Updated: 1:38 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015 | Posted: 9:37 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015

Police capture 18 undocumented immigrants in Palm Beach




By Michele Dargan
Daily News Staff Writer

Palm Beach police captured 18 undocumented immigrants Thursday morning after a boat came ashore in the 500 block of South Ocean Boulevard, said Capt. Curtis Krauel.


Sixteen of the immigrants were Haitian and two Bahamian, he said. The call was reported at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and the first 15 were captured by 1:45 a.m. Thursday, according to Krauel.


U.S. Coast Guard
, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection assisted in the search. The sheriff’s office brought a police boat, helicopter and dogs. Border patrol also brought dogs to the scene.


All 18 people were turned over to Border Patrol.


The boat, a 25-foot white boat with no identifiable markings, was beached, Krauel said. Border Patrol arranged for the boat to be towed from the beach.

According to Krauel, officers took two men and one woman into custody in the area where the boat landed.

Officers saw more running northbound on South Ocean, he said.


“Five were apprehended at Gulfstream [Road] and South Ocean — all men. They got two more at South Ocean and Peruvian Avenue; both were men from the Bahamas.”


They found two women and two men hiding in the back yard of a house in the 400 block of South Ocean Boulevard and found a woman hiding in the back yard of a house on Middle Road, Krauel said.


At 6:45 a.m., police found two women and a child walking in the 800 block of South County Road and took them into custody.


In November, police took eight undocumented immigrants into custody in the North End after they were dropped off by boat.

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