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The San Juan National Security Task Force (HSTF San Juan) intercepted a vessel this morning southeast of Puerto Rico and arrested three Venezuelan citizens after seizing 643.3 kilograms (1,418 pounds) of cocaine hidden on board.
The operation began early Wednesday morning when an aircraft from the Caribbean Air and Maritime Branch (CBP AMO) detected a suspicious vessel traveling without lights 35 nautical miles off the coast.
After coordinated efforts between air and sea units —including a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and a coastal interceptor vessel— the boat was stopped and searched.
The agents found the cocaine bricks hidden inside black fuel containers, a common tactic to camouflage shipments during maritime transit.
The packages were stamped with a Soviet propaganda poster featuring Stalin's image and the caption "Stalin leads us to victory!", a documented practice of certain cartels to identify and track their shipments.
The HSTF San Juan confirmed that the operation falls under the initiative established by Executive Order 14159 of President Trump, titled "Protecting the American People Against the Invasion."
The task force was established in November 2025 as a comprehensive government partnership that brings together federal, state, and local partners with the aim of dismantling criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations operating in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This is not the first successful operation of the HSTF San Juan this year. In February 2026, the task force was involved in another seizure of approximately 1,300 pounds of cocaine in the Atlantic north of Puerto Rico.
In March 2026, the same unit filed charges against 52 members of the criminal organization "La Familia Nunca Muere" for drug and arms trafficking in Puerto Rico.
The interception occurs in the context of an intensification of anti-drug operations in the Caribbean under the Trump administration, including Operation Southern Lance, launched in 2025, which has carried out dozens of attacks against narco-terrorist vessels in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific.
Venezuela is identified as one of the main sources of cocaine that transits through the Caribbean to Puerto Rico and the United States. The Cartel de los Soles, linked to the government of Nicolás Maduro, was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by Washington in November 2025.
Maduro faces federal charges in the United States for narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine, following a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela that occurred earlier this year.
Last Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard seized over 7,000 pounds of cocaine in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, highlighting the sustained pressure on drug trafficking routes in the region.
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