Federal agents have four men in custody who they say were part of a human smuggling operation that brought almost 30 people from China to Coral Gables Tuesday morning. The attempt was foiled around 8 a. Coral Gables police officers stopped two vans β one at the intersection of Old Cutler Road and Kendall Drive, and another at Old Cutler Road β and found 26 people inside the vans who were from China. Around a. While onboard, deputies immediately found tell-tale signs the boat was involved in smuggling and had dropped the people off in the mangroves near Snapper Creek, according to a Homeland Security Investigations complaint filed Wednesday.
Most incriminating, according to the complaint, was a candy wrapper with Asian writing that matched candy that was carried by some of the migrants found in the vans, according to the complaint. Agents and officers from several law-enforcement agencies also found a black fanny pack with U. None of the Chinese citizens had paperwork allowing them to enter the U.
Joel Eusebio told agents that Eustacio called him asking him to help transport the people, the complaint states. It was not immediately clear if the two are brothers.
Agents said Lopez showed them a vessel decal that did not match the Well Craft, according to the complaint. Cops found the red Ford pickup at the marina and determined that it was in Immokalee, Florida β about miles away from Key Biscayne on the Gulf Coast β around 4 p. Sunday, then in Hialeah around p. At the marina, U. The complaint did not state where Loret de Mola and Lopez are from. All four men face charges of transporting, moving or attempting to transport aliens within the United States and conspiracy to transport the aliens in the United States, according to the complaint.
The incident comes two weeks after three Cuban men were taken into federal custody after they were found smuggling Chinese migrants in a U-haul van near Snapper Creek, around the same area where the migrants were found on Tuesday. In the U-haul incident, the men were hired to transport more than 20 migrants, most of them Chinese, but were stopped by police after a witness reported seeing a woman being shoved into a car.
