Two Cubans dead in apparent smuggling case

By Mark Potter
CNN Correspondent

PEMBROKE PINES, Florida (CNN) -- Two Cubans are dead and 18 others are in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol in an apparent case of smuggling, the Border Patrol said Friday.

Mike McClarnon, acting assistant chief patrol agent, said late Thursday night 20 Cubans were found on an island in the Florida Keys between Islamorada and Marathon south of Miami. The group had flagged down motorists for help.

The Border Patrol was called at 1:45 a.m. EST Friday, said McClarnon, and found a 73-year-old woman dead. Another 27-year-old woman was brought to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Autopsies were being conducted Friday to determine the cause of death, though a spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said the older woman was believed to have died in transit.

The Border Patrol believes the incident is a case of smuggling, McClarnon said, because there was no boat. He said there are currently no suspects.

In similar cases, he said, smugglers work with associates in Cuba, pick up passengers clandestinely along Cuba's north coast and drop them off along the Florida coast. The trip by boat to Florida can take less than three hours.

Under U.S. law, any Cuban reaching the United States is allowed to remain in the country.

The sheriff's office said members of the group insisted they had not paid to be brought to the island.

McClarnon said in many smuggling cases relatives in South Florida pay around $8,000 for each person to be brought to Florida.

Border Patrol officials said they are concerned that many Cubans arrive badly injured -- either because of rough sea conditions, or brutality by the smugglers.

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