00:00It's alleged a pirog ferrying an illegal load of copper from Airene to Venezuela
00:06capsized around 6 a.m. on Saturday just off the Airene coastline with three people on board.
00:12The boat's captain, a Trinidad and Tobago national and two Venezuelan nationals,
00:16a man and a woman, held on to the vessel's fuel tank and began drifting.
00:21At some point, the captain left the pair and swam to shore near Constance Beach in Icarcas.
00:26He alerted residents before leaving the area.
00:30On Saturday afternoon, Cedrus police were alerted to a body on the Icarcas shoreline.
00:35Officers along with the Coast Guard and Defense Force responded
00:39and determined that it appeared to be that of a Venezuelan man.
00:43Up to Saturday night, authorities along with the Hunter Search and Rescue Team
00:46were still combing the southwest peninsula for the missing woman.
00:51Captain of the HSRT Valence Rambarat provided an update concerning the recovered body,
00:56which the Venezuelan migrant community has identified as Julio Lopez.
01:02His body washed ashore in Icarcas here this evening and that body has since been processed.
01:09Still outstanding is a female who was with him clinging on to the gas drum.
01:14So we're here, we're going to run our search starting in a short while to see if we can locate
01:20her.
01:21The name given for the woman is Nicole Landeta.
01:24Hours of searching had yielded nothing.
01:27Rambarat providing another update at 4 a.m. on Sunday.
01:31We've just completed a search from Icarcas, the Gulf, and other areas,
01:38but thus far we've been unable to locate anything, so the search will resume tomorrow.
01:46TV6 News contacted Rambarat on Sunday afternoon for a further update
01:50after a post on social media indicated that land data had been found alive.
01:54The initial report that she was alive was posted by her aunt in Tokopita,
02:02but that has subsequently been removed.
02:05I'm in contact with her sister and the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard,
02:09and we've confirmed that she's still missing.
02:13Okay, so the search is continuing?
02:16Yeah, the search is continuing.
02:18I could indicate to you with certainty that the Coast Guard operations are continuing,
02:26together with the Air Guard.
02:29And you all are resuming search as well, or...?
02:32Well, based on the information we just received, we have to resume searches.
02:37I have to now look at the tides,
02:40because the only area we didn't search is an area where an area of mangrove
02:47where the low tide wasn't low enough for us to get into.
02:51Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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