NORTHEAST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Authorities said they have taken two people into custody after they found large quantities of drugs inside a boat docked at Haulover Marina.
The discovery comes after, investigators said, the subjects on board the vessel attempted to outrun police before they fled into a gated community in Bal Harbour.
Their attempted escape was captured on cellphone video by another boater. It showed officers on board a police boat chasing the vessel before El Inmortal’s occupants abandoned ship and began running.
7News cameras captured crime scene tape surrounding the El Inmortal boat, Monday afternoon.
The “El Inmortal” is about to be “El Impounded” because of what was found on it: drugs.
They were found and collected by local, state and federal officers after an encounter off Bal Harbour. Authorities found 36 bales of marijuana on the vessel.
“There’s a boat trying to flee from me traveling south on Indian Creek Canal,” a Bal Harbour Marine Patrol Officer said over the radio.
As they tried to stop the boat before 10 a.m. Labor Day morning, police said, those on board hopped out and ran into Bal Harbour’s exclusive gated residential community.
“A Black female, two Black males, two Hispanic males running behind 226 Bal Bay Drive,” the officer said.
As of late Monday, two were caught, but at least two got away.
“It looks like immigrants or drugs,” the officer said.
It was the latter, as they’d find out after bringing El Inmortal to the Haulover Marine Center boat launch.
Hours after the boat was brought there and minutes after it was towed away, officials were still at the scene conducting the end of their investigation, at least from the standpoint of the Haulover Boat Ramp.
Earlier Monday evening, it was an odd scene, as people were finishing up their Labor Day holiday, riding in on their boats to a multi-agency investigation.
Before that, it was officers in choppers and in boats trying to hunt down drug runners.
Sources told 7News the search extended well beyond the Bal Harbour area. Even though authorities seized the drug boat and all the drugs, their work appears far from finished.
As of Tuesday night, two men have not been caught.
Homeland Security Investigations officers are continuing to investigate the incident.
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