People-smuggler gets 18 months

PHILIPSBURG--A 28-year-old resident of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was sentenced by the Court of First Instance to 18 months Wednesday for involvement in people-smuggling.

Judge Monique Keppels stated in her ruling she found freelance boat captain Aliaza A. Brown guilty of involvement in an operation to transfer a group of Brazilian nationals to the United States, between May 29 and May 31.

Brown and crewman S.K.K. (27) were arrested in Simpson Bay, while four other persons on board proved to be Brazilian nationals, who had flown to St. Maarten via Panama. From here, they were to be taken by boat to Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. Their final destination was Puerto Rico.

Tortola resident S.K.K., who was released from pre-trial detention on July 13, was tried in absentia and acquitted of all charges on September 22. Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks asked for acquittal, because it could not be derived from the case file that he had any prior knowledge of the illegal operation.

The prosecutor asked that Brown, who is currently detained at Pointe Blanche prison, be jailed for 30 months.

The judge rejected attorney Shaira Bommel's plea that her client would not have assisted the Brazilians in gaining illegal entry into St. Maarten, because they did not need visas to stay here and were allowed to stay on the island as tourists. Bommel said the Brazilians' stay on the island had been fully legal and her client's role in this, therefore, had been irreproachable.

The judge stated in her ruling that this was irrelevant, because the Brazilians' travels were intended to gain illegal entry into the United States.

Judge Keppels also rejected Brown's position that he had not known he had become involved in people-smuggling.

The judge stated that she had come to the conclusion that Brown had been involved in people-smuggling from the fact that he had taken four strangers on board of his boat on the request of somebody he claimed to have known only vaguely. Furthermore, he had not reported his passengers to the authorities in St. Maarten, and when his vessel was apprehended by the Coast Guard, he had said his boat had only two persons on board instead of six.

In handing down sentence, the judge took into account the fact that it was the first time that Brown had come into contact with the police and the judicial authorities.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/21326-people-smuggler-gets-18-months.html

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