“That boat is our livelihood,” the fisherman’s wife, who ensures that the boat was stolen, told the ‘Miami Herald’.
Miami, United States. – A family of fishermen from Cárdenas, Matanzas, claims the return of a wooden boat that, he denounced, was stolen in Cuba and used last Thursday to transfer 10 migrants to the Florida Keys, where the boat was abandoned.
The weekend, the owner’s wife contacted the Miami Herald To ask for help with the location of the ship. The woman said that she had been stolen last Monday in Cárdenas and that those responsible had already stolen vessels in the area on other occasions. The Miami -based newspaper protected the identity of its source.
“That boat is our livelihood. It is our most important source of income, and not only ours. Many families here depend on that boat to survive,” said the woman.
According to him Sheriff From Monroe County, Rick Ramsay, who was summoned by the newspaper, the Florida Fishing and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has the vessel in custody. Air operations and marine agents of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) found it drifting, approximately a mile of the Harbor rock coast.
On a possible return from the ship to Cuba, Ramsay suggested that the owners submit a complaint of theft before the Cuban authorities and send a copy to the US State Department and the border patrol. An FWC spokeswoman told Herald which also reviewed the procedure for the return.
The case already resulted in two arrests by smuggling of people.
The boat was left in Tavernier (Upper Keys) after the landing. The captain and his nine passengers-among them a 10-year-old boy-spent the night between the mangroves and, at dawn, crossed the US 1 road to a Winn-Dixie supermarket. Seeing an agent of the office of Sheriff from Monroe County, they fled, according to the arrest part cited by the Herald. Local, state and federal authorities undertook the search.
Around 2:30 pm on Friday, an agent of Sheriff And a border patrol officer arrested a silver lexus in Key Largo, with four of the newcomers on board, according to the same report. It is not clear if other people were captured.
The detainees are Jesús Herrera Belett, 38 – whose most recent document is located in Cayo Bone – and Jesús Medina Esquijarosa, 56, resident in Miami. Herrera Belett faces nine positions for smuggling of people; Medina Esquijarosa, one as an accessory.
According to his statement to the detectives – recognized in the arrest part cited by Miami Herald-, Herrera Belett argues that the boat belongs to him. He said he traveled in her with his wife and son, in addition to seven other people who picked up in a place called “Ships cement.” He pointed out that his first scale was in an abandoned beacon in Faro Viejo (Bahamas) before continuing to the Florida Keys.
Herrera Belett said that Medina Esquijarosa is the husband of her niece and that she agreed to transfer migrants to her home in Miami. He added that he had previously lived in the United States: he said that in 2022 he crossed the Florida Strait in another fishing boat, Elvira, along with three people; who worked at Detroit (Michigan) and gathered money to buy a boat Scarabwith which he returned to Cuba in March 2023. Upon entering Cuban waters, the border guard arrested him and kept him a year in prison, according to his testimony, recorded in the part.
