Hillsborough: Drug suspects flown here

Hillsborough

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Drug suspects flown here

The four are caught in the Pacific aboard a boat carrying cocaine. An official says they will be tried in Tampa.

By Times Staff Writer
Published August 27, 2005

Four crew members aboard a go-fast boat found to be carrying 5,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific were flown to Clearwater Thursday after the U.S. Coast Guard fired on their vessel.

Two of the crew members were injured during the incident and taken to a local hospital. One was treated and released to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, the other remained hospitalized with nonlife threatening injuries Friday.

The Coast Guard encountered the boat Monday as part of its ongoing Operation Panama Express investigation. After the crew of the go-fast ignored repeated orders to stop and several warning shots, a Coast Guard crew fired a single shot, striking one of the boat's engines, said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

From preliminary indications, Cole said, it appeared shrapnel from the engine hit two of the go-fast crew members.

Go-fasts are typically powerful fiberglass boats capable of speeds of 60-70 mph that are often used to deliver drugs.

The crew members' identities were not disclosed, nor was it revealed whether it was a Coast Guard ship or helicopter that fired on the go-fast boat. The Coast Guard routinely uses armed aircraft and small, fast boats launched from cutters to chase down and stop vessels suspected of ferrying drugs.

It also is unclear why the four men were flown to Clearwater, but Cole said all four will be prosecuted in Tampa federal court on drug smuggling charges.