EXCLUSIVE: 37 Smuggled Migrants Arrested in Small Boats Headed to Puerto Rico

Exclusive: 37 smuggled migrants arrested in small boats headed to Puerto Rico as U.S. agencies disrupt two separate maritime attempts. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations teams, with U.S. Border Patrol, intercepted 37 illegal aliens and one U.S. citizen off Puerto Rico on Monday. In the first event, CBP AMO and Border Patrol apprehended 10 people from multiple countries, including the Dominican Republic, India, and Ecuador, and included one U.S. citizen whose connection to the smuggling venture is under investigation. Authorities said the voyage’s last leg departed from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, bound for Culebrita Island, a small uninhabited island near eastern Puerto Rico; the group and the vessel operator were taken into custody. On the island’s opposite side, Border Patrol agents stopped a second attempt after a makeshift “yola-type” boat made landfall. With support from the Puerto Rico Police Maritime Unit and the Cabo Rojo Municipal Police, authorities located and arrested 27 people along the western coastline, including individuals from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. The detainees were taken to the Ramey Border Patrol Station for further processing and removal, while officials cited rising risks and overcrowding on smuggling routes.