Captain admits to smuggling cocaine

Dominican man faces minimum sentence of 10 years in prison

It was a scene out of the 1980s: the Sea Hunter, a 54-foot Bertram Motor Yacht just in from a trip to the Dominican Republic, was docked off a Rio Vista mansion on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Inside the boat were six men, waiting for dusk to fall. Outside, police were watching. The boat had been under surveillance for months. Officials suspected it was being used to smuggle cocaine.

When the sun went down on July 3, 2019, the men on the yacht sprang into action, unloading large white coolers from the boat. At the sight of the coolers, the police swooped in. When they flicked on their sirens and their lights, three crewmen made a run for it. One tried to swim away. All were apprehended, along with 421 kilograms of cocaine in the yacht’s stateroom.

Rafael Gracesqui, 44, was the ship’s captain. A portly Dominican man with a broad smile, he was discovered by officers hiding under a nearby car. Joel Moreno Rosario, 35, also a Dominican citizen and a mate on the vessel, was found hiding in one of the Sea Hunter’s staterooms. Both men pleaded guilty in a Fort Lauderdale court Friday to conspiring to import a controlled

substance in the United States. They face mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years in federal prison.

Their four remaining alleged co-conspirators, all Dominican citizens or Dominican-Americans with deep ties to the island country, are awaiting trial.

The July operation against the Sea Hunter harkens back to the days when the South Florida waterfront served as one of the main entry points for cocaine coming into the United States.

Those days are long gone. According to the DEA 2018 drug threat assessment, the vast majority of narcotic contraband now enters the U.S. through the Mexican border.

But the capture of the Sea Hunter is the third case involving Dominican- or Dominican Republic-based traffickers, boats and 200-plus kilogram shipments of cocaine to roll through the Southern District of Florida in less than a year.

The cases point to the growing role of Dominican drug trafficking organizations in the Caribbean basin, a trend also noted in the DEA 2018 drug threat assessment.

The oldest case, USA v. Zilch, dates to November 2018 and involves two German citizens who resided in the Dominican Republic and a third crew member whose nationality could not be immediately determined.

They were caught 3 miles from Key Biscayne by the Coast Guard. Upon inspection of the vessel, the Coast Guard said it found 327 kilogram-weight bricks of cocaine hidden in compartments throughout the

fishing vessel.

Two crew members are now serving nine-year sentences, and the third is serving an eight-year sentence.

The second case dates to just one month before the Sea Hunter was waylaid.

Authorities said they intercepted Ramon Antonio Gilbert Baez and Diony Rafael Cabrera as they were unloading 200 kilograms of cocaine off a vessel called the “Triple A” and into a North Miami waterfront residence.

Both defendants pleaded guilty and are set to be sentenced on Oct. 22.