An investigation was underway in Coral Gables, Florida, after officers intercepted two vans that were transporting more than two dozen Chinese migrants Tuesday morning.
Coral Gables police officials said they received a call just after 8 a.m. about migrants possibly being transported in vans.
Officers stopped one van in the area of 88th Street and Old Cutler Road and the other at 11600 Old Cutler Road.
The two vans were transporting 26 Chinese migrants — 17 men and nine women — to an unknown location, police said.
“We believe they came by boat, they came into a secluded area around the southern end of Coral Gables,” Police Chief Ed Hudak said.
Police detained the two alleged smugglers, a Cuban and a Puerto Rican, and a firearm was recovered, Hudak said.
Aerial video from NBC South Florida showed law enforcement officers at the scene patting down several people and escorting them to a city trolley.
Multiple agencies responded, including Customs and Border Protection and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. U.S. Homeland Security Investigations was taking over the investigation, police said.
“There is no place for human smuggling in the city of Coral Gables, much less the state of Florida. We must target illegal immigration head-on, using our experienced state and local agencies,” said John Vecchio, the FDLE’s special agent in charge in Miami.
More than two dozen people were taken into custody in Coral Gables this month in what authorities said was a human smuggling operation.
Hudak said that it’s believed Tuesday’s incident was another human smuggling operation and that it appears the smugglers are using a canal area that leads to a private marina.
“They came ashore basically in the same area; the two vans went in two different directions,” Hudak said. “I can’t definitively say they’re connected. but this is one of those things where it was very, very similar to what we had two weeks ago.”