A 35-year-old resident of Bimini in The Bahamas faces up to 25 years in a US prison for attempting to smuggle 18 Brazilian and Haitian nationals into Florida in July.
George Rolle plead guilty in a Fort Lauderdale federal court last week to one count of encouraging and inducing aliens to enter the US and one count of illegal re-entry by an aggravated felon.
He returns to court for sentencing on November 14.
Rolle was deported in 2011 following another failed smuggling venture that resulted in multiple deaths.
According to court documents, in 2006, a boat rescued Rolle and four immigrants after their boat capsized 30 nautical miles off Fort Lauderdale on April 21, 2006.
The body of Rolnique Metayer, a Haitian national, was found near the capsized vessel. The bodies of two others, John Fitzgerald Lewis, a Jamaican, and Haitian, Yves Jean, were never recovered. They are presumed dead.
Rolle was to receive $9,000 after the immigrants arrived, according to court papers. He was sentenced to 60 months in prison.
In the recent case, a US Customs and Border Protection aircraft on patrol on July 14 spotted Rolle’s boat traveling west from The Bahamas toward Fort Lauderdale.
Authorities said Rolle’s vessel was running without its lights and attempted to evade before a border protection vessel fired seven shots at its engines to disable it.
