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26165: 26159: Hermantin(News)Coast Guard intercepts boat loaded with Haitians (fwd)





From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Miami Herald


Posted on Fri, Sep. 02, 2005


ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Coast Guard intercepts boat loaded with Haitians
A boat full of Haitian migrants with a woman who is about nine months' pregnant was intercepted by the Coast Guard.
BY WANDA J. DeMARZO
wmdemarzo@herald.com

The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a boatload of Haitian migrants Thursday morning, little over a week after they snared another boat of Haitian migrants loaded with $450,000 worth of hashish oil, authorities said.

The Coast Guard would not say where Thursday's migrant boat was stopped, and The Herald was unable to reach the U.S. Border Patrol, which has responsibility for returning them to Haiti.

The boat, carrying 21 migrants, was spotted before 11 a.m., by the Coast Guard Cutter Gannet, based in Fort Lauderdale.

PREGNANT MIGRANT

As guardsmen transferred the migrants to the Gannet, a woman who is about nine months pregnant began complaining of pain. She was taken to the Fort Lauderdale Coast Guard Station, according to 7th District Petty Officer Dana Warr. Hollywood Fire Rescue rushed the woman to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. Her condition was not available Thursday.

If she delivers birth before being returned to Haiti, then by law, she will be allowed to stay in the U.S. with her child. However, it was not known yesterday how close she was to having her baby.

The other migrants will most likely be repatriated, said Zack Mann, senior special agent and spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Mann noted that the other boat that was stopped, on Aug. 24, was carrying more than just people.

HASHISH SMUGGLER

The U.S. Customs officers intercepted the 23-foot boat just after midnight, about 9 miles off the coast of Haulover Beach in North Dade. Marine enforcement officers boarded the boat and found $8,920 in U.S. currency and 90 pounds of hashish oil worth more than $450,000.

Officers arrested Jose Rios, 32, believed to be the captain of the boat, at the scene.

They later discovered that the boat had been reported stolen from a local boat rental agency the day before.

All 13 migrants were turned over to the Coast Guard for repatriation. The narcotics, currency and Rios, whose last known address was in Fort Lauderdale, were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Miami Office of Investigations. Rios has been charged with alien and drug smuggling.

Mann said it is very unusual to find Hashish contraband with migrants trying to enter the country by boat.

''It's very unusual. Most of it goes to Canada, but we do see it from time to time -- more often in cargo shipments out of Jamaica,'' he said.