San Juan.- The US Coast Guard in Puerto Rico reported this Friday that gave back to 18 Dominicans who recently tried to reach the Caribbean island illegally.
As detailed by the federal agency in a statement, it was last Wednesday when a plane from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) saw a 25-foot (8-meter) long vessel approaching the northwest coast of Puerto Rico .
Given this, the CBP contacted Coast Guard watchmen in San Juan, who then dispatched a boat and a helicopter to intervene the suspicious ship.
The officers traveling on the Coast Guard vessel, dispatched from its base in Aguadilla (northwest), arrived at said ship, in which 21 people were grouped, 16 men and 5 women.
Of the group of 21 migrants, 3 were detained in Puerto Rico by federal authorities to face charges of attempting to illegally re-enter US territory.
After the intervention, the Coast Guard vessel Heriberto Hernandez met a ship from the Naval Force of the Dominican Republic in the Mona Passage -west of Puerto Rico- to hand over the remaining 13 men and 5 women who were carrying out the illegal trip.
From October 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, the Coast Guard has carried out 72 interdictions in the Mona Passage, and during that time, the authorities have detained 1,919 illegal citizens, being these 1,414 Dominicans, 404 Haitians, 52 Venezuelans, 12 Usbecos, one Ecuadorian, one Cuban and 35 without knowledge of nationality.
