Report: Merritt Island man caught with boat full of undocumented migrants off Brevard County coast
A Merritt Island man was arrested Saturday, accused of attempting to smuggle dozens of undocumented migrants into the United States through Brevard County.
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According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court on Monday, 42-year-old Michael Andrew Milano faces a charge of bringing illegal immigrants into the United States.
The investigation into Milano’s activities began at approximately 7:30 p.m. Thursday when officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducting offshore maritime safety inspections in and around the Intracoastal Waterway off the Brevard County Coast saw a large “pleasure vessel” just north of the Sebastian Inlet, later confirmed to be a 42-foot 2018 Yellowfin fishing boat.
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According to the report, as the officers approached the boat for a routine safety inspection, only Milano was visible at the helm with no apparent passengers.
However, upon boarding the boat, the officers say they were able to see approximately 25 passengers lying in the prone position on the deck, covering their faces in an apparent attempt to avoid being seen.
According to the report, the passengers included 12 men, eight women- among whom two were believed to be pregnant- and five children who appeared to be unaccompanied by any adults. None of them spoke English or had any identification or U.S. documents.
The report says the officers believed the passengers were migrants from Haiti.
After Milano invoked his right to counsel and refused to speak to investigators, agents questioned a woman on the boat who identified herself as being in a relationship with Milano for years.
According to the report, despite instructions from Milano not to speak to law enforcement, the witness eventually explained how she and Milano took a boat trip to the Bahamas that she believed was for the purpose of bringing supplies like food, money and electronics to a property there.
The witness told investigators they collected the boat from a home in Rockledge, loaded it up with supplies, then traveled directly to the Bahamas with no stops.
According to the witness, they spent approximately two hours at a home in the Bahamas then went to a boat dock where they met a man who loaded several people onto the Yellowfin boat.
Investigators say the witness told them she and Milano then traveled to another boat dock in the Bahamas where even more migrants were loaded onto the boat.
According to the report, the witness said Milano told her to find a migrant in the group who spoke some English so they could tell the others to lay in the prone position on the boat for the duration of the trip. He then told her to collect all their belongings but allowed them to keep their phones.
Investigators say the witness described a scene on the boat wherein Milano refused to allow any of the migrants to enter the cabin or use the bathroom, including a woman who was known to be pregnant. The witness said she had to convince Milano to allow the men to relieve themselves off the side of the boat.
According to the report, Milano piloted the boat from the Bahamas directly to Florida with no stops and no encounters with any other boats. After arriving at the coast of Florida, investigators say Milano continued through the Sebastian Inlet and towards the Rockledge home where the trip started.
The witness said she only helped Milano because she feared for her safety throughout the entire trip, saying she did exactly what Milano told her to do because he “continuously threatened her during the trip and threatened to throw her overboard if she disobeyed him.”
Investigators noted that law enforcement and court records corroborated the witnesses claims that Milano had beaten her on multiple occasions in the past.
Later on the night of the inspection, agents say they used a translator to interview four of the boat passengers found lying on the deck. According to the report, each of them told the same story in which they had paid someone to bring them from the Bahamas to the United States by boat, but their original boat had become disabled, and they ended up on Milano’s boat because he happened to be passing by and rescued them.
Investigators say the identical accounts given by the passengers led them to believe they were coached to give that narrative if questioned by law enforcement, a common tactic for human smuggling suspects and their victims.
Investigators also noted that neither the U.S. Coast Guard nor FWC, which each monitor distress calls, received any emergency communications that night regarding a vessel in the waters between Port Canaveral and the Bahamas. They also referred to data from the boat’s GPS unit which showed that it made no deviations on its return path to Brevard County from the Bahamas.
A subsequent search of the boat also yielded three handguns, two of which were found hidden in compartments around the boat. A Brevard County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit also swept the boat for the presence of drugs and found five clear bags containing a total of approximately 2.5 pounds of suspected narcotics, which are undergoing testing in a laboratory.
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The boat was seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations. Records show it was registered in Rockledge, but not to Milano, and had not been reported stolen.
Investigators ultimately found cause to charge Milano with illegally bringing aliens into the United States.
He was booked into the Brevard County jail Saturday and has since been remanded to the custody of the United States Marshals Service pending a preliminary examination and detention hearing scheduled for March 12.
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