He was told, ‘Babysit this, and we will be straight.’ He’s now in federal custody
A boat came ashore in Palm Beach this week carrying five people trying to illegally enter the United States, as well as more than 40 pounds of marijuana, according to federal court records.
The U.S. Border Patrol arrested one person from the Bahamas, one Jamaican and three people from Haiti, said Nestor Yglesias, spokesman for Homeland Security Investigations, the agency handling the case.
Three people from the boat may still be on the run, court documents suggest.
The 20-foot Bayliner Trophy cabin cruiser in which they sailed landed at The Beach Club members-only club at 755 N. County Rd. shortly before 5 a.m. Monday, according to an HSI complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
Palm Beach police initially found one man, Rommell Miller, from the Bahamas, on the beach and took him into custody. It’s not clear from the complaint when and where authorities found the other four people, and Yglesias said that is part of the investigation.
About an hour later, a Border Patrol agent searched the Bayliner and found two nylon bags containing six packages of marijuana, according to the complaint.
Miller told agents that he was contracted to smuggle 10 pounds of marijuana from Bimini to Freeport two weeks ago. He said he did not know until he arrived at the boat that the cargo also included people, according to the complaint.
He told agents he tried backing out of the trip, but the organizers of the deal said the contraband was already paid for, and it was Miller’s obligation to oversee the shipment from Freeport to Florida, the complaint states.
Miller said the marijuana was packed on the boat Sunday when he got to the dock.
“Truthful part. I never knew how much dope it was,” he said, according to the complaint.
Millet told agents that one of the two Jamaican organizers of the shipment told him right before the boat set sail for Florida to “babysit this, and we will be straight,” meaning the people and drugs, the complaint states.
Including himself, Miller told agents a total of eight people made the journey. Security camera footage from The Beach Club showed eight people leave the boat, according to the complaint.
