Florida Coast Guard detained 100 people for human smuggling

As defined by the United States Department of Immigration and Customs Human smuggling is the crime by which the transportation of people who voluntarily try to enter a country illegally is facilitated. Although it is often confused with human trafficking (which is when people are exploited for forced labor or sexually exploited), under US law they are two very different categories.

“Human smuggling is dangerous and illegal. Smugglers exploit vulnerable people for profit, regardless of whether they put their lives at risk. “Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson, Commander of the 7th Coast Guard District and Southeastern Task Force of the Department of Territorial Security.

And is that the coast guard in Florida has extensive experience identifying operations of this type of crime. Between last Sunday and Tuesday, the coast guard, in collaboration with other federal and local agencies, detained 100 people on the coasts of the Florida peninsula, preventing three different attempts at human smuggling..

“Air and maritime operations have the objective of patrolling the waters of the Florida Straits and, together with our allies, we strive every day to defeat the efforts of smugglers who do not respect anything,” he said. Gerald Burgess, Coast Guard spokesman.

Last Sunday, 43 people were arrested off the coast of Jupiter, in eastern Florida. These people were part of an operation that the authorities suspected of human smuggling. A man is behind bars and facing federal charges for this crime. Detainees, if they are not US citizens, are deported to their home country. The authorities did not report which countries the detainees came from.

On the same Sunday, 26 other people were arrested in a similar operation off the coast of Ocean Boulevard.. The following Tuesday, 28 people were detained off the coast of Pompano Beach., who were trying to get to Florida. As it has transpired, as part of that operation, a group of 26 other people would have managed to reach Florida without being previously intercepted by the coast guard, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Although in these cases there is no confirmation of the country of origin of the people trying to arrive illegally by sea to the United States, it is known that due to the proximity these types of vessels often arrive from Cuba. Since last October, federal authorities have intercepted 400 Cuban citizens at sea being transported in human smuggling operations.

The number of these types of operations has been increasing in recent months to the point that If the trend continues, we could be at the point of the greatest smuggling of people from Cuba to the United States in the last five years. An understandable fact given the precarious situation that exists on the island under the communist dictatorship.

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