Migrants’ arrival in the Florida Keys leads to human smuggling arrests

Two South Florida men are behind bars on human smuggling charges after a group of migrants arrived in the Florida Keys earlier this week.

On Thursday, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office reported stopping a vehicle that was seen picking up “possible migrants that reportedly had just landed in the area.” Several passengers admitted they had recently arrived nearby on a makeshift vessel.

Authorities on Friday arrested the boat’s captain and the driver of the car, identified as 38-year-old Jesus Herrera Belett of Key West and 56-year-old Jesus Medina Esquijarosa of Miami. Records show Herrera Belett faces multiple counts of human smuggling, while Medina Esquijarosa is charged with multiple counts of accessory to human smuggling.

“I want to thank the men and women of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Border Patrol who worked hard in partnership on this case,” Keys Sheriff Rick Ramsay in a Saturday statement. “I am disappointed the U.S. Attorney’s Office remains unwilling to pursue human trafficking incidents in the Florida Keys. Nonetheless, the Sheriff’s Office and the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office will continue taking these cases in order to hold people accountable and deter this ongoing human trafficking crisis, unlike the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

Human smuggling cases, especially those involving migrants, are typically prosecuted under federal statutes.

Thursday’s landing marked the first migrant arrival in the Florida Keys in several months, following a period when such incidents were occurring on a weekly, sometimes daily basis.

A Miami Herald reporter at the scene after Thursday’s arrival observed three men, two women and a couple of children speaking in Spanish while standing with law enforcement officers, though the group’s nationality remains unknown. The Herald also found a pile of wet clothes, two children’s backpacks and food at the end of a street in Tavernier where the ocean meets the shore, suggesting the group swam to land and changed into dry clothing.