Feds stop boat smuggling 18 people from Bahamas to Miami-Dade, agents say

Federal agents stopped a boat that they say was smuggling 18 people from the Bahamas to South Florida last week off Miami-Dade County.

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Three of the men on the boat had already been previously ordered removed from the United States. One, Wilson Mendoza Flores, 36, had been ordered removed to his home country of Honduras four times since 2012, according to a U.S. Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations agents tracked the boat as it approached Florida about 22 nautical miles from Miami-Dade County on Tuesday, Aug. 18, the complaint states.

The report does not say the size or type of boat, but it notes it was overloaded with a total of 19 people, including the operator, 36-year-old Henryk Erris Walkes, who is a Bahamian citizen not authorized to enter the U.S.

According to the complaint, as a Customs boat approached Walkes’ vessel, agents saw him pass out “handfuls of cash” to the passengers.

Once on board, agents checked the boat’s GPS, which showed it had traveled from Bimini in the Bahamas.

Agents transferred the people from the boat to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Richard Etheridge, the complaint states. A records check revealed none of the people had permission to enter the U.S., according to the report.

The Miami Herald reached out to Customs asking about the nationalities of 14 people on the boat.

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The complaint says passenger 47-year-old Azain Vassor is from Haiti and was previously ordered removed from the U.S. in March. Another, Darwis Campusano Carela, 36, is from the Dominican Republic, and was ordered removed from the United States in November 2025.

Mendoza Flores was ordered removed from the U.S. on May 3, Jan. 27 and Oct. 31, 2025, and in May 2012, according to the complaint.

A judge this week ordered Walkes, Vassor, Mendoza Flores and Carela held until trial.

While maritime migration from Cuba and Haiti, a regular occurrence a few years ago, has dropped significantly because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the smuggling routes from the Bahamas to South Florida remain active.

This is because people from around the world come to the Bahamas with enough money to pay boat captains to take them to the United States.

Migrants from Cuba typically boarded homemade boats and rafts to make the dangerous journey across the Florida Straits, often landing in the Florida Keys. People from Haiti seeking to flee the country usually took to the seas on overloaded freighters. The U.S. Coast Guard has beefed up patrols around both countries, making it more difficult for people to avoid detection.

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This story was originally published August 25, 2026 at 11:42 AM.