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Maritime Interdiction Agents from the Miami Marine Unit of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted a smuggling vessel off the coast of Miami early Sunday morning, April 26, resulting in the detention of 25 individuals, including an alleged human trafficker.
The vessel, measuring 28 feet, was sailing without navigation lights about five nautical miles east of Miami when it was detected by radar around 12:30 a.m.
Despite the darkness, the agents were able to locate her and approach her thanks to the detection technology they operate with.
According to the confirmation from the Regional Executive Director of CBP AMO Southeast Region, Andres Blanco, via the agency's official account, the vessel was operated by an alleged trafficker and was carrying 24 additional occupants of multiple nationalities attempting to illegally enter the United States.
Among the intercepted migrants were Haitian, Romanian, Colombian, Bahamian, Moldovan, and Jamaican citizens, highlighting the multinational nature of the human smuggling networks operating in South Florida.
All detainees were transferred to the Coast Guard patrol vessel USCGC Winslow Griesser for processing.
The vessel was seized for violating Title 8 of the United States Code, Section 1324, the federal law that penalizes the smuggling and illegal transportation of individuals.
The case was referred to HSI Miami (Homeland Security Investigations of the Department of Homeland Security) for the criminal investigation of the trafficking networks involved.
The tactic of sailing without lights is a common practice among smuggling vessels to evade visual detection, banking on the assumption that authorities lack radar or night vision technology.
In this case, CBP's technology proved crucial in thwarting the attempt.
This operation is not an isolated incident. In August 2025, the same unit intercepted a vessel with people from Cuba, China, and the Dominican Republic off the coast of Miami, in a case also referred to HSI, with the ship seized under the same federal law.
In January 2025, two Cubans were arrested in Miami for trafficking undocumented Chinese migrants, in a joint operation by the Miami Sector Border Patrol and the Coral Gables police. That same month, the United States returned 12 detained Cuban rafters in southern Florida waters.
The simultaneous presence of citizens from Eastern Europe—Romania and Moldova—alongside Haitians, Colombians, Bahamians, and Jamaicans in the same vessel points to the use of transnational trafficking networks that recruit migrants from various regions of the world to smuggle them illegally into the United States by sea.
The federal law under which the vessel was seized imposes penalties of up to 10 years in prison for each migrant transported illegally, and can reach life imprisonment in cases involving fatalities. A Cuban faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars on similar charges of human trafficking in southern Florida.
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