The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN man was arrested in Florida yesterday in connection with the seizure of 620 pounds of cocaine worth $5.5 million.

According to international reports, Federal agents seized the drugs from a large yacht that docked Sunday in West Palm Beach.

Boat captain Jonathan Costenbader, 34, of, Palm Beach County and two other people, a woman and a man, were arrested after agents said they saw Costenbader taking duffel bags off the m.v. Secret Spot and loading them on to his pickup truck at the Palm Harbour Marina.

Authorities said they found 11 duffel bags containing 282 bricks of cocaine on his truck and in the main salon of the 132-foot luxury vessel.

When interviewed the boat captain reportedly admitted that he picked up the cocaine from a small vessel offshore of the Bahamas and the drugs were to be turned over to another man.

Officer in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Unit, Superintendent Samuel Butler confirmed that one of the men arrested was a Bahamian and the boat in question, left from a port in Grand Bahama.

“We do not know all of the information right now because it was not a DEU operation, but we do know that there was a yacht that came from Grand Bahama that allegedly had cocaine that was seized by federal agents in Florida,” he said.

“I am not certain of the port they left from, but based on early intelligence we know it came from Grand Bahama. We also know that a Bahamian man was arrested in West Palm Beach, but he was not on the boat. We understand that he was on the collection side of things.”

Supt Butler said more information should be made available to him today.

The three suspects were arrested on charges of conspiring to import cocaine with the intention of supplying it to others. If convicted the maximum penalty for the offence is 10 years to life in federal prison and a $10 million fine.