Feds indict 23 men in migrant smuggling cases
Federal prosecutors unveiled indictments charging 23 with attempted
smuggling of more than 200 Cubans over the past year.
Posted on Wed, May. 07, 2008
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI AND JAY WEAVER
aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com
Upping the ante in a year-long crackdown on migrant smugglers, federal
prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a dozen indictments charging 23 men with
attempting to sneak scores of Cubans into South Florida by boat.
The indictments, issued in a single day by a federal grand jury in Key
West, represent the biggest blow delivered to the underground
migrant-smuggling industry since a federal task force last year began
targeting the loosely organized criminal rings that have long operated
here with relative impunity.
The cases encompass 12 separate smuggling trips that took place over the
past year, including one that landed 23 Cubans on Summerland Key last month.
The other 11 operations ended with interdictions at sea by the U.S.
Coast Guard -- a sign that investigators are reaping increasing success
in disrupting smuggling ventures while they are underway, in part by
cultivating informants who provide advance notice of trips.
''We do investigations and provide the Coast Guard information they can
use in their interdictions,'' said Anthony Mangione, special agent in
charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for Miami and a
participant in the smuggling task force. ``I think we're doing pretty
well in intercepting these operations. We're getting better at it, and
the Coast Guard is putting a lot of resources into this. I think you
will see more and more of these cases.''
NOT LINKED
Prosecutors say the 12 indictments, issued by the grand jury on April
25, are not linked, but represent typical small-scale operations that
usually pay off big for the smugglers -- as much as $60,000 a trip for a
boat captain, for instance. The 12 ventures carried a total of more than
200 Cubans, according to the indictments.
Investigators believe there is no major organization behind the
smuggling networks, but, rather, small groups that operate here and in
Cuba to coordinate the illegal crossings, Assistant U.S. Attorney George
Karavetsos said.
The newest cases underscore what authorities say is the recklessness of
the smugglers and the high financial stakes involved in getting their
passengers to U.S. shores.
One dangerously overloaded speedboat intercepted last year carried 39
Cubans. In three instances, alleged smugglers are charged with ignoring
orders to stop and leading the Coast Guard on high-speed chases in the
dark that imperiled passengers.
Typically, the smugglers aren't paid until they deliver their Cuban
passengers to dry land, where they are usually released and eventually
receive legal residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act. If intercepted
at sea, they are usually returned to Cuba.
One smuggling suspect, Orlando Magrinat, of Miami, ran his 36-foot
Carrera Sport speedboat aground just off Summerland Key in the early
morning of April 21 with 23 passengers on board while traveling at 40
knots to evade a pursuing Coast Guard vessel, according to a criminal
affidavit. The passengers -- who all managed to reach land safely --
said they had agreed to pay $10,000 apiece for the trip from Cuba to
Florida.
U.S. Border Patrol agents and Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies
found all the passengers hiding in mangroves. Magrinat was found nearly
five hours after the landing, also in the mangroves. Two migrants
identified Magrinat as the boat operator, according to the affidavit.
The announcement of the indictments comes a month after prosecutors
unveiled eight indictments charging 18 Cuban Americans with plotting to
sneak more than 200 Cubans into South Florida by boat in separate
operations since 2005.
STRATEGY SHIFT
Until recently, immigrant smuggling across the Florida Straits received
at best sporadic attention from prosecutors, and then typically only in
cases involving deaths.
U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta began targeting migrant smugglers in
the fall of 2005 after several people died at sea in botched operations.
Since then, investigators say, they have learned to apply techniques
used to target drug smugglers and money launderers to the
migrant-smuggling rings. They also credit improved sharing of
information and coordination among agencies under Homeland Security.
''You are seeing a real maturing of the agency and the operations
meshing together as they're supposed to,'' ICE's Mangione said.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said there has been a dramatic upswing in
migrant smuggling operations.
Coast Guard Cpt. Scott Buschman, commander of the Key West sector, said
his crews tallied more than 300 go-fast boat smuggling incidents last
year, up from about 200 in 2006.
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