By Deandrea Hamilton & Dana Malcolm
Editorial Staff
#TurksandCaicos, January 15, 2023 – It was an anonymous tip to TCI Authorities, Magnetic Media can inform, which led to a trade vessel being searched and 95 illegal migrants being taken into custody. Information to the Ministry of Border Services proved credible and activated a joint law enforcement unit which foiled the illegal entry of the migrants and possibly other contraband.
A concerned citizen urgently passed on information that turned out to be scarily accurate, pinpointing a ship going by the name of FAMILY EXPRESS that would try to breach the island’s borders carrying migrants and reportedly other contraband.
A multi-agency team including the Ministry of Immigration and Border Services and Customs Departments, Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force and Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment, acted on the information early Christmas Morning.
Arlington Musgrove, Immigration and Border Services Minister said: “This is the latest operation in our intelligence-led focus on border-related crime. My government remains committed to a clear zero tolerance approach as we continue to crack down, disrupt networks and prosecute persons involved in the smuggling of illegal migrants.”
The officers searched the commercial Haitian trade vessel ‘MV Family Express’ which had actually made it into and docked in the TCI; just as described they found a total of 95 migrants on board who were immediately detained by the Immigration Department.
While our news organisation was informed of the successful capture and a deep search of the vessel on Christmas
Day, to date no other information about whether or not illicit drugs and firearms had also been seized has been provided.
Now the government is working alongside agents from the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), stationed here in the Turks and Caicos Islands to investigate the vessel’s arrival.
Notably, the vessel was a commercial one, a beautiful white and black boat with the name proudly displayed on the sides, nothing like the small fast boats packed with people that usually try to sneak into the bushy uninhabited areas. The brazen attempt foiled by a good citizen raises serious questions about whether this was a one-off attempt or whether licensed commercial carriers are abusing their privileges to break immigration laws.
In a similar joint operation in November 2022, a shipment of illegal firearms from the United States to the Turks and Caicos Islands was intercepted by US Homeland Security.