The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

Six Haitian nationals who claimed that they had paid money to a human trafficker to be smuggled to the United States were taken into custody by Bahamian authorities in Grand Bahama this week.

According to police reports, the group of four men and two women were discovered at an apartment complex in the Eight Mile Rock area around 2pm on Wednesday by Drug Enforcement Unit officers who contacted the Department of Immigration.

A team of officers from Department of Immigration’s Enforcement Unit, led by Senior Immigration Officer Jerome Hutcheson II, went to Eight Mile Rock to investigate.

On questioning the Haitian nationals concerning their status in The Bahamas, it was determined that two had legally entered the country, and that one had entered illegally.

They told authorities that they were to be smuggled to the United States and alleged that they had paid monies for the trip to Florida to an unknown person who did not deliver on the deal.

The group was taken into custody and transported to the Department of Immigration headquarters, where they were processed and detained overnight.

Yesterday, immigration officials, along with the six Haitian nationals, boarded a Western Air flight around 1pm to New Providence. The group was taken to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre to await repatriation.