SUSPECTS, COCAINE TOWED HERE FROM SAN SALVADOR

Herald Staff

Miami Herald, The (FL)

October 23, 1985
Section: BRWD
Edition: BRWRD
Page: 5BR
Memo:BRIEFLY

Three suspected smugglers and at least 400 pounds of cocaine were

towed Tuesday night to the United States Coast Guard station at Port
Everglades by the Coast Guard crew that caught them off the island of
San Salvador.
A boarding party from the Coast Guard cutter Bear found the cocaine
in two hidden compartments on a 37-foot sportfishing boat Sunday
morning and suspected that a third compartment they could not open
held more, spokesman Joe Gibson said.
Customs agents were working late Tuesday to retrieve the contraband
from the hidden compartments and counting what they had found.
"There is a lot on there," U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Bill O'Neil said.
The suspects, Jose Mirabal, 48, Robert Sanchez, 24, and Maria Palacios,
33, all of Miami, were being questioned by undercover agents, said
Paul Teresi, agent-in-charge of the Fort Lauderdale Drug Enforcement
Administration office. They were charged with possession of cocaine
with intent to sell, importation and conspiracy.
The Coast Guard said the boat was stopped about 325 miles southeast
of Miami, near San Salvador in the Bahamas.
The suspected smugglers' ship had to be towed because it blew an
engine Sunday after it was seized.