Smuggling of Cubans goes awry. One man shot, more than a dozen scatter in Redland
A smuggling operation involving almost two dozen Cuban migrants grew tense and almost deadly last week when the group refused to spend the night in a container on a Redland farm over concerns about a 2-year-old child, several law enforcement sources have confirmed.
Fights broke out. Most of the migrants fled in different directions on the farm. A smuggler chased and shot one of the migrants, injuring him badly, police said. Nearby residents who heard the gunshots called police, who were able to round up most, if not all, of the migrants.
The alleged shooter got away. The injured migrant — shot in the stomach and a foot — was taken to a nearby hospital. The remaining migrants, who told police they hadn’t eaten in days, were given food and water.
Miami-Dade County police confirmed that the matter was a smuggling operation gone awry and said they’re investigating the shooting.
The other aspects of the case, said Miami-Dade Police spokesman Angel Rodriguez, are being handled by the federal government.
Rodriguez said that Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue flew the wounded man to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital and that he was in stable condition.
Nestor Iglesias, a spokesman for U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the lead agency in the case, wouldn’t comment in detail.
“All I can tell you is that it is part of an ongoing investigation by HSI and cannot comment further,” he said.
NOT CLEAR HOW THEY ARRIVED IN SOUTH FLORIDA
On Monday, it was still unclear how the migrants got to South Florida.
Law enforcement officars cials who spoke with some of the migrants think several of the 20 or so smuggled Cubans were released in the day last Thursday when family members came by and paid $15,000 each. The smugglers decided to keep the remaining migrants locked in the container overnight, or until they were paid.
According to law enforcement sources, police were called to the property at Southwest 194th Avenue and 136th Street just before 11 p.m. One law enforcement source said there were stolen vehicles and a cock fighting ring on the property.
A neighbor who did not want to be named said he was awakened around 11 p.m. that night by the sound of helicopters and barking dogs.
“They were going nuts,” he said.
The street, which is barely paved in some spots, is lined with a mix of gated estates and nurseries. Drivers not only have to dodge potholes, but also packs of stray dogs, which are so unbothered by traffic that they lounge on the road and approach cars as they slow down.
On Friday, the day after the shooting, marked Miami-Dade County police were replaced by white pickup trucks and vans, with federal agents in plain clothes walking up and down the street, the witness told the Herald.
According to police radio traffic from that night, the man suspected of pulling the trigger drove off in a black Jeep.
CUBANS MIGRATING TO U.S. IN STAGGERING NUMBERS
While it’s not exactly clear how many Cubans have been smuggled into South Florida or the U.S. in recent years, the number of Cubans who have recently migrated here, according to the Washington Office on Latin America, is staggering. About 425,000 Cubans have made their way to the U.S. since 2022.
Steadman Stahl, the president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said police need more resources to deal with human smuggling.
“Human smuggling is real. It’s happening all over the country, and MiamiDade is not immune to it,” he said. “Situations like this is why we need more resources and to pay more attention to it. Especially when there are kids involved.”
A deteriorating political and economic climate, with the persecution of critics of the communist government, is spurring people to leave the island. They’re taking to the seas in homemade vessels for the dangerous trip across the Florida Straits, trekking to the overwhelmed U.S. southern border with Mexico, or, as in this case, paying smugglers to take them to South Florida by boat.
“That’s the tragedy of the Cuban people,” Ramon
Saul Sanchez, the founder of the Cuban exile advocacy group Democracy Movement, told the Herald. “Every day we see another reminder of this tragedy. It never ends.”