FEDS IN DEADLY SMUGGLE GUNFIGHT
Agent slain in ‘drug shootout’ off PR
Suspected smugglers exchanged gunfire with US Customs and Border Protection agents Thursday, leaving one officer dead and three injured off the northwestern coast of Puerto Rico.
One of the suspects was also killed in the shootout, which happened about 12 miles off the coast of Cabo Rojo after officers approached a vessel they suspected of carrying illicit substances to the island, according to Customs and Border Protection.
The agents were part of the special Air and Marine Operations (AMO) unit, which specializes in intercepting substances and people illegally approaching US territory.
“The marine agents suffered various gunshot injuries,” the agency said in an email to The Post. “The agents are being airlifted by CBP and Coast Guard to the Puerto Rico Trauma Center.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in testimony before a Senate committee that AMO agents were “gravely wounded” and confirmed one was killed.
“These are brave members of our Air and Marine Operations . . . the difficulty of this job cannot be compared to the difficulty that our frontline personnel face every day. Their bravery and selfless service should be recognized,” Mayorkas said.
Speaking to reporters in Puerto Rico, CBP spokesman Jeffrey Quiñones 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.
Cartel routes
Typically drug cartels recruit poor fishermen from Colombia and Venezuela to transport large amounts of cocaine to the Dominican Republic, where it is broken down into smaller bales and transferred at sea to waiting vessels manned by better-paid, sometimes well-armed Puerto Rican drug runners.
The FBI is leading the investigation into the shooting.
The AMO employs 1,800 federal agents and support personnel who patrol the skies and seas for illegal activity and threats to national security throughout the US, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, according to its website. The unit detected 218 “conventional aircraft incursions” on US soil in the 2021 fiscal year, seized 1.1 million pounds of narcotics, $73.1 million in illicit currency, made more than 122,000 arrests and rescued 518 people, according to CBP.
“AMO interdicts unlawful people and cargo approaching US borders, investigates criminal networks and provides domain awareness in the air and maritime environments and responds to contingencies and national taskings,” the division said on its website.
The unit seized nearly 325,000 pounds of cocaine, 780,000 pounds of marijuana, 1,200 pounds of fentanyl and 18,500 pounds of methamphetamine in fiscal year 2021, according to the AMO.