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U.S. Coast Guard offloads $63 million of cocaine 2 days after shootout at sea sinks suspected drug smuggling boat
The U.S. Coast Guard said it offloaded more than 4,800 pounds of cocaine worth over $63 million at a port in Florida on Thursday — two days after officials said Coast Guard officers fired at and sank a speedboat suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea.
The cocaine offloaded on Thursday was the result of two operations off the coast of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, the Coast Guard said in a social media post. The operation was conducted by a Royal Netherlands Navy patrol boat, which had a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment and helicopter interdiction tactical squadron on board.
The announcement of the cocaine seizures came just two days after authorities said the same Dutch navy ship and U.S. Coast Guard assets in the Caribbean Sea “identified a vessel suspected of smuggling narcotics in international waters.” Officials said in a news release Thursday that the suspected drug vessel, a speedboat, failed to stop early Tuesday morning when signaled and instead headed straight toward the Dutch patrol boat.
Dutch Navy officers and U.S. Coast Guard members on board the patrol boat fired their weapons at the speedboat “in self-defense and defense of others in response to the life-threatening situation,” officials said. The speedboat caught fire and sank, and three suspected smugglers went overboard and disappeared below the water, the Coast Guard said.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Royal Netherlands Navy and Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard suspended search efforts for the three suspects on Tuesday evening, officials said. There were no reported injuries to the Dutch and U.S. officers.
“The Coast Guard is America’s primary maritime law enforcement agency, and our crews work hard to safely bring suspected smugglers to face federal prosecution in the United States for alleged crimes,” Lt. Cmdr. John W. Beal said in a statement Thursday.
The cocaine seizure and shootout in the Caribbean Sea come about a week after a separate Coast Guard crew offloaded $468 million worth of cocaine in San Diego. That haul was the result of eight separate operations off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America.
International drug traffickers routinely use different kinds of boats to move narcotics. In May, Italian police announced the seizure of a remote-controlled submarine likely intended to transport drugs as part of an international drug trafficking network. Also last month, the French navy said it seized 2.4 tons of cocaine from a Venezuelan fishing boat about 1,500 kilometers northeast of the Caribbean island of Martinique.
In March, authorities announced a massive cocaine shipment seizure in the Caribbean Sea off of Colombia after military ships and planes chased down a speedboat holding almost four tons of the drug.
Earlier that month, a British warship and an American patrol aircraft chased down a speedboat as its crew tried to flee and dump its cargo of drugs into the water near the U.S. Virgin Islands. British sailors and a U.S. Coast Guard team eventually recovered about 6,000 pounds of cocaine and other drugs, officials said.
Much larger semi-submersibles, which cannot go fully underwater, are popular among international drug traffickers as they can often elude detection by authorities. The so-called “narco-subs” are sometimes seized in Colombian waters while heading to the United States, Central America and Europe.
CBS News
Election 2024 live updates amid neck-and-neck polls as Harris and Trump make push in battleground states
Supreme Court denies GOP request to block counting of certain provisional ballots in battleground Pennsylvania
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to freeze a decision from Pennsylvania’s highest court that required election officials to count provisional ballots cast by people whose mail ballots are invalid because they lacked mandatory secrecy envelopes.
The order from the justices means that election officials in the key battleground state must tally provisional ballots submitted on Election Day by voters who returned defective mail ballots, either because they didn’t include secrecy envelopes or failed to sign or date the outer envelope.
Trump holds final Wisconsin rally of campaign
Donald Trump held his final Wisconsin rally of the 2024 campaign Friday night, returning to Fiserv Forum, in Milwaukee, the site of the Republican convention, to deliver his closing message to the Badger State. In 2016, he narrowly won Wisconsin but he lost the state’s 10 electoral votes to Joe Biden in 2020.
The rally was plagued by microphone problems. People in the upper sections in the back of the arena couldn’t hear Trump, and he expressed frustration with the technical issues.
“I’m seething. I’m working my ass off with a stupid mic,” Trump said.
He then made crude gestures toward the mic stand, complaining it was too low. He held the microphone for the rest of the rally but complained about how heavy it was several times. He also threatened not to pay the contractor.
“Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?” Trump asked. “I don’t ask for much. The only thing I ask for is a good mic. And this is the second time today that this happened.”
He loosely blamed campaign manager Susie Wiles for the microphone issue.
By Olivia Rinaldi and Katrina Kaufman
Harris and Trump both rally in Milwaukee area Friday night
Both Donald Trump Trump and Kamala Harris campaigned in the Milwaukee area Friday night, going into the final weekend of the 2024 campaign. Harris didn’t deviate much from her standard stump speech in West Allis, Michigan, a Milwaukee suburb of Milwaukee. She urged people to vote who haven’t yet cast their ballots.
“No judgment, no judgment at all — but do get to it,” Harris said, before reviewing the list of her campaign promises and litany of grievances against Trump.
Cardi B, who spoke shortly before Harris, told the crowd she didn’t intend to vote this year, but “Kamala Harris changed my mind.”
She called Trump a “bully” and said, “I can’t stand a bully, but just like Kamala, I stand up to one.” Cardi B repeatedly said she was nervous about speaking at the rally. Women, she said, have to work 10 times harder than men “and still, people question us.”
CBS News
Illinois shooting survivor defies the odds after taking bullet to the brain
Leslie Reeves and Chris Smith were shot during their first date. Only Smith survived. A look at how he defied the odds to make a remarkable recovery.
The scene of the crime
On the night before Thanksgiving 2021, Smith went on a first date with a woman named Leslie Reeves. The morning after, first responders found Smith in his Farmersville, Illinois, home with a bullet lodged in his brain. Reeves was dead.
Shooting victim in a coma
EMTs rushed Smith to a hospital where he underwent brain surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma.
A bullet lodged in his brain
Fragments of the bullet remained in Smith’s brain. His doctors say that to retrieve the bullet could risk causing further damage.
Family support
Smith’s mother, Sharon Costanza, and sister, Ashli Holcomb, sat by his side during his recovery. Doctors told them chances were very low that Smith would return to his previous level of functioning.
No memory
In January 2022, Smith woke from his coma and asked where he was and what had happened. He remembered nothing from the night of the shooting. He had no memory of his date with Reeves, even though he’d been talking on the phone and messaging with her two weeks before the shooting.
A poor prognosis
Due to Smith’s injuries, his neurosurgeon, Dr. Victor Williams, told Smith he likely would not be able to walk again. Williams and his team were dedicated to doing everything they could to aid Chris’ recovery.
A life forever changed
Smith’s left leg is partially paralyzed from his hip to his knee. From his knee to his toes, he is completely paralyzed.After he left the hospital, he had to move back in with his mother.
Regaining his strength
Most days, Smith goes to the gym and works on regaining his strength so that someday he’ll be able to walk without assistance.
A survivor
Smith says he is determined to hold on tight to his new lease on life. He is back singing with his rock band. And he proposed to his fianceé, Michelle Albrecht.
New aspirations
‘Smith hopes to become a motivational speaker and has his own website.
A miracle recovery
Smith’s mother says his recovery is nothing short of a miracle.
CBS News
The Uplift: Trooper the dog
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