Official: Women thrown overboard to slow Caribbean smuggler

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Official: Women thrown overboard to slow Caribbean smuggler chase

By FRANK GRIFFITHS
Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico

Four Dominicans charged with leading authorities on a boat chase threw female migrants overboard and hurled gasoline-filled bottles and wooden planks at authorities in Puerto Rico, an official said Thursday. At least one officer was injured.

The men were charged in U.S. District Court in San Juan on Tuesday with assault, destroying U.S. property and resisting arrest. They face a preliminary hearing on May 24, according to court documents.

The men were on a boat carrying 34 people in an illegal migrant voyage from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico on May 6. A Coast Guard jet spotted the boat near the U.S. Caribbean territory and a police boat was the first to respond, said Capt. Angel Rosado of the police department's maritime unit.

The boat disobeyed orders to stop and police gave chase, Rosado said. "Four men aboard the boat threw female migrants overboard in an attempt to slow down authorities during the chase," he said.

The U.S. Coast Guard, who later joined the hour-and-a-half-long chase with a cutter and a fast boat, confirmed they rescued 12 migrants from the water, but declined to provide specifics. All of the migrants thrown overboard were accounted for.

The four men also threw unlit bottles of gasoline at a police boat in an attempt to set it on fire, Rosado said. They also hurled wooden planks studded with nails and one of them shattered a police boat windshield, slightly injuring a sergeant, he said. Two other police boats also helped in the pursuit.

When police boats got close to the boat, the men swung machetes at the vessels, causing damage, Rosado said. They also hacked a Coast Guard entangler device with the machetes, destroying it, authorities said. The device consists of rope that is thrown in front of a fleeing boat to disable an outboard motor's propellers.

The chase finally ended when police were able to cut the gas line of the boat's motor, Rosado said. Thirty migrants were repatriated to the neighboring Dominican Republic while the four were arrested.

If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison on the assault charges and a maximum of 10 years on the destruction of property charges. The case has been assigned to the federal public defender's office, which did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Rosado said authorities believed the men were human smugglers who organized the migrant trip, but no human trafficking charges had been filed.

Each year, thousands of migrants try to cross the Mona Passage, a perilous strait separating the Dominican Republic from Puerto Rico. The Dominican Republic has been in economic crisis over the past two years, though there have been recent signs of improvement.