Police Discover Over 30 Migrants Hiding In A Boat During Routine Traffic Stop in Florida

The Daily Caller

A Monroe County Sheriff’s officer found 32 migrants suspected of traveling to the U.S. from Cuba hiding in a boat after pulling a truck over for driving too slow in Marathon, Florida, law enforcement officials announced on Monday.

Sgt. Joel Slough conducted a routine traffic stop of a rental truck hauling a large boat and found four suspected migrants in the vehicle including three young children, according to the sheriff’s department. Law enforcement officials discovered two pregnant women and a 17-year-old along with dozens of other migrants hiding in the boat.

Slough “noted the children in the truck, the lack of child safety seats as well as the overwhelming smell of saltwater and body odor,” according to the department.

Reidel Garcia-Espino, 29, of Seffner, Florida, was charged with child neglect because none of the children in the vehicle were restrained, according to the sheriff’s department. Garcia-Espino claimed the group was out fishing, but law enforcement officials didn’t find any fishing equipment on the boat.


The migrants were transferred to Customs and Border Protection custody and Garcia-Espino was taken to jail, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact  licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Read the full story at the Daily Caller News Foundation

 

You appear to be using an ad blocker

Shore News Network is a free website that does not use paywalls or charge for access to original, breaking news content. In order to provide this free service, we rely on advertisements. Please support our journalism by disabling your ad blocker for this website.