Boat Tied to Smuggling Runs Aground in Keys
A migrant-smuggling boat ran aground during a Coast Guard chase in the lower Florida Keys, dumping 33 people into the shallow water, the Coast Guard said.
Coast Guard crews rescued and rounded up 30 of the passengers and were still searching for three others, including two suspected smugglers.
One passenger was taken to a hospital in Key West with back injuries and the others were unharmed, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami said.
The overloaded 27-foot speedboat ran aground near Marquesas Key, an uninhabited atoll ringed with dangerous reefs in the Gulf of Mexico west of Key West.
A Coast Guard helicopter and a patrol boat were chasing the vessel, which was believed to be carrying illegal migrants from Cuba.
The captured passengers, including four children, were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
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