Police officers escorting human smuggler Miguel Jno-Baptist (centre) out of the Courthouse on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.
PHILIPSBURG--A crew member of a sailing vessel from Dominica who was detained by the St. Maarten Police Force KPSM on October 3, 2019, on suspicion of human-trafficking and who was sentenced to two years by the Court of First Instance on February 20, 2020, was ordered by the Court on Wednesday to pay the criminal proceeds of the illegal operation. The judge ordered the confiscation of US $786, or 15 days’ imprisonment in case of non-payment.
Miguel Jno-Baptist (25) and two co-suspects were found guilty in February last year of having tried to smuggle 14 illegal migrants from Haiti on board the small sailboat Solitude, which was docked at the pier near Walter Plantz Square in Great Bay without first clearing Customs and Immigration on October 3, 2019.
The passengers from Haiti boarded the vessel two days earlier. They had to pay between $1,000 and $2,000 each for the trip of approximately 189 nautical miles from Dominica to St. Maarten.
The three defendants, including Jno-Baptist, were the boat crew and, in the eyes of the Prosecutor’s Office, they had benefited from the human-trafficking operation by sailing from Dominica free of cost. During sentencing in the proceedings of February 2020, the judge had also found that they had committed this crime for financial gain.
Jno-Baptist’s co-defendants were sentenced to payment of US $136, as they had a free boat ride from Dominica to St. Maarten.
In Jno-Baptist’s case, the prosecutor called for a higher amount, as he not only had a free-of-charge boat ride to St. Maarten, but in his capacity of the boat’s unofficial captain had also received payment of $650 in total from the illegal immigrants for gasoline and other transportation services.
The defendant’s lawyer objected to the claim, as she stated that it was not clear to which person the passengers had paid these fees.
Amounts of US $1,420 and EC $400 were found on the suspect, who told the court that it was his intention to go shopping in St. Maarten with the proceeds of construction work and his fishing operations.
The court awarded the dispossession claim for the amount of $786, because 14 witnesses had told the police that they had paid Jno-Baptiste, “or someone matching his description,” the judge said.
