Vans transporting 26 Chinese migrants stopped in Florida, 2 smugglers detained
An investigation was underway in Coral Gables, Florida, after officers intercepted two vans that were transporting more than two dozen Chinese migrants Tuesday morning.
Coral Gables Police officials said they received a call just after 8 a.m. from an alert citizen about migrants possibly being transported in vans.
Officers responded and stopped one van in the area of 88th Street and Old Cutler Road and the other at 11600 Old Cutler Road.
Between the two vans, there were 26 Chinese migrants including 17 men and 9 women who were in the process of being transported to an unknown location, police said.
'We believe they came by boat, they came into a secluded area around the southern end of Coral Gables,' Police Chief Ed Hudak said.
The two smugglers, a Cuban and a Puerto Rican, were detained by police, and a firearm was recovered, Hudak said.
Aerial footage from Chopper 6 showed law enforcement at the scene patting down several people and escorting them to a city trolley.
Multiple agencies responded to the scene, including Customs and Border Patrol and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. U.S. Homeland Security Investigations was taking over the investigation, police said.
'There is no place for human smuggling in the city of Coral Gables, much less the state of Florida. We must target illegal immigration head-on, using our experienced state and local agencies,' FDLE Special Agent in Charge in Miami John Vecchio said.
The incident comes just days after more than two dozen people were taken into custody in Coral Gables in what authorities said was a human smuggling operation.
Hudak said it's believed Tuesday's incident was another another human smuggling operation and said it appears the smugglers are using a canal area that leads to a private marina.
'They came ashore basically in the same area, the two vans went in two different directions,' Hudak said. 'I can't definitively say they're connected but this is one of those things where it was very very similar to what we had two weeks ago.'
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