MIAMI — In the early hours of Saturday morning, 15 Cuban migrants made landfall near Key West.
According to Adam Hoffner, division chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations, at about 3 a.m. Saturday, U.S. Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement partners were tipped to a “maritime smuggling event” in Key West.
When officials arrived, they found 12 adult males and three adult females who used a homemade vessel to depart from Havana, the group told their rescuers.
The Cubans were found on land by customs officials on an uninhabited island east of Key West, WSVN reported.
The 15-foot vessel used 55 gallon drums for flotation and was equipped with a diesel inboard engine, Hoffner said. No injuries were reported.
The landing comes after a group claiming to be Cuban nationals were rescued off Sugarloaf Key in the Lower Florida Keys Thursday night. One person was reported dead on the boat and several others were missing after their boat capsized, according to federal and local officials. Six people were pulled from the water.
The Border Patrol had also found a man and his wife on Grassy Key in the Middle Keys around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. The couple said they were left behind by a group of migrants.
During the current fiscal year that runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, agents have responded to 78 “maritime smuggling events” that have made landfall in Florida, according to the U.S. Border Patrol’s Miami Division.
As of Friday, the Coast Guard had stopped more than 1,067 Cubans at sea and on the way to South Florida — the most since fiscal year 2017. That’s more than the 838 Cuban migrants officials had stopped the previous year.
In addition, since Oct. 1, the Coast Guard reports it has stopped nearly 2,300 people from Haiti at sea who were on their way to South Florida. That’s up from 1,527 in fiscal year 2021 and the current fiscal year still has nearly five months to go before Sept. 30.
“We urge migrants to not risk their lives by attempting these dangerous voyages across the sea on unsafe vessels,” Hoffner said.
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(Miami Herald reporter David Goodhue contributed to this report.)
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