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Federal agents stop migrant smuggling boat off Florida Keys

The U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies stopped a boat off the Florida Keys Monday, April 15, 2024, that officials say was smuggling migrants.
The U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies stopped a boat off the Florida Keys Monday, April 15, 2024, that officials say was smuggling migrants. U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area

Federal agents stopped a boat smuggling migrants off the Florida Keys Monday morning, but officials are keeping details of the operation quiet.

The boat was intercepted off Key Largo, federal officials have confirmed, but that’s all they are saying.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection referred questions about the stop to the Coast Guard. A Coast Guard spokesman told the Herald that the agency is not commenting on the incident because “there is a law enforcement piece to it.”

Nestor Yglesias, spokesman for U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, told the Herald in a text message that the agency “responded [as] part of an ongoing investigation” and that he “can’t comment further.”

This report will be updated as more information becomes available.

This story was originally published April 15, 2024 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Federal agents stop migrant smuggling boat off Florida Keys."

David Goodhue
Miami Herald
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.