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Two Brevard are prison time for boots migrants to Florida

Two Brevard are prison time for boots migrants to Florida

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The sheriff office of the Indian River County, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the border patrol, the HSI and the US Coast Guard helped to stop a smuggling test at Sebastian Inlet.

A Rock Ledge Accounter and a man from Merritt Island, whom the authorities claim that he had recruited his boat for trips to the Bahamas to bring Haitian, Honduran and Bahamic migrant workers to the USA.

A federal judge has relied on Raymond Neil Smith, 45, from Rockledge, 284,000 US dollars in “proceeds from his participation in the conspiracy of smuggling to smuggle in the country”. The US district judge Gregory Presnell also ordered Smith to decay two boats from which the BUND investigators were used to smuggle more than 90 migrants into the USA, said court documents.

Smith's April 2024 arrest comes from the arrest of Michael Andrew Milano, 43, from Merritt Island. Milano was charged with the human smuggling after Florida Fish and Wildlife Officers found 25 migrants on the boat he led.

The Milano hearing previously set for October 2024 was canceled to coordinate a newly planned court appointment after Smith's case was convicted.

On May 1, 2025, the judge Smith condemned 30 months in the federal prison. Smith receives a credit for the time in federal custody. He also has to pay 40,200 US dollars in criminal fines. It was unclear on Tuesday how much time Smith had already served.

It is expected that he will serve his term later this month.

On Tuesday, Smith declined a comment and expressed that he did not believe that it was a message that “nobody was injured” and described the situation as “unhappy”.

A call to Milano's lawyer on Tuesday was not returned immediately.

According to court documents:

  • In the night of February 29, 2024, Milano became 42-foot yellow-fur ships near the Brevard Indian River County Line Captain Smiths and tried to smuggle 25 migrants (21 Haitians and four Bahamians) in Sebastian Inlet. The group contained two pregnant women and four children who were unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the officials also found firearms and night -fitting equipment.
  • Milano owed himself guilty of bringing aliens to the United States, which has a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000. His plea agreement includes the loss of his weapons and his ammunition that were found on the boat.
  • Smith owed the conspiracy to smuggle extraterrestrials and to transport exceptionally alien.
  • On April 19, 2024, surveillance in Smith's residence was carried out, in which people on Smith's 42-foot freeman ship, which was docked in his rock spread house, were loaded on Smith's 42-foot freeman ship. The boat entered the Atlantic via Sebastian Inlet. Customs and border preservatives stopped the boat off the coast. There were six men on board: four Honduran citizens and two US citizens. Smith told the agent that on the way to his property they were led to the Bahamas.
  • Smith's plea agreement quotes his commitment to six smuggling trips to the Bahamas between July 2023 and February 2024. On the last three trips, he recruited Milano to go to captain and smuggled at least 90 migrants on these trips.
  • Smith “received 284,000 US dollars from his participation in the conspiracy of the smuggling of Aliens' crimes.

Contact Waymer at (321) 261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Follow him on X at @Jwayenviro.

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