Customs Coordination

US Customs and Border Protection crews in a P-3 Airborne Early Warning aircraft and a P-3 Long-Range Tracker aircraft successfully located and coordinated the rescue of five passengers from a burning yacht 250 nautical miles off Costa Rica on 25 October. The P-3 crew worked with a nearby fishing vessel and the frigate USS Halyburton (FFG-40) to bring the yacht’s crew to safety. The Customs crews were conducting drug interdiction operations in the Eastern Pacific when they were directed by the Joint Interagency Task Force-South in Miami to locate the source of a distress call. The crews found the yacht, Dorothea, and then coordinated the rescue.