Cubans head for Mexico to dodge US sea patrols
ISLA MUJERES, Mexico -
On the night Lazaro Mendez got an alert that his boat had been stolen from the Florida Keys, he was swept up in a new chapter of the Cuban boat people drama.
Grabbing a laptop computer that tracked the fishing boat’s position by satellite, he watched as it stopped for refueling at sea, then shot off toward Cuba - the latest in a swarm of thefts of Florida boats prized by smugglers for their speed.
Mendez, a Cuban-American and a popular Miami radio personality known as “DJ Laz,” set out to get his boat back, succeeded, and even came face to face with the men who stole it. But it was just the tiniest of setbacks for a human-trafficking industry that is thriving off the Cuban exodus.