FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A man appeared in Fort Lauderdale federal court Monday after federal authorities busted him smuggling nearly three dozen migrants on his boat off the coast of South Florida, according to a criminal complaint.
Derek Campton, 43, is facing a federal charge of bringing aliens into the United States.
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According to the criminal complaint, the bust happened Friday.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joshua Stanbery wrote that authorities had been made aware that Campton’s boat was headed westward toward the U.S.
Federal agents were unable to intercept the vessel, Stanbery wrote, but Miami-Dade police were able to stop it about two miles off the coast of Key Biscayne; authorities said they saw a man later identified as Campton operating the boat.
Authorities said they boarded the vessel and found 31 migrants, most of whom were in the boat’s cabin.
They were from Haiti and the Bahamas, Stanbery wrote, and none of them had the proper documentation to enter the U.S.
U.S. Coast Guard crews transferred the migrants to their custody, while authorities took Campton to the U.S. Border Patrol station in Dania Beach, the court documents state.
There, he admitted to taking the boat from the Bahamas to U.S. territorial waters to “knowingly smuggle illegal aliens, for profit,” Stanbery wrote.
Campton received the boat in question “as compensation for conducting human smuggling ventures,” the agent wrote.
Authorities said Campton told investigators that he lived in a separate boat in the Bahamas and did not have ties to South Florida.
He would later be jailed in Broward County and his case is being heard in the U.S. Southern District of Florida, however.
Court records show a judge granted him a $100,000 personal surety bond, meaning he didn’t have to post bail. However, if he fails to appear in court, the government can sue him for that amount.
The judge issued a number of requirements, including that Campton surrender his passport, refrain from possessing a gun and required that he not visit any transportation centers, including airports, marinas and train stations.
He was also required to submit to GPS monitoring.