MIAMI, Fla. (CBS12) — A fishing trip quickly unraveled into one of South Florida’s largest cocaine busts when federal agents intercepted a vessel carrying nearly 1.7 metric tons of the drug just miles from Miami‘s shoreline.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that three men from the Dominican Republic pleaded guilty in federal court to their roles in the operation, which prosecutors say was designed to flood South Florida with cocaine. Erasme Catalino Paulino Rodriguez, 35; Joseito Diaz De Oleo, 48; and Ober Alexander Villavicencio Jimenez, 36, admitted to conspiring to import a controlled substance after their boat was stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard late last year.
The bust happened Dec. 2, 2025, about six nautical miles off Government Cut in Miami-Dade County. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Coast Guard crews stopped the 65-foot sport-fishing boat Best Bet and escorted it to Coast Guard Station Miami Beach. Once on land, law enforcement officers discovered what they weren’t expecting from a pleasure boat — 1,694 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside secret compartments.
Court documents show the men had sailed east from Miami to a prearranged drop spot near the Turks and Caicos. There, they met a smaller vessel crewed by four other Dominican men. Duffel bags packed with cocaine were transferred boat-to-boat, concealed aboard the Best Bet, and the crew headed back toward Miami. They never made it.
Three Dominican men pleaded guilty after federal authorities intercepted their boat just off Miami, uncovering nearly 1.7 metric tons of cocaine hidden on board following a drug pickup near the Turks and Caicos. (US DOJ)
“This was a large-scale maritime cocaine smuggling operation aimed at bringing nearly 1.7 metric tons of poison into South Florida,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement. He added that the volume of drugs would have fueled “addiction, violence, and cartel profits on a massive scale,” calling the guilty pleas a major disruption to a trafficking pipeline.
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Each man now faces serious prison time. Federal law requires a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years behind bars, and the men could receive sentences of up to life in prison. A federal judge will decide their fate after reviewing sentencing guidelines and other legal factors.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations, with help from the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, and the FBI.
Federal officials say the prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative, a multi-agency effort created to target transnational criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, gang activity, and human smuggling.