Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
A recent migrant landing ended up in a number of arrests, including the participants as well as the driver.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “So many of our stuff comes in from good Samaritans who see something unusual and call us to say that something doesn’t look right. We received a call from some citizens around the Tavernier town, and Winn Dixie area. They saw what they believed were a group of migrants that were in the parking lot and seemed to be just out of place. Then at some point in time, we got called. We notified Border Patrol that we’re getting information that there may be some type of a migrant landing. There was a boat there initially, which they tied. They thought the boat was somehow related as well, on a trailer. So we sent units over to see what was going on, to see was this a migrant issue? Is this some other issue that was suspicious in nature? We notified federal government, border patrol about the complaint, and as we arrived, as a patrol car pulled up, the migrants all took off and ran into the wooded areas. So at that point in time, we were pretty convinced this was some type of current, fresh migrant landing. We notified the government as well what was taking place. The perimeter was set up by border patrol trying to contain these migrants in the Tavernier area. At some point in time, later on, they were seen getting into a car, a group of them, and heading north. So the information went out. The sheriff’s office spotted the car, and we conducted an investigative traffic stop on the car. We determined the car was full of illegal migrants who had just landed. They were in clean clothing, weren’t hungry, weren’t in distress, indicative of just come over by boat, indicative of being brought over by a smuggler, versus on a raft. We separate everybody. Government came in, interviewed, Border Patrol, Homeland Security, they determined that the driver who initially said that he was just driving down and saw these people and looked like they needed a ride. Later on, he confirmed that, no, that wasn’t the case, that he was part of this organized plan. He drove down from Dade to pick these migrants up, along with the boat captain and to bring him back to Dade. Also in the car was the captain who was a legal migrant here couple times and apparently keeps going back to Cuba to commit migrant smuggling. And allegedly, when he goes over there, he steals a boat from someone in Cuba and brings people over. He stole a boat and got these migrants just a couple of days earlier, and came over here, abandoning the boat in the Tavernier area, ocean side. Then when his buddy picked them all up, and we’ve since been contacted by the owner of the boat, in Cuba, a woman who’s distraught about this boat, wanting to get it back. It’s her livelihood. It was actually a pretty nice boat, considering some of the boats there. She identified this person as someone who’s known to her, and that’s come there before, and stolen other people’s boats to keep coming to and from us, and then to Cuba, back and forth, back and forth. So initially, United States Attorney’s Office was not supportive of charges. So the sheriff’s office, in the past, we arrest them on local, state charges for the immigration, migrant stuff. We arrested the boat captain and the getaway driver. The following day, I’ve been told that the US Attorney’s Office was going to file charges on the boat captain only not the getaway driver. But myself in the state attorney, continue to take the stance that we’re not going to let these type of activities occur. There has to be some accountability and some deterrence. If you don’t hold people accountable and don’t deter them, they will continue to traffic human traffic.”
Why wouldn’t the United State’s Attorney’s Office be supportive of filing charges?
Sheriff Ramsay said, “You’d think, with all the top concern from the president and Attorney General, this is our number one issue that, yeah, people would be trying to prosecute every chance they can, anything do with the human trafficking. But we’ll see. I did have a good conversation yesterday with the new US Attorney in the Southern District, who’s vowed to look into the matter, to be vigilant and to try to actively pursue these type of cases. He’s only been on the job a couple weeks, so he’s inheriting maybe a different regimes attitude. But seemed a very good conversation, and seem to want to tackle these type of matters, acknowledging that this is the direction of the president and the Attorney General. So we’ll see how that works out. I did have a very frank conversation with him about our frustration and about again, if his office wasn’t going to do it, myself and the State Attorney’s Office, we’re going to do whatever we can to hold people accountable, deter, try to prevent this from occurring. Human trafficking is very dangerous. Bad things occur at all levels, obviously, folks livelihoods being stolen in Cuba, people going to and from Cuban and the US, these migrants being brought here. Some we don’t know what happens. Sometimes they get into sex slave and servants type stuff. There’s risk at sea. There’s nothing good that comes out of this.”
A motorist was arrested for fleeing police recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “In the Upper Keys, we did clock a car going 63 in a 45. Deputy turned got behind the motorist. Motorist, when seeing the patrol car, slowed the speed down to the posted limit of 45. Officer activated the lights and sirens, trying to get the car to yield, to no avail. There was no other real cars on the road, so it was pretty quiet night traffic wise, and the car would not stop, would not yield. We eventually had to call for a stinger spike system be set up ahead of us because the car wouldn’t stop. We went for about nine miles with the lights and sirens trying to get this person to yield, to no avail, and to the point that we had to spike out the tires due to control deflation. We got the male stopped. He ignored. He knew who was behind him. He acknowledged hearing the lights of sirens, and he acknowledged that he knew he was supposed to have to yield to an emergency vehicle and asked why he didn’t, he said, well, I was doing the speed limit, 45 so I didn’t think you were trying to stop me, but there’s no other cars anywhere near him. The officer said, well, you may be doing the speed limit by time we spiked your car out, but I clocked you at 63 in a 45 and you slowed down because I was behind you. But doesn’t change the fact, no matter what, you must yield to an emergency vehicle. So we spiked out his car. Had to tow his car away, and he had to go to jail because, all for trying to avoid a traffic ticket. You can’t get away from us by just not stopping. Some areas, you have these no pursuit policies. They just turn and let you go. We’re not going to let you go. We have a system here to stop pursuits where every single patrol car has stinger spikes in the cars. We’re set up to stop this chaos right away and not let bad people get away and keep our community safe and secure from pursuit to high speed reckless drivers.”
Two undersized lobsters resulted in a mandatory notice to appear for one individual who was from Miami, Florida, and then another individual was stopped and actually taken to jail for being in possession of 13 undersized mangrove snapper and possession of 14 over the limit Mangrove snapper.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Nelson Sanchez also had a case where we actually pulled up and caught an individual actually molesting a dive trap, was diving and was in the trap, and was giving verbal commands to the male, and the commands were not listened to. Gave commands to stop, come to the boat. At some point in time, had a mesh bag full of a lobster type stuff, giving commands about the bag. Eventually, he discarded the bag, and we ultimately arrested this person for trap molestation, which is more and more prevalent. A lot of people are either pulling other people’s traps, trap robbing, or divers getting their commercial fisherman’s traps. So that person went to jail again because the magnitude of the charges between trap molestation as well as non compliance with lawful commands. So Nelson’s been busy up there between lobster cases, fish cases, trap molestation cases. So he’s been doing a really, really good job up there. We’re happy, and proud of his work. And then another officer at a marathon, he’s a young officer out there who’s a part time Marine officer. He was part of that trap robbing case a couple weeks earlier, and he caught an individual who was spear fishing, and we’ve caught him in possession of two undersized black grouper, one over the bag limit. You can only take one black grouper. So this individual had too short black grouper, and over the bag limit. We keep saying, as people keep attacking our resources, there just is going to be nothing left if we don’t do something to protect the resources and the way of life, our commercial and tourist industry.”
Last week, there was an arrest of a Florida City man who took nearly $25,000 in checks that were intended for charity.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It was a really good job by the sheriff’s office to investigate and follow this case up. We were able to recover some surveillance footage that was in the area and to see the crime take place, to make an identification of a person, vehicle, truck that was involved here. But obviously people let their guard down. They’re so used to safe communities that we see this between unlocked homes or cars with keys in it. In this case, here, they left the money bag in a golf cart. And inside the money cart, the money bag was about $25,000 of checks that were designed to go to charitable organization, charities, part of a charitable organization. So they came out. The money bag was gone. We got contacted. We investigated, looked into it, pulled up some surveillance camera. We saw a truck pull up next to the golf cart. We saw the driver get out, go to the golf cart, look around, reach inside, grab the money bag. You can see the money bag in his hand. Take the money bag, get back in the truck and leave. So we were able to identify the vehicle tag, and we were able to get this person before they left Ocean Reef. When confronted with the video and what took place, admitted to it. We were able to get the money bag back and get the checks back to the organization for the charitable contributions. So this was a crime of opportunity, which we always talk about, most crimes in the Keys are crimes of opportunity that are foreseeable and preventable, but people’s guards are so low again, because it’s such a safe community, they just don’t think twice about it. You would never have done that in Miami. You’d have never left a money bag in the back of a golf cart somewhere. In Miami, you wouldn’t leave the keys in your car. In Miami, you wouldn’t leave your house unlocked. Somehow, we’ve got it so good here that it can be a detriment.”
Last week, the sheriff’s office presented a check for $5,000 to the Key West Military Affairs Committee.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I’m a member of the MAC, the Military Affairs Committee, and they do such a good job to support our servicemen, present and past. We do the Wounded Warrior projects, other stuff there all the time, so many different stuff out there. We’re trying to help the active current commands and have a great relationship. I’m really proud to be part of that group. So we’ll always need money to do good stuff for our veterans. I was able to get some money that was non taxpayer money, so it did not come from taxpayers’ pockets, but I was able to access some money that I could use for some positive outreach, charitable stuff, which we like to do when we can. In this case, I was able to get some money, and I called up Abe and said, hey, look, I’ve got a little extra money here. I want to do something good with it. And he was excited. In fact, he told me that that money is going to be used for the Wounded Warrior Project coming up here. So I was happy to donate it, to do something good and be part of that great organization. Abe is a good friend of mine. Good man. I worked together with him when he was DEA, when I was in special operations, worked a lot of stuff together. So just a good community leader, obviously, military service, law enforcement service, community service, just all around great guy, and I’m glad to call him a friend and be part of that organization and do something good for our veterans.”