Six Sri Lankan migrants being smuggled to Florida detained

13 Feb, 2017

Six Sri Lankan migrants who were being smuggled to Florida have been?detained by the US authorities.

Coast Guard officials say a Cuban national is suspected of attempting to smuggle 14 people into Florida by boat, military.com reported.

According to a Coast Guard statement, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection airplane crew spotted a suspicious vessel?last week near the Bahamas. The statement says that the vessel would not stop when U.S. authorities intercepted it about 12 miles southeast of Miami.

Officials said Customs and Border Protection crews fired “warning shots and disabling fire” before a Coast Guard cutter arrived on scene and took 15 people to shore.

One migrant came from Ecuador, one came from Jamaica, six were Chinese and six came from Sri Lanka.

The Coast Guard says the Cuban national, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., is being investigated on suspicion of human smuggling. (Colombo Gazette)

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