7th Coast Guard District
U.S. Coast Guard
News Release
Date: March 24, 2010
Contact: Ricardo Castrodad
(787) 510-7923

Coast Guard repatriates 13 Dominicans to Cabo Engaño, Dominican Republic

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Ocracoke repatriated 13 Dominicans to Cabo Engaño, Dominican Republic, Tuesday afternoon following an at-sea interdiction by Caribbean Border Interagency Group partners Monday.

Three migrants were identified through the use of biometrics (digital fingerprints and photographs) as having attempted to previously enter illegally into the United States or a U.S. territory.

The crew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Dash-8 aircraft located the migrants traveling aboard a grossly overloaded yola (boat) during a law enforcement patrol Monday afternoon, approximately 47 nautical miles north of Mona Island, Puerto Rico.

The Coast Guard Cutter Ocracoke interdicted and safely embarked the eight men and five women from the 25–foot wooden yola, while the crew of an Air Station Borinquen MH-65 Dolphin helicopter flew rescue support overhead.

The crew of the Ocracoke destroyed the migrant yola as a hazard to navigation.

The repatriation was completed at approximately 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when custody of the migrants was transferred to awaiting Dominican Republic Navy authorities in Cabo Engaño, Domincan Republic.

Coast Guard Cutter Ocracoke is a 110-foot patrol boat home ported in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The concept of CBIG resulted from a March 2006 collaboration of local Homeland Security components that effectively stemmed the increased flow of traffic across the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. In July 2006, CBIG was formally created to unify efforts of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Air & Marine (A&M), Office of Field Operations (OFO), and Office of Border Patrol (OBP), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the United States Attorney ' s Office, District of Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces of Rapid action (FURA) in their common goal of securing Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands against illegal maritime traffic and gaining control of our nation's Caribbean borders.

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