On August 11th, the Coast Guard contacted Everglades National Park dispatch to request assistance in catching a “go-fast” boat – a 38-foot Fountain – whose operators had allegedly dropped a group of Cuban migrants on Bush Key in Dry Tortugas National Park, then fled north, possibly through the Everglades. The Coast Guard was pursuing the vessel by air but did not have any boats in the area. Rangers Steven Rice and Sean Blake waited in the Pavilion Key area and saw the Fountain run aground on a key just before 5 p.m. The two men on board ran into the dense mangrove brush. Rangers began a search for them with assistance provided by personnel from US Fish and Wildlife, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Collier County Sheriff’s Office, and Customs and Border Patrol. A canine team followed tracks from the vessel and a helicopter equipped with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system attempted to locate them from the air. The two men managed to elude capture, though, and the search was suspended around 11 p.m. Rangers took the vessel back to the Gulf Coast Ranger Station. Rangers Sean Blake and Steve Rice returned to the site in plain clothes and an unmarked vessel the following morning, hoping that the men would emerge from hiding to request a ride off the island. They found the two men waiting on the beach and arrested them without incident. The men claimed that they’d been dropped on the island early that morning by an unknown man who had paid them to perform a Santeria ritual, but they were still wearing the same footwear rangers had spent the evening tracking. The vessel’s hull identification numbers, including a second number concealed by the manufacturer, had been removed and the vessel appeared to have been stolen. The two men were turned over to Border Patrol agents. Meanwhile, rangers at Dry Tortugas confirmed that 27 Cuban migrants were dropped off on Bush Key at approximately 22 p.m. on August 11th.
