Tractor frame seized at garage

  HAVANA - (AP) -- The men who converted a 1951 Chevy truck into a boat to sail to the United States were visited Saturday by police who hauled away the metal frame of an old tractor one had in his garage.

  No one was arrested in the police operation, said Marcial Basanta, one of the men involved in the unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to the United States last month.

  Eduardo Pedro Grass, who was also in the same group, said the officers thought they were trying to build another floating vehicle.

  The men denied that and said they are awaiting word from the U.S. government on their applications to emigrate legally. They said they expect to hear back from U.S. officials in September.

  The U.S. Coast Guard sent the group back to Cuba after a U.S. Customs plane spotted their unusual, bright-green truck-boat floating in the Florida Straits in July. The craft came within 40 miles of Florida.

  The truck-boat was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the bottom as pontoons. A propeller attached to the drive shaft was pushing it along at about 8 mph. On the craft were nine men, two women and one small child.

  The truck was sunk as a hazard to ocean navigation.

  Under U.S. immigration policies, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are allowed to stay while those caught at sea are usually returned.