REPORT: passengers were migrants from Haiti
Brevard County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit also swept the boat for the presence of drugs and found five clear bags containing a total of approximately 2.5 pounds of suspected narcotics
BREVARD COUNTY • MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA — A Homeland Security Investigations Space Coast investigation has led to the indictment of a Brevard County man charged with 25 counts of human smuggling.
If convicted, Michael Andrew Milano, 42, of Merritt Island, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for each count.
The indictment also notifies Milano that the United States intends to forfeit any property traceable to proceeds of the offense and any property or conveyances used to facilitate or commit the offenses.
According to court documents, on Feb. 29, 2024, Milano and a companion traveled from Brevard County to the Bahamas in a 42-foot fishing vessel. Records show the vessel was registered in Rockledge, but not to Milano, and was not reported stolen.
During a brief stop in the Bahamas, Milano loaded 25 non-U.S. citizen migrants onto the vessel, returning to Brevard County shortly thereafter. Milano allegedly forced all 25 migrants to lie flat on the deck of the vessel throughout the voyage back to the United States.
WATCH: Officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were conducting routine safety inspections in the Intracoastal Waterway and Indian River region and encountered Michael Andrew Milano, 42, of Merritt Island, and boarded his vessel. On board, they discovered the migrants, still lying flat on the deck. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office assisted U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations, the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard. (IRCSO video image)
That evening, as officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were conducting routine safety inspections in the Intracoastal Waterway and Indian River region, they encountered Milano and boarded his vessel.
On board, they discovered the migrants, still lying flat on the deck. Federal and local law enforcement agencies responded, and the U.S. Coast Guard took custody of the migrants to process and repatriate them.
According to law enforcement, the passengers included 12 men, eight women, two were believed to be pregnant, and five children who appeared to be unaccompanied by an adult. None of the passengers spoke English or had any identification or U.S. documents.
The report says the officers believed the passengers were migrants from Haiti.
According to the report, after Milano refused to speak to investigators, agents questioned a woman who said she had been in a relationship with Milano for years, and despite instructions from Milano not to speak to law enforcement, the woman said she and Milano took a boat trip to the Bahamas that she believed was for the purpose of bringing supplies like food, money and electronics to a property there.
The woman said they boarded a boat at a residence in Rockledge and then traveled directly to the Bahamas and then went to a boat dock where they loaded several people on the boat. The vessel then traveled to another boat dock in the Bahamas where even more migrants were loaded onto the boat.
According to the report, the witness said Milano told her to find a migrant in the group who spoke some English so they could tell the others to lay down in the boat for the duration of the trip. Milano then told the witness to collect all their belongings.
According to the report, Milano traveled to the Florida coast nonstop and entered the Sebastian Inlet and toward the Rockledge home where the trip started.
The witness told authorities she only helped Milano because she feared for her safety throughout the entire trip, saying she did exactly what Milano told her to do because he threatened to throw her overboard. Law enforcement and court records corroborated the witnesses claims that Milano had beaten her on multiple occasions in the past.
Later on the night of the inspection, agents say they used a translator to interview four of the boat passengers found lying on the deck.
According to the report, each of them told the same story in which they had paid someone to bring them from the Bahamas to the United States by boat, but their original boat had become disabled, and they ended up on Milano’s boat because he happened to be passing by and rescued them.
Investigators say the identical accounts given by the passengers led them to believe they were coached to give that narrative if questioned by law enforcement, a common tactic for human smuggling suspects and their victims.
The vessel was seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations.
Three handguns, two of which were found hidden in compartments around the boat were discovered during a subsequent search, and a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit also swept the boat for the presence of drugs and found five clear bags containing a total of approximately 2.5 pounds of suspected narcotics, which are undergoing testing in a laboratory.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations Space Coast, with assistance from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office assisted U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations, the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard. The case will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Varadan.
Investigators have found cause to charge Milano with illegally bringing aliens into the United States and he was booked into the Brevard County jail Saturday and has since been remanded to the custody of the United States Marshals Service pending a preliminary examination and detention hearing scheduled for March 12.
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