About a dozen illegal migrants aboard a multi-million-dollar yacht were chased by a Coast Guard vessel Monday night before the yacht sliced up onto the sand at Haulover Beach, causing all aboard to hop onto American sand and scatter in every direction.
Because authorities were tracking the yacht, police, Border Patrol agents and other federal authorities were there in moments scrambling in a half-mile radius and rounding up the migrants.
A Border Patrol spokesperson said some were Haitian, Jamaican and Sri Lankan. It’s not known whether some migrants were able to avoid authorities and slip into the community.
Authorities announced they have apprehended 17 suspects so far.
Two Cuban men are being charged with organizing the smuggling operation.
Agents stood at the lowered rear door of a government pick up truck and counted stacks of cash seized from aboard the yacht in US and Bahamian currency, suggesting the smugglers may have been Bahamian. If true, it would be the second human smuggling operation run out of the Bahamas in recent months.
Last year, several arrests were made after Bahamian smugglers caused the death of several migrants in Palm Beach County.
Included in the migrants were women and children, as well as one man still clutching a large, dog-eared Bible.
“Boom!” said eyewitness Camilla Andronicos, “Like a big explosion” police descended on the scene from every direction, chasing migrants into neighborhoods, under bridges, behind shrubs. “It was crazy.” She said some of the migrants were tasered by police.
Another eyewitness shot video from his iPhone that showed the Coast Guard vessel chasing the yacht at moderately fast speed before the yacht made a pitch for the shoreline. The speed was enough for the forward half of the yacht to joust out of the water, while evening waves continued to pound the stern. Deep tire ruts could be seen at the yacht, indicative of rapidly arriving police beach vehicles.
The migrants will be held in jail and processed through the legal system. Usually, they identify which among them are the smugglers, who are then prosecuted and generally face severe prison terms. Cuban migrants can remain free in the U.S. if they reach dry land. But other nationals, even those fleeing the earthquake devastation in Haiti, are prosecuted and returned to their homelands.
This smuggling operation marks the first time Haitians have been caught trying to leave their ravaged nation since the earthquake struck earlier this year.
