiscate 4,792
pounds
 of cocaine hidden in a Panamanian freighter docked along the Miami
River. The
 next day, agents confiscate another 1,941 pounds of cocaine from a
Haitian
 freighter.

 1987-1988: Customs agents board at least 336 vessels and seize more
than
 4,000 pounds of cocaine.

May 1986: Authorities raid a Miami River marina and find a shipment of
 Colombian cocaine aboard a shrimp boat in drydock. Two suspected drug
 smugglers escape, but a third is seized, along with 1,300 pounds of
cocaine. The
 three men are connected to an international gang.