Man busted with boatload of migrants who arrived near the Miami River, feds say
A U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat crew stopped a boat nearing the Miami River on Sunday night that was smuggling more than a dozen migrants from two countries, according to federal court documents.
Then Coast Guard sailors boarding the twin-engine Stamas boat also found a Glock handgun in the vessel’s center console that had a Miami Police Department logo engraved on the weapon, as well as the name of a person who was not onboard, a Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint states.
The boat was being tracked by a law enforcement air crew as it traveled from the Bahamas to South Florida, the complaint states. As the vessel was less than a mile from entering the river around 7:30 p.m., federal agents say the Coast Guard crew pulled it over.
The boat’s operator, 26-year-old Dariel Perez Cespedes, immediately told the Coast Guard about the gun. There were eight people besides Perez Cespedes on the deck, and Perez Cespedes told the Coast Guard that they were hanging out on the water around Miami all day, per the complaint.
The Coast Guard crew looked in the vessel’s cabin and found another six people, agents said.
HSI agents say 13 of the people are migrants not legally allowed to enter the U.S. Six are from the Dominican Republic and seven are from Ecuador, the complaint reads. There was also a woman on the boat who, like Perez Cespedes, is a U.S. citizen, the complaint states, adding she was not taken into custody.
The Coast Guard took Perez Cespedes and the migrants to the agency’s base in Miami. The migrants were then placed on the Cutter Rollin Fritch, the complaint states. The Coast Guard typically takes migrants who use the Bahamas as a jumping off point to enter the U.S. back to that nation, whose government processes them for removal back to their homeland.
HSI agents looked at the GPS data from Perez Cespedes’ boat, which shows it traveled from Bimini to South Florida that day, according to the complaint.
Perez Cespedes invoked his right to remain silent, court records show. Information about his legal counsel was not immediately available. He is facing several migrant smuggling counts.
The Miami Police Department did not immediately respond to the Herald’s request to questions about the gun found on the boat.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 6:07 PM.
