#4612: Cubans, Haitians, picked up by Border Patrol; smuggling suspected (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Posted at 2:58 p.m. EDT Friday, July 14, 2000 
 Cubans, Haitians, picked up by Border Patrol; smuggling suspected
 BY HERALD ONLINE STAFF 

 The Border Patrol picked up two groups of undocumented immigrants this
 morning -- five Cubans who landed in the Keys and 23 Haitians who
landed on Fisher Island. The Cubans -- five men and a woman -- were
found by the Monroe County Sheriff's Department on Duck Key around 5
a.m. The immigrants told U.S. Border Patrol agents that they left
Cárdenas, Cuba, in a 13-foot wooden boat with a single inboard diesel
engine on Tuesday, according to Border Patrol spokesman Joe Mellia.
 At 1 a.m., 23 Haitians were spotted at Fisher Island by the U.S. Coast
Guard. The group was made up of nine men, nine women, four boys and a
girl. They told the Border Patrol that they left Haiti about a week ago
in a stolen motor boat and left the boat when they landed. No boat was
found by the Coast Guard or Border Patrol, Mellia said. It is believed
both groups were smuggled, Mellia said. The Cubans were in good health
and showed no signs of a three-day boat journey and the distance between
Haiti and Florida is too great to make by motor boat, according to
Mellia. All of the immigrants are at Krome Detention Center this
afternoon.