By sea and by land, Florida Keys deputies discover a large migrant smuggling operation

Florida Keys deputies stopped a car pulling a trailered boat Thursday morning, and that led to a migrant smuggling operation involving three scenes along the island chain.

Monroe sheriff’s deputies stopped the boat as it was being pulled off a ramp at the former site of the Quay restaurant on the Gulf side of the Middle Keys city of Marathon, said Adam Linhardt, sheriff’s office spokesman. He said the vessel, which was not tied down properly, triggered the traffic stop.

Witnesses told the deputies that they had seen that same boat, a blue and white center console with a Bimini top, unloading what looked like a large group of migrants by the Seven Mile Bridge, about seven miles south of the boat ramp, Linhardt said.

The sheriff’s office called the U.S. Border Patrol, who took over the investigation.

Later, in what seemed like an unrelated event, deputies pulled over an orange car and a white van driving north on U.S. 1 around mile marker 104 in Key Largo, which is about 50 miles north of the boat ramp. Linhardt said both cars were speeding.

Inside were 21 people from Cuba who the sheriff’s office and Border Patrol say were the Cuban migrants who landed earlier.

Walter Slosar, chief agent for Border Patrol’s Miami operations, said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that the migrants and “multiple suspected smugglers” were taken into custody. He said the case is under investigation by his agency along with Homeland Security Investigations.

This breaking news report will be updated.