Tagged: coast guard

A 48-year-old Denham Springs man has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after admitting he stole $127,600 in high-tech equipment from the U.S. Coast Guard and sold it to people in the United States, Sweden and Colombia.

The Advocate reports Raymond L. Beavers told U.S. District Judge James J. Brady Thursday he sold the equipment because of a gambling problem.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan A. Stevens said Beavers spent some of the money on tickets and trips to LSU athletic events.

The Coast Guard says it safely evacuated a man with heart disease from a sailboat in the Gulf.

In a news release, the Coast Guard said officials received a call early Thursday about a husband and wife aboard a 64-foot sailboat that was bound for Houston after a trip to Cozumel, Mexico.

The woman reported that the man, who had a history of heart disease, had slumped over and was unresponsive.

BP says it has plugged holes in a leaky containment cap that failed to stem oil gushing from its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The oil company may have to clear oil still inside the structure abandoned a few hundred feet from the sealed well.

The Coast Guard says openings in the discarded cofferdam have been closed off, but Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Ed Markey says he wants BP to do more. He wants all remaining oil removed from the cap and other equipment still on the sea floor. He also wants to see the underwater footage taken of the repair operation.