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By Jennifer Babson. Jbabson@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Aug.
20, 2002 in The Miami Herald.
KEY WEST - Two men were in police custody Monday after the speedboat they
used to elude the Coast Guard in a wild, middle-of-the-night chase plowed into
an island off the Lower Keys at 45 miles per hour.
The boat's 200-foot incursion into the shoreline caused at least one man to
be ejected, though not seriously injured.
Authorities would not release their names, but said both live in the United
States. At least one of them came from Cuba three years ago.
The U.S. Coast Guard began pursuing the 28-foot speedboat after the agency
received word from Cuban border authorities that the boat was heading toward the
United States, according to Coast Guard spokesman Tony Russell.
''We didn't know about it until we had that notification,'' Russell said.
A Coast Guard plane spotted and tracked the Florida-flagged boat with help
from two U.S. Customs aircraft.
''Then a rescue boat from Key West began pursuit about 10 miles southeast of
Key West,'' Russell said.
Authorities believe the speedboat -- which was running with its lights off
-- had originally been headed to pick up a group of migrants somewhere along the
coast of Cuba's Matanzas province, said Cameron Hintzen, the U.S. Border
Patrol's Resident-Agent-in-Charge in the Keys. But Cuban border authorities may
have chased the boat away from their shores, Hintzen said.
''It was an aborted landing in Cuba, so obviously something happened because
they came back with nobody,'' he said. ''Thank goodness they did, because there
would have been a tragedy if they had crashed as recklessly as they did with a
boatload of migrants.'' The boat was stocked with untouched food and water
provisions.
By 12:45 a.m., the vessel ran aground on Lois Key. The men immediately
sprinted into the mangroves, pursued by a team of Monroe County sheriff's
deputies, Border Patrol agents, and Coast Guard personnel.
Nearly 2 ½ hours later, one man was found.
By noon, the other man had turned himself in.
Said Russell: "We are investigating the case and considering our
options.'' | 
