05/16/07

Three investigated for human smuggling

ICE looks at three people arrested in Port Charlotte for loitering or prowling; they were suspiciously loading up a boat in the night, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office says


PORT CHARLOTTE -- A suspicious incident in a Port Charlotte canal has led to an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into three people suspected of engaging in human smuggling.

Yaniel Medina, 26, Armada Yudel, 25, and Leanne Linares, 36, were arrested by Charlotte County Sheriff's deputies around 1 a.m. Monday and charged with loitering or prowling. According to a CCSO report, deputies found them when they went around the back of a house at 18770 Ashcroft Circle in response to a report of possible prowlers. The deputies saw a Ford Excursion parked in the back yard, backed up against an area of mangrove trees at the end of the lot, the report said. The deputies also saw a light coming from a boat tucked in the mangroves.

Yudel was near the Ford and Linares was sitting in the passenger seat, the report said. The deputies heard another person making noise in the woods and asked him to come out. Medina emerged a minute later.

Yudel, of 1031 Panacea Blvd., North Port, and Medina, of Miami Gardens, told the deputies they were loading up the boat -- a 35-foot Lariet triple 275 engine -- for a two- or three-day fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico, the report said. Linares, who lives at the same address as Yudel, said she had been called to pick up Yudel and Medina after a day of fishing. The three told deputies they did not know the owner of the house they were parked behind. According to the county property appraiser's Web site, the house is owned by Valentin Hernandez.

Yudel, who is originally from Cuba, and Linares gave the deputies permission to search the car and boat, the report said, and the deputies found too little food for a three-day trip and only three pinfish for bait. However, they did find 94 five-gallon gas cans -- all of them full -- in the boat and truck, along with a variety of drinks.

Concerned that a serious crime was being committed or was about to be committed, the deputies called a Spanish-speaking deputy to Mirandize the suspects. Linares and Yudel told the deputy they had traveled from Miami, the report said, and gave conflicting accounts about whether they had traveled together.

The CCSO contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Sean Mullin.

"Based on Mullin's investigation, he believed that there was in fact reason to believe human trafficking had or was going to happen," the report said.

ICE seized the boat, and the agency's investigation into the three is ongoing, said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez. The CCSO arrested the three on loitering or prowling charges, and all made $500 bond Monday.

Gonzalez would not comment on the investigation into Yudel, Medina and Linares because it is an ongoing investigation, but said human smugglers often use maritime routes to transport people illegally into the United States in what is often a cruel underground business.

"Often what you see is these smugglers have no regard for human life," Gonzalez said. "There have been cases where smugglers have thrown individuals overboard and said 'get off' in the middle of the ocean."

None of the three arrested Monday has a criminal record in Charlotte, Sarasota or Miami-Dade counties, or has served a sentence with the Florida Department of Corrections.

ICE defines human smuggling as the illegal importation of people in such a manner as to evade immigration laws, while human trafficking is defined as using coercion, fraud or force to subject people to involuntary servitude.

Last summer, the arrival of 20 Cubans on Marco Island resulted in two arrests for human smuggling. Noel Lopez and Juan Gonzalez-Hernandez, both of Miami, were charged Aug. 16 with conspiracy to bring aliens into the United States after they allegedly brought the Cubans to shore on their fishing boat after the Cubans' homemade boat began to take on water. The charges could carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison per smuggled illegal immigrant.

You can e-mail Carolyn Quinn at cquinn@sun-herald.com.


By CAROLYN QUINN

Staff Writer
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