Chinese migrants picked up in Gables were headed to Orlando, man tells feds. Boat found
Federal agents have four men in custody who they say were part of a human smuggling operation that brought almost 30 people from China to Coral Gables Tuesday morning.
The attempt was foiled around 8 a.m. after someone called 911 to report people were being loaded into vans near the Snapper Creek Marina in southern Coral Gables, where homes fetching millions front Biscayne Bay.
Coral Gables police officers stopped two vans — one at the intersection of Old Cutler Road and Kendall Drive, and another at 11600 Old Cutler Road — and found 26 people inside the vans who were from China.
Boat found off Key Biscayne
Around 8:30 a.m., Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office marine patrol deputies stopped a 29-foot Well Craft center console boat near Crandon Channel Marker 9 in Biscayne Bay off Key Biscayne.
While onboard, deputies immediately found tell-tale signs the boat was involved in smuggling and had dropped the people off in the mangroves near Snapper Creek, according to a Homeland Security Investigations complaint filed Wednesday.
READ MORE: Two smugglers detained after 20-plus Chinese migrants found in vans in Coral Gables: cops
The deputies not only found mangrove tree leaves matted to the boat’s floor and on the vessel’s Bimini top roof, but also branch scratches on the hull. Most incriminating, according to the complaint, was a candy wrapper with Asian writing that matched candy that was carried by some of the migrants found in the vans, according to the complaint.
Agents and officers from several law-enforcement agencies also found a black fanny pack with U.S. currency inside and a cooler with many bottles of water, which the report states “is typically associated with alien smuggling.”
Van drivers identified
The two men driving the White Ford vans were Eustacio Francisco Eusebio and Joel Benjamin Eusebio, according to the complaint. Joel Eusebio is from the United States and Eustacio Eusebio is a citizen of the Dominican Republic, the complaint states.
Both were taken to the Customs and Border Protection station in Dania Beach — as were the Chinese citizens. None of the Chinese citizens had paperwork allowing them to enter the U.S., agents said.
Eustacio told federal agents that he received a call from a man asking him to pick up the people, whom he referred to as “tourists,” and drive them to Orlando, according to the complaint. He was to be paid $200 per person, he told the agents, according to the complaint.
Joel Eusebio told agents that Eustacio called him asking him to help transport the people, the complaint states. It was not immediately clear if the two are brothers.
Meanwhile, the man caught piloting the boat — Guillermo Elias Victor Lopez — told agents he was tasked with picking the people up from another boat in Biscayne Bay and that he “dropped them off “at the bushes,” according to the complaint.
Lopez told agents the boat is his, and that he bought it two months ago for $5,000, agents said. Agents said Lopez showed them a vessel decal that did not match the Well Craft, according to the complaint.
Lopez said another man named “Enrique” dropped him off in a red pickup truck earlier at Crandon Park Marina in Key Biscayne, where he launched the boat, the complaint states.
Cops found the red Ford pickup at the marina and determined that it was in Immokalee, Florida — about 130 miles away from Key Biscayne on the Gulf Coast — around 4 p.m. Sunday, then in Hialeah around 5:40 p.m. later that day, according to the report.
At the marina, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations agents arrested a man named Enrique Loret de Mola, who they say was getting into the pickup.
Loret de Mola told agents that a man named “Lazaro” told him to pick up the boat and take the vessel to the marina, which he said he did the day before, according to the complaint.
The complaint did not state where Loret de Mola and Lopez are from. However, Miami-Dade property records show Lopez owns an apartment on Southwest Ninth Terrace in Miami.
All four men face charges of transporting, moving or attempting to transport aliens within the United States and conspiracy to transport the aliens in the United States, according to the complaint.
Second Coral Gables migrant incident
READ MORE: Cuban smuggler promised $5K, then caught with over 20 Chinese migrants in Miami: feds
The incident comes two weeks after three Cuban men were taken into federal custody after they were found smuggling Chinese migrants in a U-haul van near Snapper Creek, around the same area where the migrants were found on Tuesday.
In the U-haul incident, the men were hired to transport more than 20 migrants, most of them Chinese, but were stopped by police after a witness reported seeing a woman being shoved into a car.
The Bahamas has long been a jumping off point for Florida-bound migrants, and Chinese nationals are no exception. Over the years, they have boarded boats from Grand Bahama, taking them directly to Palm Beach County. What makes the recent arrests stand out is that they were not apprehended with other migrants.
Earlier this month, for example, the U.S. Coast Guard handed over 11 Chinese migrants to Bahamian authorities after they were interdicted at sea in two separate incidents, according to Bahamas Immigration. One group was interdicted by U.S. Coast Guard near Hillsborough, Florida, along with two Bahamian smugglers in a 25-foot cabin cruiser and another in a vessel near Biscayne Boulevard by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In May 2023, 24 undocumented Chinese migrants were apprehended in separate incidents in Grand Bahama and Bimini.
Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 3:50 PM.
