NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said officers confiscated large sums of money from the homes of Bahamians arrested in connection with Sunday’s suspected human smuggling incident that resulted in the deaths of at least 17 people.
“We have one who we suspect is the owner of the vessel and we have also identified the captain who was one of the individuals who was arrested on Sunday,” Fernander told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
“We have also recovered a large sum of money during the investigation of that individual who was arrested on Sunday morning. The owner of the vessel, he was arrested at his residence and during the search we also recovered large sums of cash which we believe were proceeds with respect to this matter.”
Fernander said police have still not identified the victims.
“We have in our possession only two identification that was found on the persons of two of the individuals so we are appealing especially to the Haitian community…We are appealing to the Haitian community to please assist us in trying to identify any family members,” he said.
Fernander said the investigation shows thus far that most of the survivors were staying in New Providence for at least about a month.
“What I can say to you based on our investigation is the majority of the victims, they were staying here in New Providence for awhile. Some of them would have came in from various Family Islands and we have identified at least three of them who came by plane from Haiti about two weeks ago. We also have our US partners who are working closely with us,” he said.
“We are going deep into this investigation because we believe that the destination was for the US and what I can say as well that the captain of the boat who we have already identified, we did a background check and he was charged for human smuggling in the US and was convicted and spent two years. Also he was convicted in Cuba and spent eight years for drug trafficking so we are well on the way with our investigation.”
Fernander told Eyewitness News on Wednesday that he expects charges in the case before the week is out.
Yesterday he said a number of charges are being contemplated, including manslaughter, operating an unregistered vessel, operating a vessel without the prescribed number of life vests and operating as an unregistered captain.
