26165: 26159: Hermantin(News)Coast Guard intercepts boat loaded with Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Miami Herald


Posted on Fri, Sep. 02, 2005


ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Coast Guard intercepts boat loaded with Haitians
A boat full of Haitian migrants with a woman who is about nine months' pregnant 
was intercepted by the Coast Guard.
BY WANDA J. DeMARZO
wmdemarzo@herald.com

The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a boatload of Haitian migrants Thursday 
morning, little over a week after they snared another boat of Haitian migrants 
loaded with $450,000 worth of hashish oil, authorities said.

The Coast Guard would not say where Thursday's migrant boat was stopped, and 
The Herald was unable to reach the U.S. Border Patrol, which has responsibility 
for returning them to Haiti.

The boat, carrying 21 migrants, was spotted before 11 a.m., by the Coast Guard 
Cutter Gannet, based in Fort Lauderdale.

PREGNANT MIGRANT

As guardsmen transferred the migrants to the Gannet, a woman who is about nine 
months pregnant began complaining of pain. She was taken to the Fort Lauderdale 
Coast Guard Station, according to 7th District Petty Officer Dana Warr. 
Hollywood Fire Rescue rushed the woman to Memorial Regional Hospital in 
Hollywood. Her condition was not available Thursday.

If she delivers birth before being returned to Haiti, then by law, she will be 
allowed to stay in the U.S. with her child. However, it was not known yesterday 
how close she was to having her baby.

The other migrants will most likely be repatriated, said Zack Mann, senior 
special agent and spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Mann noted that the other boat that was stopped, on Aug. 24, was carrying more 
than just people.

HASHISH SMUGGLER

The U.S. Customs officers intercepted the 23-foot boat just after midnight, 
about 9 miles off the coast of Haulover Beach in North Dade. Marine enforcement 
officers boarded the boat and found $8,920 in U.S. currency and 90 pounds of 
hashish oil worth more than $450,000.

Officers arrested Jose Rios, 32, believed to be the captain of the boat, at the 
scene.

They later discovered that the boat had been reported stolen from a local boat 
rental agency the day before.

All 13 migrants were turned over to the Coast Guard for repatriation. The 
narcotics, currency and Rios, whose last known address was in Fort Lauderdale, 
were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Miami Office of 
Investigations. Rios has been charged with alien and drug smuggling.

Mann said it is very unusual to find Hashish contraband with migrants trying to 
enter the country by boat.

''It's very unusual. Most of it goes to Canada, but we do see it from time to 
time -- more often in cargo shipments out of Jamaica,'' he said.