Coast Guard intercepts boat with 6 illegal immigrants; Part of Brazilian smuggling operation


Updated: 3:02 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

In a stretch of open sea between the Grand Bahamas and the coast of Boynton Beach, federal authorities last week intercepted a boat carrying six immigrants who had entrusted themselves to a Brazilian smuggling operation, court documents show.

Filipe G. Ferreira, 24, and Douglas V. Soares, 26, were in federal custody this afternoon and facing human smuggling charges.

Ferreira and Soares were members of a smuggling ring whose efforts previously were documented by federal agents, according to a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.

On Nov. 30, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bluefin spotted a boat on its radar, chased it down and boarded it, discovering Ferreira at the controls and six immigrants — four Brazilians, a Cuban and a Nigerian — stowed in an inside cabin, according to a sworn statement by Special Agent Douglas S. Johnson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The coast guard took the people on the boat into custody and brought them to the coast guard's Lake Worth station, where federal agents interviewed them.

Johnson said he recognized the boat as belonging to the Brazilian smuggling ring, and he put out word to local authorities to look out for a black Chevrolet Avalanche that might have been waiting for the boat in Palm Beach County.

Boynton Beach police officer Gregg Koch spotted the truck, towing a boat trailer, near a city boat ramp. He pulled it over and arrested the driver, Soares, who admitted to his role in the operation, Johnson said.

The immigrants told agents they paid an unspecified fee to be smuggled into Florida.

The Brazilians and Nigerians were processed by immigration officers at the coast guard's Lake Worth station. The Cuban was taken aboard a Coast Guard cutter and returned to Cuba.


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