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Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
NHSP share summer safety tips for drivers, boaters Summer season begins
Memorial Day weekend unofficially kicks off the summer season, and New Hampshire State police are reminding all residents and visitors to stay safe. Traffic volumes increase on the state's scenic highways and waterways in warmer weather. Troopers encourage everyone to follow safe driving practices, like buckling up and complying with speed limits. Anyone traveling with children should also ensure car seats are properly installed and used. Marine Patrol Officers are reminding everyone enjoying the Granite State's beautiful lakes, ponds, and rivers to practice basic boating safety: always wear a life jacket – it's the law for children under 13 – and check water temperatures before boating or swimming. Boaters should also dress appropriately, file a float plan, and carry a marine radio or cell phone in a waterproof case in the event their watercraft becomes disabled or if they need help. NHSP is recommending the following: Avoid impairment. If consuming alcohol, designate a sober driver or use a rideshare service. Don't drive if medication impairs perception or motor skills. Avoid distractions. Drivers should keep their hands on the wheel, their eyes on the road, and their phone in the console. Let someone else choose the music – just keep the volume low enough to hear outside warnings. Avoid aggressive operation. Comply with speed limits to perceive, react to, and avoid hazards. Maintain safe distances between other vehicles or boats. Look carefully for oncoming traffic before merging or turning. Adjust for conditions. Heavy rain can reduce visibility and cause ponding on roadways. Drivers should always operate for conditions and reduce speed to avoid hydroplaning. On the water, high winds can create rough waters, and boaters should decrease speed to prevent capsizing. By adhering to these tips, drivers and boaters can help prevent injuries and deaths across the state. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
Police who boarded unmanned Sarasota boat stress importance of using engine cut-off switches
The Brief Sarasota police chased down and boarded an out-of-control unmanned boat Monday. The boat's operator was not utilizing the boat's emergency engine cut-off switch, according to police. Police are using Monday's incident as a teaching opportunity to stress the importance of using engine cut-off switches. SARASOTA, Fla. - The officers in Sarasota who chased down and boarded an unmanned, out-of-control boat on Monday are using it to show why emergency engine cut-off switches are so important. The officers were able to turn off the engine before a possible disaster. A large wake threw the vessel's operator overboard as the boat was traveling about 40 mph. "There were three vessels that departed from Marina Jack," said Officer Ron Dixon, a captain with the Sarasota Police Department's Marine Patrol. "They were headed back to their home port. The operator that was on the smaller boat that got thrown off was behind a larger boat that had cut in front of him. While he was navigating that wake, he maybe had turned a little too hard and was actually thrown off of the vessel." What they're saying "Obviously, he was a little dazed by that. When he got his wits about him, he noticed that the boat was actually circling towards him, and according to him, passed within five feet of him," said Dixon. PREVIOUS: Florida officer leaps onto runaway boat after man thrown overboard The operator of the 26-foot Everglades vessel broke two fingers in his left hand from the impact with the water. According to Sarasota police, he wasn't wearing a life jacket or utilizing the emergency engine cut-off switch. "He was very apologetic. He was very happy that he was alive and uninjured, just, you know, just his left hand," Dixon said. "These emergency cut-off switches are so important. If he would have been wearing one, none of this would have happened." If a vessel operator falls overboard, an emergency cut-off switch immediately turns the engine off. According to Dixon, wireless and Bluetooth cut-off switches are also available. Timeline The incident happened in the middle of the Intracoastal Waterway north of the Ringling Museum. Dixon said he was on scene in about five minutes, and his first priority was to keep all other boaters away from the area. He said no one realized initially that the boat was unmanned. "That vessel was traveling 40 miles per hour. By itself, it could have T-boned any of the many vessels that were transiting through the area," Dixon said. "It was a very, very dangerous situation there in the beginning." He called for backup, which included Lieutenant Bruce King. READ: Clearwater Ferry crash: Jannus Live owner's attorney addresses 'misinformation' as investigation unfolds The Sarasota Police Marine Unit, the Coast Guard, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, Venice Police Department and SeaTow worked together to try several times to slow the vessel's motor with towlines. Those attempts were unsuccessful. Then, SeaTow deployed a plasma towline that slightly slowed the vessel. "That little bit was enough to say let's try it again [hopping aboard the boat]," King said. King said his gut told him the first attempt wasn't right before that. "The boat was doing circles. It was not doing a perfect circle. So, it was migrating kind of in a northeast direction," King said, describing the second attempt. "It would have eventually hit somebody or someone. So, we took our shot, and I wouldn't have done it with anybody else but Ron Dixon or Michael Skinner. Our two boat captains are very skilled." Dixon maneuvered close enough to the vessel for King to hop on board and shut it off. "I calculated it. Ron had it perfectly set up. Mike was holding me. I took the jump, and it wasn't until afterward that, you know, you get the adrenaline dump and say, 'Wow, that was pretty neat," King said. "We had to do something because this boat was going to hit somebody or someone at some point," King said. "This happens a lot, too much, and unfortunately for local and state agencies, we are unable to enforce when they're not wearing it [the cut-off switch]," Dixon said. "That's a federal law. Coast Guard can write them [up], but us being out there and seeing it all the time, we educate, and that's about all we can do." The federal law requires operators of recreational boats under 26 feet long to use an engine cut-off switch. Prior Incidents Dixon also responded to a similar incident in 2020 that tragically took the life of 10-year-old Ethan Isaacs. He was out with Sarasota Youth Sailing when, the FWC said, his instructor fell off his boat and wasn't wearing an emergency cut-off switch. That boat ran into Ethan and killed him. "He was in the sixth grade and a really smart, joyful kid, just full of life and wanted to be a geologist one day," said Mindy Isaacs, Ethan's mom. "It's really just not worth the risk of losing a child. I mean, that day that Ethan was on the water, there were 16 other kids on the water in the area. I don't think people really realize often, too, the danger of a propeller," said Mindy Isaacs. READ: Family of Clearwater Ferry crash victim mourns loss as investigation continues: 'We need justice' "I mean, my dad described it like a saw in the water, and it's lurking under the water. It's not something that you always see when you're out on the water, and you're in the boat, but to really understand that when that boat becomes, you know, unmanned, no one is controlling it, and you have something similar to a saw in the water, that the damage, potential damage that it could cause," said Mindy Isaacs. Ethan's Law went into effect in 2022 and mandates that boating instructors and coaches on vessels 26 feet or smaller must wear an engine cut-off switch in Florida. His parents say an engine cut-off switch should be a requirement for all boat operators. "It's very upsetting," said Greg Isaacs, Ethan's dad, about Monday's incident. "It's sort of triggering when that happens. The engine cut-off switch should be like your seatbelt. You should automatically put it on every time you start the engine on a boat. It really could save your life, and as we saw yesterday, a lot of the first responders ended up risking their lives to bring the boat into control." "Ethan, we know, would have made a difference in the world, just given, you know, his intellect and who he was as a person, and he would be someone that would consider other people's safety," said Mindy Isaacs. "So, it is really sad to think that, you know, this had to happen when it could have been prevented." Big picture view Officers who responded to Monday's incident said they had just gone to a training session for this type of maneuver two weeks ago. They said if you see an unmanned boat out of control, get out of the area, warn others and call 911. CLICK HERE:>>>Follow FOX 13 on YouTube The Source FOX 13's Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story. WATCH FOX 13 NEWS: STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
Police say 1 tool could have prevented runaway boat in Sarasota Bay
SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) – A Sarasota officer jumped from the agency's marine unit onto an unmanned vessel to bring it to a stop Monday after the operator of the boat was thrown overboard while trying to navigate the wake. At the time, the boat was traveling at around 40 mph. Police said the operator broke two fingers upon impact with the water. WATCH: Unmanned boat circles at high speed in Sarasota after boater thrown overboard 'When he came and got his wits about him, he noticed that the boat was actually circling towards him, and according to him, passed within five feet of him, so almost getting struck by his own boat,' said Officer Ron Dixon. Officer Dixon is a Captain with Marine Patrol, who responded to the scene, finding the boat circling out of control. Until backup arrived, he worked to keep other boaters away from the unmanned vessel. Other agencies responded and eventually, Lt. Bruce King found himself jumping onto the unmanned vessel to bring it to a stop. 'There really was no anxiety in that job. I calculated it. Ron had it perfectly set up, Mike was holding me, I took the jump,' said Lt. King. 'It wasn't until afterwards that you get the adrenaline dump and say 'Wow, that was pretty neat' and I'm glad we were able to do it without colliding with his boat, with me going overboard, or between the boats. It all worked out really well.' Officers said one tool could have prevented all of this. It is known as a kill switch or an engine cut-off switch. There is a federal law that requires boat operators to use the device, but because it is the Coast Guard's jurisdiction, local and state officers cannot enforce it. FWC says boat operator is 'cooperating'; 'no alcohol' found in his system after ferry crash Lt. King said they work to encourage and educate boaters about the importance of the tool every chance they get. 'I would probably say over 90% of the people don't wear that cut-off switch,' he said. In this case, nobody was hurt by the unmanned boat. But responding officers said a case five years ago was in the back of their minds as they responded to this call. In 2020, 10-year-old Ethan Isaacs' life was cut short after he was struck by his sailing instructor's unmanned boat. Since then, his parents have advocated for boater safety. Man dies, 10 hurt in Clearwater ferry crash The family helped pass Ethan's Law, which requires water sports instructors in Florida to wear the engine cut-off switch. The Isaacs' hope to see lawmakers pass another bill requiring all operators to wear the device. 'There were 16 other kids in the water that day that Ethan lost his life and he was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. He was wearing his life jacket, he was in his sailboat, he was following instructions and yet he still lost his life because someone was not wearing the engine cut-off switch. We can all think it is not gonna happen to me, we didn't think it was going to happen to our son and yet it did,' Ethan's mother, Mindy Isaacs, said. She hopes to see the engine cut-off switch prioritized when it comes to boater safety, like a seatbelt is in cars. His father wants to remind boaters that the tool not only protects boat operators, but everyone around them. 'In the video, you can see the danger that law enforcement was in just to bring this boat to a stop. That is not necessary. It is not just your own life you are protecting, it is many other people,' said Greg Isaacs. The Sarasota Police Department wants to remind all boaters to always wear a life jacket and properly utilize the emergency engine cut-off switch to prevent accidents and injuries on the water. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Yahoo
How Coral Gables became a key end point for smuggled Chinese migrants
In Coral Gables, the tree-canopied streets remain as pristine as ever, the Mediterranean-style homes just as grand, and the city's police officers make regular rounds through the neighborhoods. It seems an unlikely place for a human smuggling operation. Yet, in recent weeks, two major busts resulted in nearly 50 migrants—mostly Chinese—being detained after arriving by boat from The Bahamas. Their arrests, along with seven men suspected of being smugglers, took place just blocks from the city's most expensive homes, where real estate ads boast eight-bedroom, 10-bath mansions bedecked with tennis courts, infinity pools and no bridges to the bay. Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak said his department has fortified patrols along the city's coastline, including dispatching marine patrol units and manning officers with drones and night-vision goggles. 'We continue to work with state and federal partners in the apprehension of smugglers and to protect those trying to come ashore,' Hudak said. The saga began on Jan. 17, when a woman was driving south on Old Cutler Road near Snapper Creek Lakes. As she was driving, something caught her eye. A U-Haul van sat parked with its doors open—yet there were no fishing supplies or gear inside, despite its proximity to R. Hardy Matheson Preserve, a fishing spot just south of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Next to the van was a Toyota Corolla with Texas license plates. Sensing something was off, she took down the license plate numbers and recorded a video to show a Coral Gables police officer. Just moments earlier, she had passed an officer near Sierra Circle off Old Cutler. He had mentioned that Marine Patrol had intel on human smuggling in the area. She had laughed, 'There's no way.' But as she neared the van, she saw a tall man, over 6 feet, forcing a woman into the backseat of the Toyota Corolla. She turned around, sped back to find the officer and showed him the video. 'I was obviously worried that he was going to think I was crazy, saying that somebody's being kidnapped at 9:30 in the morning on Old Cutler Road,' said the woman, who asked not to be identified due to her safety concerns. She says the officer immediately went after the U-Haul and Corolla. The department issued a 'be on the lookout' order and officers soon pulled them over. Inside the U-Haul, police found 23 people, including driver Jose Luis Villares, a Cuban citizen, according to a Homeland Security Investigations complaint. The passengers, migrants from China and Ecuador, were crammed into the cargo area with no seats or ventilation, concealed by cardboard taped over the windows. Two other Cuban citizens were in the Corolla: driver Lucas Sedeno Rodriguez and passenger Keiner Cicilia Rodriguez. Also in the car: two Ecuadorians and a Brazilian woman, seen earlier being shoved into the Toyota, according to the federal complaint. Less than two weeks later, on Jan. 28, Gables cops stopped two white vans, also off Old Cutler Road. This time, they found 26 Chinese migrants and charged four men with smuggling. Last Sunday, Feb. 9, a Customs and Border Protection patrol boat crew stopped a 25-foot vessel traveling from Bimini to South Florida, carrying 20 migrants and two men, whom agents say are smugglers. The 20 passengers were 12 Chinese nationals, seven Haitians and one Jamaican, according to the criminal complaint filed last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One of the alleged smugglers, Bahamian national Demetrius Luciano Kemp, admitted to agents that he was paid $2,000 for the trip and was expecting an additional payment after dropping the migrants off 'anywhere he could, whether at a beach or an inlet.' The Bahamas has long served as a departure point for migrants heading to Florida, particularly Cubans and Haitians. But the recent uptick in Chinese nationals using the island nation as a launching pad is drawing scrutiny from Bahamian and U.S. officials, a Bahamian official told the Miami Herald. Among their questions: Whether this is part of a larger smuggling operation or a growing wave of Chinese migrants who've been seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and are diverting to the sea. 'We are trying to gather some intelligence to find out what's going on,' said the Bahamian official, who believes the recruiters are U.S. based. 'We are trying to bring this to a head.' Florida has seen an influx of Chinese nationals since 2020, the start of the pandemic. In 2020, Florida Border Protection officers interacted with 406 Chinese migrants, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. By 2024, that number jumped to 723 — a 78 percent increase. Multiple reasons are leading to the surge, experts say. For one, China's stringent lockdowns during the pandemic, coupled with a weak housing market and high unemployment, has accelerated the Chinese exodus, say China experts. President Trump's tightening of the U.S. borders has made the land-based route much more difficult, leading smugglers to turn to the sea. Finally, Ecuador, which has been a jumping-off point for migrants, no longer allows visa-free travel for Chinese nationals, something The Bahamas does. 'Human smugglers are now trafficking Chinese migrants through new routes through the Bahamas and ending up in [places like] Coral Gables,' said Leland Lazarus, associate director of national security at Florida International University's Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy. With its labyrinth of canals, bays, waterways and lakes, and close proximity to The Bahamas and Cuba, South Florida long has been a favorite landing spot for smugglers. 'From the pirate days until now, South Florida and its water boundaries have been used for smuggling,' said Paul Petruzzi, a criminal defense attorney representing some of the alleged smugglers. 'Whether it's liquor, marijuana, cocaine or people. The smuggling routes never closed. Smuggling is like whack-a-mole. If there are enforcement operations in one place, the smugglers move somewhere else.' Typically, Cubans have crossed the Florida Straits on hand-built boats and makeshift rafts and come ashore in the Florida Keys and south Miami-Dade. Haitians often arrive on overloaded sailboats. And while migrants have long been smuggled to Florida from The Bahamas, the destination is usually farther north like Haulover Inlet at the northern tip of Miami-Dade and up to Palm Beach County. That's why the recent landings in Coral Gables gained so much attention. The witness to the Gables incident is a lifelong boater who said she started to piece together all the oddities she's noticed in the last few years. A Chinese migrant asleep in a homeowner's guesthouse, a friend told her. A man by the preserve crying, 'Help me, help me,'' only to be gone by the time police got there. The Snapper Creek Canal runs parallel to R. Hardy Matheson Preserve, a dense, wooded area bordered by mangroves in Biscayne Bay. The 813.8-acre preserve, operated by Miami-Dade County, is thick with gumbo limbos, strangler figs, slash pines, cabbage palms and other native trees, a secluded spot perfect for smugglers. Smugglers can sneak a boat into the mangroves, where people can slip into the muddy, swampy waters. They can hide in the preserve until it's clear for them to trek the nearly two-mile trail to Old Cutler Road, where vehicles are waiting for them near the preserve's entrance. The witness to the Gables incident says smugglers bring in people in small groups, disguising their movements with props like fishing rods and buckets. 'Five or six go in and 20 come out.' The trail from the bay leading to the preserve's entrance is rough, rocky and messy. Last week, plastic soda bottles, rusted fishing gear, dirty plastic bags, worn-out shoes, and a sun-bleached hat were strewn along the trail. One item stood out: a laminated page from a 2013 Cuban passport, belonging to a 5-year-old girl. The area has gotten more attention from law enforcement. On a recent Wednesday, Miami-Dade and Coral Gables marine patrol boats were patrolling the canal; last Saturday, Feb. 8, federal boats were out there. The driver who reported the U-haul and Toyota Corolla incident was asked by police to come back to the scene that day to make a statement. She was shocked to learn what came of her tip. READ MORE: Cuban smuggler promised $5K, then caught with over 20 Chinese migrants in Miami: feds 'The lady was sitting right in front of my car, the one that was pushed into the Toyota,' she said. 'She seemed exhausted. Her eyes were glassy. I gave her a bottle of water. She was a very pretty woman with simple jewelry.' Investigators later determined the migrants had arrived in South Florida by boat from The Bahamas. None had proper documentation to enter the United States, and their lack of luggage or personal belongings further suggested they were being smuggled rather than traveling as tourists, according to the federal complaint. During post-arrest interviews, federal investigators said Sedeno Rodriguez, the Corolla's driver, admitted to being recruited by a smuggler known as 'Miggy' to transport the migrants for $5,000. Villares said Sedeno promised him $500 to drive the U-Haul. And Cicilia Rodriguez, accused of renting the U-Haul, admitted traveling with the other two men that morning to pick up the migrants, the complaint said. The trio planned to drop off the migrants 'near a hardware store in Miami-Dade County,' according to the federal complaint. One of the Chinese migrants told NBC News that she chose to leave China after facing government retaliation for criticizing the country's 'zero-Covid' policy. 'China has no rule of law, no human rights and the people are governed by an emperor,' she told NBC News in Mandarin, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. 'All our freedoms have been stripped away and there's nothing left.' She traveled a dangerous route, flying from China to London, then to the Bahamas, before taking a boat from the island archipelago to Coral Gables to seek asylum. She paid a $10,000 deposit and was meant to pay another $22,000 upon safe arrival. Authorities detained the migrants and transported them to the Dania Beach Border Patrol station. 'A lot of times, any sort of smuggling, particularly that is going to be such a long way, is going to be several thousand dollars,' said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, a researcher with the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. 'We know, too, that if people in the community are looking to leave, it's very common that communities, families kind of come together and almost raise this money for people to leave. So it's not necessarily that someone is funding their own travel,' she said. READ MORE: Chinese migrants picked up in Gables were headed to Orlando, man tells feds. Boat found Eleven days after the first bust — on Jan. 28 — Coral Gables Police received a 911 call about people being loaded into a van on Snapper Creek Bridge along Old Cutler Road. Police stopped one van at the intersection of Old Cutler Road and Kendall Drive and another at 11600 Old Cutler, shutting down parts of the two-lane road during the morning rush hour. Inside the vans, officers found 26 migrants from China. Tom Cookson, an attorney who has lived on Sierra Circle since 1994, was on his daily commute to downtown Miami when he found himself stuck in standstill traffic on Old Cutler. Spotting numerous Coral Gables Police vehicles, he assumed there had been an accident. However, as he continued north, he noticed a group of people—mostly dressed in black—sitting against a wall surrounded by police near the intersection of Old Cutler and Kendall Drive. Given the Trump administration's recent promises of mass deportations, Cookson couldn't help but wonder if a raid had taken place. Cookson was surprised to learn about the smuggled Chinese migrants. Since he doesn't live on the water, it's easy to forget about the canals and waterways surrounding his neighborhood. 'Coral Gables is generally pretty quiet,' Cookson said. Authorities identified the van drivers as Eustacio Francisco Eusebio, 56, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, and his son Joel Benjamin Eusebio, a U.S citizen, according to a federal complaint. Eustacio told federal agents he received a call from a man asking him to pick up the individuals—whom he referred to as 'tourists'—and drive them to Orlando, according to the complaint. He said he was to be paid $200 per person. On the same day as that incident, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Marine Patrol deputies stopped a 29-foot Wellcraft center console boat near Crandon Channel Marker 9 in Biscayne Bay, off Key Biscayne. The boat was the one used to transport the migrants to the Snapper Creek Canal; it had been launched that same morning - Jan. 28 - near Crandon Park Marina in Key Biscayne, according to the Homeland Security Investigations complaint. Deputies found mangrove leaves matted to the boat's floor and its Bimini top, along with branch scratches on the hull. Most incriminating: A candy wrapper with Asian writing—matching candy carried by some of the migrants found in the vans, the complaint said. Guillermo Elias Victor Lopez, 60, the man piloting the boat, told agents he was instructed to pick up the migrants from another boat and transfer them onto his boat in Biscayne Bay. He was to 'drop them off at the bushes.' READ MORE: Two suspected of smuggling Chinese migrants into Coral Gables held until trial: Judge U.S. Magistrate Judge Eduardo Sanchez denied bond for Eustacio Eusebio, the Dominican, and Lopez, from Cuba, citing them as flight risks. A growing number of Chinese nationals are leaving due to China's faltering economy, said June Teufel Dreyer, a political science professor at University of Miami and an expert on China's economic and political system. 'Unemployment among college graduates is very high, and they've heard that high-paying jobs are plentiful here,' Teufel Dreyer said. 'Even the uneducated have heard that life is easier in America.' Added Lazarus of FIU: 'The anemic housing market, high youth unemployment, and burgeoning debt in provincial and municipal governments have combined to cause the most significant economic challenges that China hasn't seen in decades,' he said. COVID-19 — and the Chinese government's response to it — is also a significant factor, Lazarus said. 'The draconian lockdowns during COVID forced many small business owners to close down their businesses. Many of them still haven't recovered,' Lazarus said. Joel Leppard, an Orlando criminal defense attorney, has spent years defending accused smugglers. They're often recruited through word of mouth, meeting the right people at the right time in a restaurant or bar, Leppard said. 'Any kind of organized crime is typically a friend-of-a-friend situation,' he said. Those brought in as low-level members— such as van or boat drivers —are often financially desperate. 'They perceive it as low risk and high reward,' he said. 'But they typically don't understand the severe consequences they might be facing.' The judge who denied bond for Eusebio and Lopez said they face up to 10 years if convicted. Chinese migrants have long used The Bahamas as a smuggling route. But their numbers have been small and under the radar. Typically, they would travel by go-fast boats from Bimini and Grand Bahama's West End, often landing in Palm Beach County. But over the past few years, Chinese migrants, like other immigrant groups, have tried to enter the country at the U.S.-Mexico border. In the 2024 fiscal year, 38,000 undocumented Chinese encounters were registered at the U.S.-Mexico border by Border Patrol, a soaring 1,627 percent increase from 2,200 such encounters in the 2022 fiscal year, according to the Migration Policy Institute. With Trump focused on the U.S.-Mexico border, however, Chinese nationals desperate to flee their country are turning to other routes. The Bahamian official who spoke to the Herald said smugglers may be trying to outsmart Bahamian immigration authorities who have increased scrutiny at airports. The Bahamas, in a bid to get more Chinese visitors, lifted visa restrictions for Chinese citizens, which the official said may be driving the illegal migration. The majority of those caught in smuggling operations, he said, arrive via flights from Cuba, Panama and Jamaica and then overstay while waiting for their route out of the country to the United States. Bahamian officials began seeing 'a noticeable increase in Chinese and Ecuadorian nationals' arriving in the island nation at the end of 2023, according to a Bahamian immigration report. Lazarus, the FIU expert, said the migration trends have been influenced by increased U.S. enforcement at the southern border with Mexico. Chinese migrants often would take a route from China to Turkey, onto Ecuador and then trek across the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama before traversing through Central America to the southern border. However, that changed when Ecuador ended visa-free travel for Chinese nationals in July. An added concern for law enforcement, according to Lazarus, is whether any of the migrants have ties to Chinese crime syndicates that have taken over money laundering and illegal marijuana markets in the Western Hemisphere. 'These Chinese criminals often rely on illegal Chinese migrants to work on massive marijuana farms from Maine to Oklahoma,' Lazarus said. Miami Herald staff writers Devoun Cetoute, Charles Rabin and Linda Robertson contributed to this report.
Miami Herald
16-02-2025
- Miami Herald
How Coral Gables became a key end point for smuggled Chinese migrants
In Coral Gables, the tree-canopied streets remain as pristine as ever, the Mediterranean-style homes just as grand, and the city's police officers make regular rounds through the neighborhoods. It seems an unlikely place for a human smuggling operation. Yet, in recent weeks, two major busts resulted in nearly 50 migrants—mostly Chinese—being detained after arriving by boat from The Bahamas. Their arrests, along with seven men suspected of being smugglers, took place just blocks from the city's most expensive homes, where real estate ads boast eight-bedroom, 10-bath mansions bedecked with tennis courts, infinity pools and no bridges to the bay. Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak said his department has fortified patrols along the city's coastline, including dispatching marine patrol units and manning officers with drones and night-vision goggles. 'We continue to work with state and federal partners in the apprehension of smugglers and to protect those trying to come ashore,' Hudak said. The saga began on Jan. 17, when a woman was driving south on Old Cutler Road near Snapper Creek Lakes. As she was driving, something caught her eye. A U-Haul van sat parked with its doors open—yet there were no fishing supplies or gear inside, despite its proximity to R. Hardy Matheson Preserve, a fishing spot just south of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Next to the van was a Toyota Corolla with Texas license plates. Sensing something was off, she took down the license plate numbers and recorded a video to show a Coral Gables police officer. Just moments earlier, she had passed an officer near Sierra Circle off Old Cutler. He had mentioned that Marine Patrol had intel on human smuggling in the area. She had laughed, 'There's no way.' But as she neared the van, she saw a tall man, over 6 feet, forcing a woman into the backseat of the Toyota Corolla. She turned around, sped back to find the officer and showed him the video. 'I was obviously worried that he was going to think I was crazy, saying that somebody's being kidnapped at 9:30 in the morning on Old Cutler Road,' said the woman, who asked not to be identified due to her safety concerns. She says the officer immediately went after the U-Haul and Corolla. The department issued a 'be on the lookout' order and officers soon pulled them over. Inside the U-Haul, police found 23 people, including driver Jose Luis Villares, a Cuban citizen, according to a Homeland Security Investigations complaint. The passengers, migrants from China and Ecuador, were crammed into the cargo area with no seats or ventilation, concealed by cardboard taped over the windows. Two other Cuban citizens were in the Corolla: driver Lucas Sedeno Rodriguez and passenger Keiner Cicilia Rodriguez. Also in the car: two Ecuadorians and a Brazilian woman, seen earlier being shoved into the Toyota, according to the federal complaint. Less than two weeks later, on Jan. 28, Gables cops stopped two white vans, also off Old Cutler Road. This time, they found 26 Chinese migrants and charged four men with smuggling. Last Sunday, Feb. 9, a Customs and Border Protection patrol boat crew stopped a 25-foot vessel traveling from Bimini to South Florida, carrying 20 migrants and two men, whom agents say are smugglers. The 20 passengers were 12 Chinese nationals, seven Haitians and one Jamaican, according to the criminal complaint filed last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One of the alleged smugglers, Bahamian national Demetrius Luciano Kemp, admitted to agents that he was paid $2,000 for the trip and was expecting an additional payment after dropping the migrants off 'anywhere he could, whether at a beach or an inlet.' The Bahamas has long served as a departure point for migrants heading to Florida, particularly Cubans and Haitians. But the recent uptick in Chinese nationals using the island nation as a launching pad is drawing scrutiny from Bahamian and U.S. officials, a Bahamian official told the Miami Herald. Among their questions: Whether this is part of a larger smuggling operation or a growing wave of Chinese migrants who've been seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and are diverting to the sea. 'We are trying to gather some intelligence to find out what's going on,' said the Bahamian official, who believes the recruiters are U.S. based. 'We are trying to bring this to a head.' Florida has seen an influx of Chinese nationals since 2020, the start of the pandemic. In 2020, Florida Border Protection officers interacted with 406 Chinese migrants, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. By 2024, that number jumped to 723 — a 78 percent increase. Multiple reasons are leading to the surge, experts say. For one, China's stringent lockdowns during the pandemic, coupled with a weak housing market and high unemployment, has accelerated the Chinese exodus, say China experts. President Trump's tightening of the U.S. borders has made the land-based route much more difficult, leading smugglers to turn to the sea. Finally, Ecuador, which has been a jumping-off point for migrants, no longer allows visa-free travel for Chinese nationals, something The Bahamas does. 'Human smugglers are now trafficking Chinese migrants through new routes through the Bahamas and ending up in [places like] Coral Gables,' said Leland Lazarus, associate director of national security at Florida International University's Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy. Smugglers' paradise With its labyrinth of canals, bays, waterways and lakes, and close proximity to The Bahamas and Cuba, South Florida long has been a favorite landing spot for smugglers. 'From the pirate days until now, South Florida and its water boundaries have been used for smuggling,' said Paul Petruzzi, a criminal defense attorney representing some of the alleged smugglers. 'Whether it's liquor, marijuana, cocaine or people. The smuggling routes never closed. Smuggling is like whack-a-mole. If there are enforcement operations in one place, the smugglers move somewhere else.' Typically, Cubans have crossed the Florida Straits on hand-built boats and makeshift rafts and come ashore in the Florida Keys and south Miami-Dade. Haitians often arrive on overloaded sailboats. And while migrants have long been smuggled to Florida from The Bahamas, the destination is usually farther north like Haulover Inlet at the northern tip of Miami-Dade and up to Palm Beach County. That's why the recent landings in Coral Gables gained so much attention. Sneaking through the mangroves The witness to the Gables incident is a lifelong boater who said she started to piece together all the oddities she's noticed in the last few years. A Chinese migrant asleep in a homeowner's guesthouse, a friend told her. A man by the preserve crying, 'Help me, help me,'' only to be gone by the time police got there. The Snapper Creek Canal runs parallel to R. Hardy Matheson Preserve, a dense, wooded area bordered by mangroves in Biscayne Bay. The 813.8-acre preserve, operated by Miami-Dade County, is thick with gumbo limbos, strangler figs, slash pines, cabbage palms and other native trees, a secluded spot perfect for smugglers. Smugglers can sneak a boat into the mangroves, where people can slip into the muddy, swampy waters. They can hide in the preserve until it's clear for them to trek the nearly two-mile trail to Old Cutler Road, where vehicles are waiting for them near the preserve's entrance. The witness to the Gables incident says smugglers bring in people in small groups, disguising their movements with props like fishing rods and buckets. 'Five or six go in and 20 come out.' The trail from the bay leading to the preserve's entrance is rough, rocky and messy. Last week, plastic soda bottles, rusted fishing gear, dirty plastic bags, worn-out shoes, and a sun-bleached hat were strewn along the trail. One item stood out: a laminated page from a 2013 Cuban passport, belonging to a 5-year-old girl. The area has gotten more attention from law enforcement. On a recent Wednesday, Miami-Dade and Coral Gables marine patrol boats were patrolling the canal; last Saturday, Feb. 8, federal boats were out there. First big Gables bust The driver who reported the U-haul and Toyota Corolla incident was asked by police to come back to the scene that day to make a statement. She was shocked to learn what came of her tip. READ MORE: Cuban smuggler promised $5K, then caught with over 20 Chinese migrants in Miami: feds 'The lady was sitting right in front of my car, the one that was pushed into the Toyota,' she said. 'She seemed exhausted. Her eyes were glassy. I gave her a bottle of water. She was a very pretty woman with simple jewelry.' Investigators later determined the migrants had arrived in South Florida by boat from The Bahamas. None had proper documentation to enter the United States, and their lack of luggage or personal belongings further suggested they were being smuggled rather than traveling as tourists, according to the federal complaint. During post-arrest interviews, federal investigators said Sedeno Rodriguez, the Corolla's driver, admitted to being recruited by a smuggler known as 'Miggy' to transport the migrants for $5,000. Villares said Sedeno promised him $500 to drive the U-Haul. And Cicilia Rodriguez, accused of renting the U-Haul, admitted traveling with the other two men that morning to pick up the migrants, the complaint said. The trio planned to drop off the migrants 'near a hardware store in Miami-Dade County,' according to the federal complaint. One of the Chinese migrants told NBC News that she chose to leave China after facing government retaliation for criticizing the country's 'zero-Covid' policy. 'China has no rule of law, no human rights and the people are governed by an emperor,' she told NBC News in Mandarin, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. 'All our freedoms have been stripped away and there's nothing left.' She traveled a dangerous route, flying from China to London, then to the Bahamas, before taking a boat from the island archipelago to Coral Gables to seek asylum. She paid a $10,000 deposit and was meant to pay another $22,000 upon safe arrival. Authorities detained the migrants and transported them to the Dania Beach Border Patrol station. 'A lot of times, any sort of smuggling, particularly that is going to be such a long way, is going to be several thousand dollars,' said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, a researcher with the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. 'We know, too, that if people in the community are looking to leave, it's very common that communities, families kind of come together and almost raise this money for people to leave. So it's not necessarily that someone is funding their own travel,' she said. Second group picked up in Gables READ MORE: Chinese migrants picked up in Gables were headed to Orlando, man tells feds. Boat found Eleven days after the first bust — on Jan. 28 — Coral Gables Police received a 911 call about people being loaded into a van on Snapper Creek Bridge along Old Cutler Road. Police stopped one van at the intersection of Old Cutler Road and Kendall Drive and another at 11600 Old Cutler, shutting down parts of the two-lane road during the morning rush hour. Inside the vans, officers found 26 migrants from China. Tom Cookson, an attorney who has lived on Sierra Circle since 1994, was on his daily commute to downtown Miami when he found himself stuck in standstill traffic on Old Cutler. Spotting numerous Coral Gables Police vehicles, he assumed there had been an accident. However, as he continued north, he noticed a group of people—mostly dressed in black—sitting against a wall surrounded by police near the intersection of Old Cutler and Kendall Drive. Given the Trump administration's recent promises of mass deportations, Cookson couldn't help but wonder if a raid had taken place. Cookson was surprised to learn about the smuggled Chinese migrants. Since he doesn't live on the water, it's easy to forget about the canals and waterways surrounding his neighborhood. 'Coral Gables is generally pretty quiet,' Cookson said. Authorities identified the van drivers as Eustacio Francisco Eusebio, 56, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, and his son Joel Benjamin Eusebio, a U.S citizen, according to a federal complaint. Eustacio told federal agents he received a call from a man asking him to pick up the individuals—whom he referred to as 'tourists'—and drive them to Orlando, according to the complaint. He said he was to be paid $200 per person. Boat used by alleged smugglers found On the same day as that incident, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Marine Patrol deputies stopped a 29-foot Wellcraft center console boat near Crandon Channel Marker 9 in Biscayne Bay, off Key Biscayne. The boat was the one used to transport the migrants to the Snapper Creek Canal; it had been launched that same morning - Jan. 28 - near Crandon Park Marina in Key Biscayne, according to the Homeland Security Investigations complaint. Deputies found mangrove leaves matted to the boat's floor and its Bimini top, along with branch scratches on the hull. Most incriminating: A candy wrapper with Asian writing—matching candy carried by some of the migrants found in the vans, the complaint said. Guillermo Elias Victor Lopez, 60, the man piloting the boat, told agents he was instructed to pick up the migrants from another boat and transfer them onto his boat in Biscayne Bay. He was to 'drop them off at the bushes.' READ MORE: Two suspected of smuggling Chinese migrants into Coral Gables held until trial: Judge U.S. Magistrate Judge Eduardo Sanchez denied bond for Eustacio Eusebio, the Dominican, and Lopez, from Cuba, citing them as flight risks. The flight from China A growing number of Chinese nationals are leaving due to China's faltering economy, said June Teufel Dreyer, a political science professor at University of Miami and an expert on China's economic and political system. 'Unemployment among college graduates is very high, and they've heard that high-paying jobs are plentiful here,' Teufel Dreyer said. 'Even the uneducated have heard that life is easier in America.' Added Lazarus of FIU: 'The anemic housing market, high youth unemployment, and burgeoning debt in provincial and municipal governments have combined to cause the most significant economic challenges that China hasn't seen in decades,' he said. COVID-19 — and the Chinese government's response to it — is also a significant factor, Lazarus said. 'The draconian lockdowns during COVID forced many small business owners to close down their businesses. Many of them still haven't recovered,' Lazarus said. 'Low risk, high reward' Joel Leppard, an Orlando criminal defense attorney, has spent years defending accused smugglers. They're often recruited through word of mouth, meeting the right people at the right time in a restaurant or bar, Leppard said. 'Any kind of organized crime is typically a friend-of-a-friend situation,' he said. Those brought in as low-level members— such as van or boat drivers —are often financially desperate. 'They perceive it as low risk and high reward,' he said. 'But they typically don't understand the severe consequences they might be facing.' The judge who denied bond for Eusebio and Lopez said they face up to 10 years if convicted. The Bahamas connection Chinese migrants have long used The Bahamas as a smuggling route. But their numbers have been small and under the radar. Typically, they would travel by go-fast boats from Bimini and Grand Bahama's West End, often landing in Palm Beach County. But over the past few years, Chinese migrants, like other immigrant groups, have tried to enter the country at the U.S.-Mexico border. In the 2024 fiscal year, 38,000 undocumented Chinese encounters were registered at the U.S.-Mexico border by Border Patrol, a soaring 1,627 percent increase from 2,200 such encounters in the 2022 fiscal year, according to the Migration Policy Institute. With Trump focused on the U.S.-Mexico border, however, Chinese nationals desperate to flee their country are turning to other routes. The Bahamian official who spoke to the Herald said smugglers may be trying to outsmart Bahamian immigration authorities who have increased scrutiny at airports. The Bahamas, in a bid to get more Chinese visitors, lifted visa restrictions for Chinese citizens, which the official said may be driving the illegal migration. The majority of those caught in smuggling operations, he said, arrive via flights from Cuba, Panama and Jamaica and then overstay while waiting for their route out of the country to the United States. Bahamian officials began seeing 'a noticeable increase in Chinese and Ecuadorian nationals' arriving in the island nation at the end of 2023, according to a Bahamian immigration report. Lazarus, the FIU expert, said the migration trends have been influenced by increased U.S. enforcement at the southern border with Mexico. Chinese migrants often would take a route from China to Turkey, onto Ecuador and then trek across the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama before traversing through Central America to the southern border. However, that changed when Ecuador ended visa-free travel for Chinese nationals in July. An added concern for law enforcement, according to Lazarus, is whether any of the migrants have ties to Chinese crime syndicates that have taken over money laundering and illegal marijuana markets in the Western Hemisphere. 'These Chinese criminals often rely on illegal Chinese migrants to work on massive marijuana farms from Maine to Oklahoma,' Lazarus said. Miami Herald staff writers Devoun Cetoute, Charles Rabin and Linda Robertson contributed to this report.
