Havana/Cuban Yunio Pelegrin Luis and Ecuadorians William Ortiz Romero and Flavio Lema Mayancela face charges of migrant smuggling after being arrested on September 15. The three were trying to illegally introduce 20 migrants into the United States aboard a boat, a crime that can be punished with up to five years in prison. public The New Herald.
The agency stressed that Pelegrin Luis does not have authorization to be in the country, while Ortiz Romero and Lema Mayancela have expulsion orders.
For their part, the six Ecuadorians, 13 Chinese and one Dominican who were transported on the boat were taken ashore by the Coast Guard for processing and subsequent deportation.
According to initial investigations, the Palm Beach County Police Department’s radar located a suspicious vessel last week and notified the Coast Guard. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Air and Marine Operations confirmed that it was a 27-foot boat with two outboard motors.
The Palm Beach County Police Department’s radar located a suspicious vessel last week and notified the Coast Guard.
According to the federal criminal complaint filed Monday by US authorities, tracking confirmed that the vessel was heading east from Bimini, in the Bahamas.
The crossing is one of the routes that coyotes use to smuggle migrants. The route has been reactivated due to the difficulties of introducing migrants to the United States by land from Mexico.
The route begins in Panama, where migrants arrive from different countries. From there they travel by plane or cruise to the Bahamas. The coyote takes them to Bimini Island, where they board boats or fragile vessels bound for Florida in exchange for charges that range between 16,000 and 20,000 dollars.
Last August, Customs Air and Maritime Operations agents stopped a boat about 22 nautical miles from Miami-Dade County that was transporting 19 people from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
In early 2025, federal agents intercepted several vessels clandestinely transporting Chinese citizens from the Bahamas to southern Florida. One of them reached the coast and disembarked 26 people from China in Coral Gables.
