Caribbean and Cocaine - Inseparable Twins
Some are disovered because of their ineptness, some because of the superiority of the Drug Squads. Over the last few weeks, the US Coast Guard has netted over $200M worth of cocaine from three separate boardings of vessels in the Caribbean. The vessels had flags of Honduras, the USA and Venezuela. 
'Tintamarre Island site of the demise of the inept sailing drug traffickers'
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However, it's the drug traffickers who can't navigate their way to their destination, coming to grief on reefs when the weather is clear and sea calm, that make the craziest stories.
In a sequence reminiscent of an episode of Keystone Cops, Gendarmes of Brigade Nautique accompanied by a seven-man SWAT team arrested two men from a dismasted yacht that ran aground on a reef at the holiday hideaway of Tintamarre Island on Friday night, after packages of cocaine were found floating in the water around the upturned hull. Tintamarre Island is off the Island of St Maarten in the Caribbean.
The initial report indicated 20 kilos of cocaine had been seized, but more cocaine may still be found in the yacht in hidden compartments.
Two middle-aged men on board the yacht, one of English nationality and the other Venezuelan, were taken into custody from the 42-foot sailing yacht Marsdin, which had drifted onto the reef and flipped onto its side.
Initially sea rescue services from both the French and Dutch sides were asked to respond to the dismasting after receiving a call from the sea rescue coordination centre in Fort-de-France, Martinique, at 10:00pm Friday.
SNSM was unable to send one of its lifeboats because of an engine problem, but St Maarten Sea Rescue Foundation's Rescue One with a crew of three responded.
"The yacht was located on the Southeast side of Tintamarre on the reef and, as we could not approach from that side, we had to go back to the anchorage where the beach is and get to the yacht by walking around the coast," related Jan Drost of Sea Rescue.
"As we got close to the yacht we saw packages of drugs floating in the water. At that point we called MRCC in Fort-de-France for the assistance of the Gendarmerie. We also saw two people hiding in the bushes and were aware of the danger we were in."
Drost said his crew had returned to the beach to wait for the Gendarmes, who arrived shortly in a patrol vessel. Gendarmes were then escorted by the Sea Rescue crew to the yacht's location some 150-200 yards off the shoreline in shallow water.
As they waded out to the yacht voices were heard on board, which prompted the Gendarmes to retreat. It was then decided to request assistance from a French SWAT team, which arrived an hour later and duly arrested the traffickers.
Drost said his team had remained on the island assisting the Gendarmerie until 6:00am Saturday. Investigation of the yacht continued over the weekend.
It was not known why the dismasting had occurred, as the weather was apparently fine. According to the head of Brigade des Recherches, the yacht had been en route from Venezuela to Martinique, but had drifted to St. Martin.
In the meantime, crewmembers from a Kittery, Maine-based Coast Guard cutter offloaded nearly 10,000 pounds of cocaine in Miami this week. 
While conducting law enforcement patrols in the Caribbean Sea, crewmembers aboard the 270-foot Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma, located the 120-foot Honduran-flagged vessel, Miss Dayanna, about 76 miles south of Pedro Bank, Jamaica, June 26.
The crew boarded the vessel and located nearly 10,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated street value of $159 million hidden within the vessel. The seven Hondurans on the vessel were detained and the Tahoma crew later transferred them to U.S. drug enforcement agents. Miss Dayanna was transferred to the government of Honduras.
The seizure was one of three during a four-day period in late June in which United States and British navy patrols netted more than 13,000 pounds of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea.
* The crew of the Boston-based cutter Escanaba located the 45-foot U.S.-flagged vessel, Sunset, about 65 miles west of Grenada, June 24, and discovered 1,400 pounds of cocaine on board.
* Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team 106, from San Diego, aboard HMS Iron Duke, boarded the Venezuelan flagged motor vessel, La Nina, June 28, approximately 280 miles north of Barbados and discovered 2,000 pounds of cocaine on board.
'The combined efforts of Coast Guard, British Navy, and our Interagency Task Force partners patrolling the Caribbean to intercept illegal drugs at sea are remarkable,' said Rear Adm. R. Steve Branham, Seventh Coast Guard District commander. 'We are pleased to announce that six tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of $227 million will never make it to our streets.'
by Daily Herald/Sail-World Cruising 
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