Bahamians jailed on illegal immigration charges
MIAMI, USA – A United States federal judge has sentenced two Bahamian men to lengthy federal prison terms for conspiring to smuggle four Jamaican and Trinidadian nationals into South Florida.
Prosecutors said that one of the passengers died during the smuggling attempt.
Tyrel Levarity, 23, was sentenced to 17 and a half years while 24-year-old Ahmad Toussaint was jailed for 14 years for their roles in the February smuggling operation.
The names of the other Caribbean nationals were not released.
According to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, in late February, Florida Park Service officers pursued the two men as they raced their 28-foot boat toward the coast.
When the vessel entered Black Point Marina in Homestead, near Miami, the unidentified passengers jumped out and ran toward the mangroves.
But one of the passengers, Michael Norman Lynch of Jamaica, drowned in a canal while trying to make it to shore, ICE officials said.