Posted on 03/15/2021 5:19:56 PM PDT by ransomnote
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, a federal judge in Ft. Pierce sentenced a Bahamian man to 151 months in prison for trying to smuggle migrants into the United States on a poorly-equipped and overloaded boat while the area was under a hurricane warning.
According to court documents, on the night of July 30, 2020, Vonne Rolle, 29, of Coopers Town, Bahamas, attempted to pilot a vessel from Freeport, Bahamas, to the St. Lucie Inlet, with twelve migrants on board. At the time, the area was under a hurricane warning due to the approaching storm, Isaias. The vessel, which was overloaded and not equipped with food, water, or life jackets, broke down prior to arriving in Florida. It drifted until a boater discovered it the next day. The United States Coast Guard rescued Rolle and the other migrants, including a minor, 26 miles off the coast of Stuart, Florida. Rolle was arrested and charged. On December 11, 2020, Rolle pled guilty to migrant smuggling.
Rolle was convicted and sentenced in 2016 on a separate alien smuggling charge investigated by HSI in Fort Pierce, Florida. Rolle was previously deported from the U.S. in April 2018.
Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
HSI Miami investigated this case, with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Border Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Hoover is prosecuting the case.
You may find related court documents and information on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 20-14029-CR-JEM.
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Nobody died, correct?
Because the Coast Guard never increases patrols 36 hours before winds reach 42 mph, I think I’ll try my hand at human trafficking.
Vonne Rolle gets 12 years for failure to get Illegals registered to vote before being caught.
Rolle is an old Bahamian surname, large extended family in the Bahamas. Esther Rolle, mama on “Good Times”, was a member.
So it’s not really about the illegal human trafficking, the illegal entry, or the risk to human lives in general but mostly about his refusal to heed the hurricane warning?
Florida Evans?
Yes.
You may recall the name Alcee Hastings, a Federal Judge, a Democrat, impeached for fraud (accepting bribes). He’s from the area; the people of the area, wanting someone they could count on, elected Hastings to serve in the Federal House. I wonder if he was involved in this.
That is not Alcee Hastings’ district. He is South. Might be Brian Mast’s?
Fort Pierce inlet is a little used great and deep inlet.I fish out of there all the time.
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