The U.S. Border Patrol is keeping a group of at least 42 Haitians in custody on Tuesday who allegedly arrived illegally on a beach in Key Biscayne, an island in the Bay of Miami (southeast Florida). , the federal agency reported.
As reported today on Twitter by Thomas G. Martin, head of the U.S. Border Patrol in the Miami sector, “42 Haitian citizens were placed in the custody” of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after ” of this afternoon’s event, ”a likely case of human trafficking.
The officer added that a ship involved in the alleged human trafficking “will be confiscated” and that “the event is currently under investigation.”
Several local television networks captured from the air the moment Coast Guard and CBP units surrounded a pleasure boat in which the migrants allegedly arrived.
Also the moment when some of them were stopped on a road near Crandon Park Beach, located on the tourist islet of Key Biscayne, which also houses a large residential area.
Local 10 News showed kneeling and handcuffed three of the men the officers had tracked down after the illegal landing and then arrested on the Crandon Boulevard average.
Witnesses to the landing pointed officers in the direction that two men had fled through a golf course located in the Crandon Park area.
According to this medium, officers received a call around 3pm local time on Tuesday about possible migrants who had illegally landed in this area.
Officers from the U.S. Border Patrol and the Florida Wildlife Conservation and Fisheries Commission (FWC) responded to the call and tracked the area down to locate the migrants.
Initially, Officer Martin had reported about 23 Haitians arrested, but later updated the figure to 42 in what he called “a maritime smuggling event.”
Haiti suffered an earthquake last week that left at least 2,200 dead, more than 12,000 injured and devastated.