Coast Guard, cruise liner rescue 23 adrift on boat for days
 

Coast Guard, cruise liner rescue 23 adrift on boat for days
By: The Associated Press 4-14-19
RE: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-...boat-for-days/

Photo link: https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/EO...4LFWSCKAAY.jpg

NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Coast Guard said it worked with a cruise ship to rescue 23 people adrift for days in the Gulf of Mexico.

A Coast Guard news statement issued Sunday saying 22 Cubans started traveling on a wooden boat from Cuba to Mexico before losing power and drifting three days.

A Cuban-Mexican man took them aboard his sports fishing boat, but then its engines malfunctioned and the group drifted three more days.

The Coast Guard said it was contacted early Sunday by a brother of one of the Cubans.

In addition to launching its own effort to find the disabled fishing boat, the Coast Guard alerted the Carnival Fantasy.

The cruise ship took the 23 people aboard within hours, about 130 nautical miles (210 kilometers) off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

The statement said two of the people rescued had minor medical issues and were treated by medical staff on the cruise ship.

It added that the 23 people would be transferred Tuesday to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard Investigative Service in Mobile, Alabama.

Coast Guard returns 33 migrants to Haiti
 

Coast Guard returns 33 migrants to Haiti
By: The Associated Press 4-14-19
RE: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-...ants-to-haiti/

Photo link: https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/kC...I4YDYL4HIM.jpg
A migrant vessel is shown in the Caribbean Sea after an interdiction on Wednesday. The Coast Guard cutter Spencer's crew transferred 33 Haitian nationals back to their home of origin on Friday. (Chief Petty Officer Crystalynn Kneen/Coast Guard)

MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard has returned 33 migrants to Haiti who agents intercepted at sea earlier this week.

The agency said in a news release that the 27 men and six women who had been trying to enter the United States were returned to Haiti on Friday.

The Coast Guard cutter Spencer encountered the Haitians on Wednesday on an overloaded 25-foot boat about 35 miles northeast of Tortuga, Haiti.

Crew members found six softball-sized packages of marijuana floating approximately 100 yards from the vessel.

They discovered on board three other packages of marijuana and a package that tested positive for amphetamines.

The Coast Guard crew transferred the Haitians to their cutter and destroyed the other boat since it posed a hazard.

On board, the migrants received food, water, shelter and medical attention.