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Coast Guard interdicts boat with six people east of Miami-Dade County

4 did not have U.S. visas, officials said.
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Posted at 2:53 PM, Jan 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-22 14:56:22-05

The Coast Guard said a cutter interdicted a boat spotted 30 miles off Sunny Isles Beach which was trying to illegally enter the U.S. on Saturday.

Six men were on the vessel and four did not have current U.S. visas, the Coast Guard said.

It identified the people as two U.S. citizens, two Jamaicans, one Dominican, and one Bahamian.

“While the Coast Guard continues to deal with the lapse in appropriations and identify methods to alleviate the impacts to our workforce, this illegal activity in the Florida straits that threatens our maritime border security, remains a top priority for our service,” Rear Adm. Peter J. Brown said in a news release.

The Coast Guard said one of the migrants had previous convictions for kidnapping, aggravated assault, and narcotics trafficking and a second had previous convictions for selling drugs.

They were turned over to Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.