Coast Guard stops boat trying to smuggle 23 people from four countries into the U.S.
An unusually diverse group of would-be migrants populated a 25-foot cabin cruiser the U.S. Coast Guard stopped 11 miles east of Pompano Beach Saturday.
After the Coast Guard Cutter Bernard C. Webber halted the boat, crew counted six Chinese women, 11 Haitian adults, four Haitian children, one Colombian woman and one woman from Guyana. The Coast Guard said three of the women from China got caught last year trying to sneak into the country.
Four of the Chinese women, the Guyanese woman and one of the Haitian adults were turned over to Customs and Border Protection. The Royal Bahamian Defense Force took the remaining 17 people.
This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 4:51 PM.
David J. Neal
Miami Herald