A 45-foot Sea Ray cabin cruiser is tied to the dock at Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale. The crew of the Cutter Etheridge stopped the boat off Haulover Inlet Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, and found large amounts of smuggled cocaine and marijuana, according to a federal criminal complaint.
U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard found a big haul of smuggled drugs when it stopped a boat last weekend off Haulover Inlet to conduct a vessel safety check, according to the agency and court documents.
A crew from the Cutter Richard Etheridge boarded the 45-Foot Sea Ray cabin cruiser, called Lady A, about eight nautical miles east of Haulover Inlet last Saturday afternoon, according to a Coast Guard Investigative Service’s criminal complaint.
Two men were on the boat. The boarding crew noticed panels containing the vessel’s bilge pump were manipulated, raising suspicion it was being used for smuggling, the complaint states.
The Etheridge escorted the Lady A to Station Fort Lauderdale, where Coast Guardsmen and agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Patrol inspected the vessel further, according to the complaint.
They noticed a concealed compartment inside the cabin, and when they opened it, they found 68 bricks of cocaine and 14 bricks of marijuana, the complaint states. The loads weighed 156 pounds and 26 pounds respectively, according to the complaint.
One of the men on the boat, Rudalph Junior Hylton, told agents after being read his rights that he and the other man on the boat, Aldon Delano Brown, are Jamaican nationals. Hylton, 34, said he drove the boat from Fort Lauderdale to Jamaica about a month ago, and while there, he was offered $100,000 to take the vessel back to Florida loaded with the drugs, according to the complaint.
Packages of cocaine and marijuana are displayed on the ground at Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. The load was confiscated by a Coast Guard crew that boarded a cabin cruiser off Haulover Inlet earlier that day, according to the agency. U.S. Coast Guard
Agents looked through Hylton’s cell phone and saw texts and notes about hauling the drugs to Fort Lauderdale, and an exact location in the city to offload the contraband, the complaint states.
The Coast Guard said in a statement that the street value of the total haul is about $1.3 million.
“Our crew is committed to keeping drugs off the streets and protecting America’s borders,” Lt. Zane Carter, commanding officer of the Cutter Richard Etheridge, said in a statement.
It’s not immediately clear from available court records if Brown was also arrested. Hylton faces charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and importation of a controlled substance within the United States.
He is being represented by federal public defenders, and his arraignment is scheduled for March 9 in Fort Lauderdale.
Miami Herald
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.