Smuggling of Cubans into U.S. reported on rise

Cubans picked up by U.S.Border Patrol near Key Largo, Florida. Agents believe they were smuggled into the country.

Mark Potter
CNN Miami Bureau

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Heading north at full throttle, an overloaded smuggling boat races from Cuba to the Florida Keys. Powered by twin 250-horsepower engines, the boat outruns the authorities and beaches behind some condos near Marathon, Florida.

On board, human cargo: 21 Cubans, men, women and children.

The lucrative and dangerous business of smuggling Cubans into the United States is booming and is becoming more organized, according to authorities.

As one U.S. Border Patrol agent put it, "We are being overrun now."

Last fiscal year 1,820 Cuban nationals landed in South Florida, according to the Border Patrol. This year the number already has surpassed that.

"I see the smugglers are getting ever more aggressive. They're piling even more people on the boats. They are getting even more reckless," said Patricia Diaz, an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami.

In the first three months of this year, six people have died on Cuban smuggling trips and many others have been injured. Authorities said they believe these people either were hurt during the fast ride in rough seas or were brutalized by the smugglers.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said they have received reports of Cuban emigrants being thrown overboard to slow down the pursuing Cuban border guards.

Steve Qinones, Border Patrol anti-smuggling supervisor: Boat sinking tragedy changed him.

"The aliens that are in the smuggling loads are telling us that they have witnessed physical intimidation by the smugglers, the aliens on these boats being assaulted," said Lynne Underdown, chief Border Patrol agent in Miami.

U.S. authorities have established a multi-agency task force called DART, the Deceased Alien Response Team, and prosecutors are trying to build cases against smugglers believed responsible for emigrant deaths that could lead to stiff prison sentences.

Federal law enforcement officials said the smugglers operate in groups of about a half-dozen people. Most of the smuggling operations are based in south Florida and run by Cubans already in this country. Agents said some smugglers are fugitives or former drug traffickers.

Steve Quinones, a Border Patrol anti-smuggling supervisor, said a typical case begins with a relative in the Miami area agreeing to pay the smugglers an average of $8,000 to bring a loved one from Cuba to Florida.

The smugglers' associates in Cuba make arrangements to gather passengers along a beach at a specific time. When a speedboat arrives from south Florida, the emigrants cram tightly aboard.

It is not unusual for a 25-foot boat to carry 30 passengers, says Quinones. By these figures, one such load would bring the smugglers around $250,000.

Border Patrol Supervisor Cameron Hintzen: "a cat and mouse game."

The trip to Florida may take only about two hours, usually at night. In most cases, the passengers are dropped off on beaches of remote islands in the Florida Keys or near Miami, where they wait to be picked up by U.S. authorities.

Under the U.S. "wet foot, dry foot" policy, a Cuban immigrant picked up at sea with a "wet foot" will be repatriated to Cuba, but one who arrives on U.S. soil with a "dry foot" will be allowed to stay in the country -- even though smuggling was involved.

Many have criticized this policy, including Cuban government officials, claiming it tempts Cubans to make the illegal and treacherous trip.

Though undermanned, Border Patrol and Coast Guard officials try to disrupt the smuggling trips before they begin. A number of illegal voyages have been stopped, but landings are on the rise.

Border Patrol Supervisor Cameron Hintzen describes it as a "cat and mouse game."

"They try to change their operations in response to our operations," Hintzen said. "They're constantly gathering intelligence on us, besides us gathering intelligence on them."

U.S. officials said they worry that this increased smuggling activity will lead to another disaster at sea like one near Miami in December 1998. In rough winter seas, a smuggler's speedboat broke apart, killing 14 people.

Going to the morgue to collect paperwork, Quinones unexpectedly was surrounded by family members seeking information on missing relatives. Quinones repeatedly had to deliver the tragic news that loved ones had been killed.

He said his worst experience was with a man who grew angry at him for not quickly answering his desperate questions about his wife and 10-year-old son.

Quinones kept staring at the survivors' list, "hoping to will their names onto the page." But they were not there. The man's family had been lost at sea.

"It changed me as an agent," Quinones said quietly. "Not on my watch; we will prevent it from happening ever again."