Feds bust migrant smuggling arrival in Florida Keys — then they declined to prosecute
Federal agents watched as a boat dropped 20 migrants onshore along a remote Florida Keys road, get into two pickup trucks and travel to the mainland over the weekend.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, Border Patrol agents and local police waiting in Florida City stopped the trucks Sunday night, detaining the migrants and the five men accused of smuggling them.
But despite the foiled smuggling operation, which included 13 people from Ecuador and seven from China, the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to file charges, according to Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay.
“It’s way confusing, and it’s very concerning,” Ramsay told the Miami Herald.
This, however, doesn’t mean the men were set free. Agents told the sheriff’s office about the federal prosecutors’ decision. Shortly thereafter, Ramsay and Monroe State Attorney Dennis Ward decided to take the case and charge the men with state human smuggling.
“If they won’t do their jobs, we’ll do ours and let people know that if you commit a crime in Monroe County, you’re not going to get away with it,” Ramsay said.
The five men accused of smuggling the migrants are: Humberto Tamayo, 48, of Miami; Omar Livan Ripoll Perez, 28, of Miami; Dianelys Perez Escourido, 44, of Miami; Joel Gil Egued 48, of Cape Coral; and Victor Victor Febales Gualpa, 38, of West Palm Beach.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a question about the case from the Herald. The men arrested are being held on a bond of $100,000 in Monroe County jail on 20 counts each of human smuggling, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
“The Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office do not condone criminal behavior and will always work to hold people accountable,” Ramsay said in a statement.
The U.S. Border Patrol was alerted to vehicles coming into Monroe County related to a “maritime human smuggling event” that happened earlier this month, according to a sheriff’s office report on the case provided to the Herald.
The report shows Border Patrol and Customs agents followed the vehicles — pickup trucks — as they traveled north from Key Largo to County Road 905, otherwise known as Card Sound Road. It’s one of two main roads that connects the Keys to the mainland.
The pickups subsequently traveled back south on Card Sound Road to Key Largo, then north on the 18 Mile Stretch of U.S. 1, which is the other road from the Keys to the mainland, and the one most people take, the report states.
Once on the mainland, federal agents and Florida City police stopped the two pickups, each containing 10 of the migrants, according to the report.
Agents took the migrants and five men accused of smuggling them to the Border Patrol’s station in the Middle Keys city of Marathon, according to the report.
Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined for now to pursue charges, Nestor Yglesias, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations, said the case is still under federal investigation.
“Homeland Security Investigation agents responded and is investigating this case and working closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Yglesias said.
