19 in custody after coming ashore in Jupiter Island Monday

Elliott Jones, Will Greenlee6:51 AM, Aug 3, 2015
2 hours ago

MARTIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
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JUPITER ISLAND — Nineteen suspected immigrants were apprehended Monday morning on southern Jupiter Island just north of Tequesta, according to law enforcement officials.

Martin County Fire Rescue is taking 11 of them to hospitals.

Their medical conditions aren’t immediately available, but Scott Bovee, assistant chief of Jupiter Island Public Safety, said there was nothing life threatening.

Among the 19 were 16 adults and three children, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. The U.S. Border Patrol is handling the incident as a smuggling operation.

Bovee said that about 6:30 a.m. Monday, officers got a report that about 19 or 20 “immigrants had come ashore on Jupiter Island beaches.”

“They were able to find 19 people within a few minutes. We were very fortunate,” Bovee said. “The people had reported to us that there were 20 on the boat including the boat captain.”

Bovee said he suspects the captain dropped the 19 off and then left.

“A few of them that spoke to us, and one of them in particular that’s providing intelligence information, he said they were from Haiti,” Bovee said.

Bovee said they were turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody.

All 19 are suspected to be here illegally.

Some have been taken to a Border Patrol station in Riviera Beach, said Border Patrol Agent Frank Miller.

The last landing of immigrants in Martin County this year was in May, when 19 people came ashore by boat at Sailfish Point, an exclusive gated community on the oceanfront at the St. Lucie Inlet. They came in a used a 26-foot Grady White cabin cruiser, valued at around $20,000.

Among the 19 were 12 men, six women and an infant girl. The girl was with her mother. All appeared to be in good health, Miller said.

PRIOR LANDINGS

Two months before that landing, another boat of immigrants came ashore 7 miles north at the St. Lucie-Martin County line. On March 16, searchers found 13 immigrants at Jensen Public Beach or at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Jensen Beach. About 20 were suspected of coming ashore in a 24-foot fishing boat.

They came from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Guyana, federal officials said.

Six of them later were indicted in federal court on charges ranging from illegally smuggling people into the United States to attempting to re-enter the United States after deportation. Others were taken to Miami for possible deportation.

According to court documents, some of the people on the March trip paid about $7,000 each to be smuggled into the county.

The latest landing, on Monday, come as the Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security are doing a joint investigation into what Miller said is “immigrants who were being smuggled by boat.”

“We are trying to find where they came from and who was responsible, ” Miller said.

This story will be updated.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/local-new...onday_07219621