see also: in June 2008:   CBP in New Orleans Offers Tips for International Air Travelers for Summer Season   CBP Offers Tips for International Air Travelers in Memphis for Summer Season   U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Host San Diego Hiring Event   Baltimore CBP Recovers Stolen Vehicle Being Shipped Overseas   Border Patrol Agents Seize Cocaine, Methamphetamines and Marijuana   Canada, U.S. Sign Arrangement to Align Security Standards for Cross-Border Business   CBP, Texas Strengthen Partnership to Ensure Border Security ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

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Miami – U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine air crews Sunday discovered a man clinging to a capsized go-fast boat hundreds of miles south of Jamaica during a counter-drug patrol Sunday. Search and rescue coordinators at U.S. Coast Guard's Seventh District Command Center in Miami are organizing a search for three persons reported missing from the vessel.

While conducting law enforcement patrols, a Customs and Border Protection P-3 Advanced Early Warning maritime patrol aircraft, stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas, detected a target of interest with its domed radar system and directed a second Customs and Border Protection P-3 Long Range Tracker, stationed in Jacksonville, Fla., to investigate.

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The crew of the tracker located the boat and observed a man clinging to the hull of a capsized go-fast vessel 235-miles south of Jamaica. The aircrew contacted the District Seven Command Center and coordinators requested the closest merchant vessel recover the man. Once aboard the ship the man reported three other people from the boat were unaccounted for.

Upon report of the three missing people, controllers diverted Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma, tasked a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft from Air Station Clearwater and the Customs and Border Protection P-3 LRT from Jacksonville, which made the first discovery, to conduct searches in the area.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.