Willemstad- Yesterday morning around 4 AM a coastguard patrol aircraft Dash aircraft reported that they saw an unlit contact at Awa Blanku that was sailing in the direction of Fuikbaai with two (2) persons on board.

The Rescue & Coordination Center has immediately forwarded the report of the Dash aircraft to the nautical Support Center of the Coast Guard. On this, the Metal Shark I-03 sailed to the indicated location to intercept the vessel.

By 04:24 AM the Metal Shark had the vessel on their radar screen and upon arrival at the point of contact they saw that the vessel was stranded on the rocks. The vessel could not be approached by the Metal Shark because of the rocks. Some coast guards went into water to investigate the vessel. On arrival, 11 (11) bags of suspected narcotics were found on board the vessel.

The Dash aircraft was still flying around and reported at 04:28 AM that they had the two persons in question in sight of the land, about 30 meters from where the vessel was found. After detaching the vessel from the rocks, it was towed to the coast guard pier on Parera. By 05:35 AM the Metal Shark patrol had returned to the location that the Dash aircraft had indicated and they went to search for land. Using the Dash and after a search in the mangrove forest east of Fuikbaai, the two suspects were found, arrested and transferred to the Coast Guard jetty on Parera.

After the Coast Guard procedures were completed, the suspects and the eleven (11) bags were transferred to the police station in Rio Canario where the suspects and the bales found were handed over to the authorities. It concerns a find of 340.66 kilos of drugs.