The U.S. Coast Guard said it detained a fishing vessel and its eight-person crew Friday to determine if the boat was engaged in illegal smuggling of refugees from Cuba.
Coast Guard officials said the ship, believed to be a Cuban fishing boat, was found near Sand Key, south of Key West, Fla., Friday morning. They said the eight people aboard were taken to shore and turned over to the Immigration & Naturalization Service and the FBI for questioning.The detention came the day after U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno announced that law officers would enforce a series of tough measures intended to prevent smuggling of refugees from the Communist-governed nation.
Angered with U.S. policy that he claims has led to hijackings and unrest in his country, Cuban President Fidel Castro has threatened to unleash another Mariel boatlift, in which a disorganized exodus of 125,000 Cubans came to southern Florida over a matter of months in 1980.