US agent, suspected smuggler killed off Puerto Rican coast

WASHINGTON — A US Customs and Border Protection agent and a suspected smuggler died during a shootout, Thursday, off the Puerto Rico coast, authorities said. Two other US officers were injured.

CBP’s Air and Marine Operations unit was on routine patrol when the shots were fired about 12 miles off the coast from Cabo Rojo, a major drug smuggling corridor for cocaine coming out of South America known as the Mona Passage. It lies between Puerto Rico’s western coastline and the Dominican Republic.

One of two suspected smugglers died, said CBP spokesman Jeffrey Quiñones.

An internal memo to CBP employees from Troy Miller, the acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said a Marine Interdiction Agent died, Thursday morning.

“At approximately 8 a.m. this morning, three CBP Marine Interdiction Agents were involved in an exchange of gunfire with individuals on board a suspected smuggling vessel,” according to the memo. “The agents suffered various gunshot injuries as a result and were airlifted by CBP and the Coast Guard to the Puerto Rico Trauma Center.”

There was no information on the status of the other two agents.

The FBI is leading the investigation into the shooting, Quiñones told reporters in Puerto Rico. He said it was too early to know where the vessel originated from, the nationality of its two passengers and whether it was carrying narcotics or servicing another suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean.