Quebec yachters arrested as boat burns

MONTREAL • Two Quebec men face charges in the Caribbean after their drugladen yacht burst into flames while being escorted by law enforcement.

During the night of July 19, French border agents patrolling the waters off of the French Antilles intercepted a sailboat with a small blue fleur-de-lis emblazoned on its side.

The yacht pitched and rolled on the open sea in what Jean-Damien Moustier, theheadoftheFrenchgovernment’s Caribbean antidrug trafficking unit, called difficult conditions. “There were large waves,” he said. “It was complicated and the coast guard wasn’t able to quickly control the boat.”

Unable to board, agents began escorting the sailboat, called the Livie, to the nearby port of St-Martin.

The boats sailed through the night until, at 10 a.m., the Livie burst into flames. The two Quebecers bobbed nearby in a life raft. Moustier alleges they set the vessel afire in an attempt to sink it before authorities could seize its cargo.

The yacht’s masts caught fire and fell amid clouds of smoke. Six hours later, firefighters had the blaze under control and authorities were able to inspect. Below decks they found 1.5 tons of cocaine, an amount Moustier estimated would be worth about $300 million on the Canadian market.

Moustier said the Livie likely picked up its cocaine shipment off Venezuela. The two Quebec men, aged 53 and 55, face charges of drug trafficking, criminal association and destruction of goods by dangerous means. Their identities were not released.