Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Smuggler boat flips; child dies

By wire services
Published October 14, 2005

MIAMI - A 6-year-old Cuban boy died early Thursday after a smuggling speedboat capsized as the U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept it, authorities said.

Thirty other people in the boat were rescued. The boy was trapped under the boat.

The 33-foot boat was seen on radar about 45 miles south of Key West about 1 a.m. The Coast Guard cutter Dauntless pursued it. The boat did not obey orders to halt and was maneuvering erratically in an attempt to get away, the Coast Guard said.

The Dauntless lost sight of the boat briefly, then found it capsized with 30 people clinging to the hull. They were rescued by the cutter and two other boats. The boy's body was found when the cutter's crew righted the boat, authorities said.

Officials said it was clear it was a smuggling operation, not a group of Cubans trying to leave the communist island without help.

"Small boats, very fast, trying to evade us - that's typical with what we see when we're dealing with migrant smugglers," Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss said. "We don't see these types of boats leaving Cuba unless they're smuggling."

The 30 survivors were held aboard the Dauntless pending a decision whether to return them to Cuba. Doss said the boy's parents were among the survivors.

Under the U.S. government's "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cuban immigrants intercepted at sea are usually returned.

Alicia Valle, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman, said the case is being reviewed for possible prosecution of the boat operator.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 01:40:20]