Willemstad- Last Thursday, the Coast Guard Dash plane spotted a go-fast near Curaçao during a patrol flight at sea with suspected contraband packages on board.

Immediately after the report of the Dash, the Rescue & Coordination Center (RCC) of the Coast Guard directed the station ship Zr.MS Holland, which carries out coastguard tasks in the Caribbean, to the go-fast. The station ship has directed its onboard helicopter, the NH-90 and a FRISC towards the go-fast to intercept it.

Despite several warning shots from the NH-90 helicopter to those on board the go-fast to stop their boat, it did not respond. Ultimately, the NH-90 proceeded to disable the go-fast’s engines by using disabling fire. The FRISC, the fast interceptor vessel of Zr.Ms. Holland has been deployed to get the packages out of the water.

Drugs

There were 12 people on board the go-fast and a total of 45 packages were removed from the sea, containing about 1050 kg cocaine en 275 kg marijuana. The suspects and the packages were transferred with the FRISC and the Metal Sharks to the coastguard jetty in Parera, where both the suspects and the packages were handed over to the Curaçao Police Force. One of the people onboard the vessel was injured during the action. This person was transferred to the hospital on Curaçao for further treatment.