--- title: Suspects Captured After 20-Hour, High-Speed Boat Chase description: Three alleged boat thieves led law enforcement officials on a high-speed chase off the Florida coast for nearly 20 hours, authorities said. canonical: https://time.com/4162016/boat-chase-florida/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-28T15:05:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:02:15.575Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Suspects Captured After 20-Hour, High-Speed Boat Chase og:description: “It was like something out of a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie" og:url: https://time.com/4162016/boat-chase-florida/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Suspects Captured After 20-Hour, High-Speed Boat Chase twitter:description: “It was like something out of a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Suspects Captured After 20-Hour High-Speed Boat Chase  by [Melissa Chan](/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 28, 2015 3:05 PM CUT  by [Melissa Chan](/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 28, 2015 3:05 PM CUT Three alleged boat thieves led law enforcement officials on a high-speed chase off the Florida coast for nearly 20 hours before they were captured by the Coast Guard, [authorities said Sunday](http://www.sheriffleefl.org/main/index.php?r=news/index&id=14155 "undefined"). The action started about 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve when the suspects rammed a local sheriff’s office boat and took off with the stolen 36-foot vessel capable of speeds up to 75 miles per hour, the Lee County Sheriff’s office said. “It was like something out of a _James Bond_ or _Mission Impossible_ movie,” Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott said at a press conference, [according to the Fort Myers _News-Press_](http://www.news-press.com/story/news/crime/2015/12/27/officers-say-stolen-boat-chase-like-nothing-theyve-seen/77948094/ "undefined"). The alleged thieves were able to outrun law enforcement at first, but they were pursued for over 300 miles into the night and detained off Mexico after they gave up, authorities told the newspaper. David Llanes Vasquez, 33, Vidal Farfan-Ramirez, 23, and Raul De La Vega Sauri, 25, were arrested on multiple charges including burglary and larceny. The boat, which is worth $350,000, was later returned. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4162016/boat-chase-florida/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4162016/boat-chase-florida/"},"headline":"Suspects Captured After 20-Hour High-Speed Boat Chase","datePublished":"2015-12-28T15:05:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:02:15.575Z","description":"“It was like something out of a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie\"","url":"https://time.com/4162016/boat-chase-florida/","keywords":["Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4162016/boat-chase-florida/","name":"Suspects Captured After 20-Hour High-Speed Boat Chase"}}]}] ```