March 27 (UPI) — A Bahamian national has been charged with repeatedly attempting to smuggle migrants into the United States by boat, with one trip resulting in the deaths of five people.
Vandrick Nelson Smith, 33, was arrested March 6 in the Bahamas at the request of the United States, which is now seeking his extradition to face a slew of charges, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The multi-count indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses Smith of being involved in three maritime attempts to smuggle migrants by boat from the Caribbean nation to the United States between March 2021 and August 2022.
Migrants from the Colombia, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, among other countries, paid the man to be taken across the ocean to the United States, it said.
During one trip that left the Bahamas for Florida on Jan. 22, 2022, the engines of a boat with multiple migrants on board stopped working and began to capsize.
Three days later, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued a sole surviver who was found clinging to the side of the boat and retrieved multiple bodies, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri said in a recorded statement.
“Pursuing human smugglers who endanger migrants and place their lives in jeopardy is a top priority for the criminal division, wherever those smugglers may operate,” she said. “The charges announced today should serve as a warning that human smuggling is not only criminal, it is dangerous.
Among the charges Smith faces are five counts of attempting to bring noncitizens to the United States resulting in death, which, if convicted, will see him face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
“Migrants who work with smugglers could be putting their lives at risk. And smugglers who seek financial gain without regard for the safety of migrants seeking to come to the United States will face the full force of the law,” Argentieri said.
