MIAMI — A federal grand jury indicted five illegal aliens on charges stemming from an overloaded smuggling vessel carrying 25 people that was intercepted roughly five miles off the Miami-Dade County coast, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced.
Law enforcement detected the small center-console boat on radar traveling west toward Miami-Dade County shortly after midnight on April 26. The vessel was operating without navigation lights. After agents activated lights and sirens, the boat slowed and stopped. Verdant Roosevelt Scott, 38, of The Bahamas, was identified as the operator and taken into custody. All 25 people aboard were transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter WINSLOW GRIESSER for biometric screening and records checks.
Those checks revealed that four of the passengers — Zamfir Nitu, 50, of Romania; Donald Coote, 37, of Jamaica; Sergio Alejandro Correa Ramirez, 30, of Colombia; and Gheorghe Ion Chiperi, 43, of Moldova — had previously been deported from the United States and illegally re-entered the country. All four are charged with illegal reentry of a deported alien.
Scott faces the heaviest exposure: 24 counts of encouraging and inducing aliens to enter the U.S. and two counts of aiding or assisting certain aliens to enter, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Nitu and Coote each face up to 20 years because of prior aggravated felony convictions. Correa Ramirez and Chiperi face up to two years.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida and Acting Special Agent in Charge Jose R. Figueroa of Homeland Security Investigations Miami announced the case. HSI Miami is leading the investigation with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations and the Coast Guard. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanner Stiehl is prosecuting.
The five defendants made their initial appearances in federal court on April 30 and May 1. The remaining 20 illegal aliens aboard the vessel were not charged and were repatriated to The Bahamas. The case is filed in the Southern District of Florida under case number 26-cr-20178.