Vans packed with Chinese migrants stopped in Florida, 2 smugglers arrested
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (WFLA) — A 911 call led Florida law enforcement to intercept two vans that were transporting over two dozen Chinese migrants Tuesday morning.
Coral Gables police said they received a tip about migrants possibly being smuggled into the area around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
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One van was stopped in the area of 88th Street and Old Cutler Road, and the other at 11600 Old Cutler Road, according to reports by NBC 6 South Florida.
Between the two vans, authorities said they found 26 Chinese migrants, including 17 men and nine women. It's unclear where their final destination was intended to be.
'We believe they came by boat. They came into a secluded area around the southern end of Coral Gables,' Police Chief Ed Hudak said during a press conference.
The two alleged smugglers were detained by law enforcement. Officials said they were of Cuban and Puerto Rican decent and were armed.
The migrants were later loaded onto city trolleys, with video from NBC 6 South Florida's chopper showing them being patted down before boarding.
Several other agencies responded to the scene, including Customs and Border Patrol and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Officials said U.S. Homeland Security Investigations would be taking over the investigation.
'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.
Authorities believe Tuesday's incident was the second human smuggling operation stopped in Coral Gables within recent weeks. More than two dozen migrants were taken into custody in a similar incident just days before.
'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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