NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A Norfolk-based Navy ship rescued four people from a sinking speed boat while it was on patrol for drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea.
The USS Elrod plucked the three Colombians and one Honduran man from the water on Tuesday. Cmdr. Jack Killman, the frigate’s commanding officer, said in a telephone interview Friday that the men had been in the water for three days and were in poor condition. Their boat was spotted at night by a U.S. maritime patrol aircraft about 200 miles from the nearest point of land.
Killman says the men were not fishermen and might have been involved in the drug trade. The Elrod is targeting drug-trafficking routes along the Central American isthmus. In March, the Elrod confiscated 1,000 pounds of cocaine.
