15432: (Hermantin) Smuggler takes on human cargo (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2003

Smuggler takes on human cargo
Bahamas boatman ferries illegal immigrants to Florida
BY GARY KANE
Palm Beach Post

NASSAU, Bahamas -In a grassy lot behind a food store and coin laundry, atop
a large boat trailer, rests D.Z.'s moneymaker.

''I've got two new outboards waiting on the dock,'' he said, running a hand
across the boat's wave-beaten hull. ``I've got to put it back to work. It's
a work boat, you know what I'm saying?''

D.Z. is a smuggler, dealing only, he insists, in human cargo. For obvious
reasons, he doesn't want his name published in a newspaper.

''I'm an entrepreneur,'' he asserted. ``I bring people to their dream.''

The dream has given birth to an underground cottage industry in this nation
of islands, some just a few hours by boat from the Florida coast.

It's the dream of people fleeing such impoverished countries as Haiti and
Ecuador and such repressive regimes as those in China and Cuba.

Cashing in on the dream are men like D.Z., owners of small boats who are
willing to take the risk of smuggling these migrants into Florida.

''The risk out there is great because it's an ocean, you know. And then you
have the Defence Force of the Bahamas. You have the Coast Guard. You have
the United States Immigration and Customs,'' said D.Z.

With 30 inhabited islands, the Bahamas has long been a smuggler's pipeline
into the United States.

''The Bahamas is the doorstep to the United States,'' D.Z. said with a
smile. ``Everyone comes through the Bahamas.''

GOOD MONEY

A stocky fellow who just turned 50, D.Z. gives the impression that smuggling
migrants isn't necessarily a get-rich-quick endeavor. He's given to wearing
scuffed sandals and polo shirts. He tools around the island in a rattling
Jeep with a gap in the dashboard where thieves pilfered the radio.

''I'm not too concerned about, um, the big money. If I can live comfortable,
it's cool,'' he said. ``But on any given day, you know, you get 10 people,
you try to get 10 people to the United States, and you get them safe there,
you're looking at $30,000.''

And where else can you make that kind of cash for six or seven hours of work
-- roughly the time it takes to motor from Nassau to the Florida Keys?

For now, D.Z. equates a comfortable lifestyle with a new two-bedroom house
on the southern end of the island. It's modest compared with some of the
mansions sprouting in the hills west of Nassau (several built with drug
money, D.Z. suggests). But it's a larger house than that of most Bahamians,
particularly black Bahamians, he said.

The rambunctious squeals of D.Z.'s two little girls echo off the living room
walls. The room is bare, the floor concrete. It's here that D.Z. often will
hide passengers immediately before smuggling them into the United States.

''When it's time to move people, you don't want to have people all over the
place, picking up people,'' he explained. ``So whenever you say it's time to
move, with the weather permitting, everyone is there, you know, and you
could take them right to the vessel and pull out.''

On such occasions, D.Z. moves his wife and children into a hotel, primarily
to protect them from a possible raid by Bahamian immigration officials.

He said he's dabbled in the business for 17 years. During that time, he did
run a few shipments of drugs but claims to have turned his back on that
trade long ago.

''Drugs are death,'' he said.

Trafficking in human beings is a noble cause, at least in his world, D.Z.
maintains.

'This might seem to be a paradox. Here I be, on one side breaking the law
against United States' policy of illegal entry, bringing in immigrants,
right? But in the meantime, I would be most delightful to call the Coast
Guard or any other agency that I see if I see a drug boat out there.''

D.Z. is quick to put a political spin on smuggling human cargo. He argues
that the U.S. maintains a double standard in its treatment of refugees from
Cuba and Haiti. Whereas the U.S grants asylum to political refugees from
Cuba who reach the Florida shores, it repatriates Haitians who manage to
scramble ashore, he said.

''The Cubans can go and they're accepted with open arms and the Haitians,
who are black, are sent back,'' he said. ``It's racist.''

He added that he never smuggles Haitians out of Haiti.

`HAITIAN PROBLEM'

''No, no, no. My concern is getting them out of here,'' he said. ``I don't
see why I shouldn't help the people to get them out because the Bahamas
can't absorb them. And in the meantime, I make a few dollars.''

No one really knows how many Haitians live in the Bahamas. The government
has put the number as high as 40,000, but the United Nations and other
groups estimate the number that the Haitian population has reached 60,000.
The influx has strained schools, hospitals and social services, prompting
Bahamians to dub the situation ``the Haitian problem.''

To D.Z., the solution to the problem is a boat trip away.

''The bottom line is that the United States is the greatest nation on the
Earth, and they are obligated to help these people,'' he said.

With his boat in dry dock, D.Z. relies on income from a few rental
properties he owns and brokers passage for other migrant smugglers. Two days
earlier, he tried to help a Cuban man from Lake Worth who was attempting to
get his wife out of the Bahamian detention center for illegal aliens.
Earlier this day, four young Haitian men boarded a boat to head for Florida
-- a trip arranged by D.Z.

''All people who are in this business are known by each other,'' he said.
``So, as my boat is down now with the engines, I can always refer them to
another person.''

BUSINESS CONTACTS

D.Z. is never without his cellphone and is always willing to scribble his
number for a prospective passenger. During an afternoon trek into the
outskirts of the city, he gave his number to three Haitians living in
squatters' shacks. They wear donated clothes, grow vegetables for food and
income, and appear to live in abject poverty. These are Haitians who will be
smuggled into Florida, D.Z. says.

''Some have jobs, jobs that no Bahamians will take. And one thing about
Haitians, if they have five dollars, they spend one dollar for food and save
the rest,'' he said. ``Also, we have a lot of Haitian people who are in
South Florida. And some of them have become successful in businesses and
they send money to the Bahamas.''

GROUP RATES

D.Z. charges between $1,500 and $3,000 for passage to Florida. The cost
depends on the number of passengers on a run. In effect, he offers a group
discount. He never takes more than 10 passengers at a time and never makes
the voyage at night. He'd rather risk being spotted than not be able to see
what's around him in the water. He won't discuss the logistics of the trip
to Florida. He does use GPS, a global positioning system, for navigation,
and says he has life jackets for his passengers.

D.Z. is more concerned about storms than the threat of Bahamian law
enforcement. Because so many Haitians try to get into the Bahamas, the Royal
Bahamian Defence Force has focused attention on intercepting vessels
entering the islands, not leaving them.









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