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…