The Cuban María del Carmen, a relative of a disappeared rafter, denounced the attempted fraud of a subject who identified himself as Desert Kingpin, who demanded $10,000 in exchange for his relative. “If we didn’t send even 3,000 or 4,000 dollars in advance, they were going to throw it to the sharks,” he told journalist Jany González of the Univisión network.
The fraudster called her by phone five days ago from the United States, assuring that he had rescued a large group of Cubans, however he did not offer further details. According to the complainant, this same subject contacted relatives of other rafters giving different versions of the supposed rescue.
In his reportUnivision documented the modus operandi of the so-called Capo del Desierto. Posing as a relative of a missing rafter, they telephoned the blackmailer and he told them that he was of Mexican origin and was only “trying to help” these people who had been located on the high seas and were in poor health due to dehydration.
“I need you to tell me if you are going to send the financial resources you need to get them here with a private, paid doctor,” said the alleged fraudster. In another call, he said he was willing to have a video call with the rafters in exchange for $3,000 and stated that he had picked up some 25 rafters off the coast of Galveston, in the state of Texas.
When Jany González made a new call from another telephone number and told her that she was a journalist, the scammer denied everything. “No, ma’am, I don’t have any Cuban nor am I anything, you’re wrong, it’s a mistake.”
The exodus of rafters does not stop. In the middle of Thanksgiving Day, more than 75 Cubans arrived in Florida in at least four boats. The chief officer of the Border Patrol for the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, shared two images of these landings. One, with 15 island nationals, was registered in Gran Llave de Pino.
Slosar added that another 36 rafters arrived in the Florida Keys in different “homemade boats” and that all had been taken into Border Patrol custody.
This Friday the Coast Guard shared on its social networks the image of a raft that was heading to Cayo Marquesas. Details of the Cuban crew members were not provided, but as is common in interdictions, people are repatriated to their place of origin.
On Thursday, 65 rafters were repatriated to the island on the ship paul valent. “The Coast Guard and our partners are patrolling the Florida Straits, Windward and Mona Passages to deter illegal maritime migration,” said Lt. Travis Poulos of the corporation’s Seventh District.
Through a statementthe agency explained that since last October 1, 2,243 Cubans have been intercepted, a significant figure if compared to the 6,182 of the previous year.
The Border Patrol reported last week that a total of 29,872 Cubans entered the United States irregularly through land borders in October, the majority through the Mexican border.
In their attempt to fulfill the American dream, this Thursday nine Cubans were arrested who were being transferred along with 32 other migrants in the bed of a truck, which was intercepted on the highway that connects the city of Córdoba with the state of Puebla.
The undocumented were handed over to the agents of the National Institute of Migration, who hours before took charge of another 41 people, two Cubans among them, who entered Mexico illegally and were found inside a trailer in the city of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.
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