Boat captain charged in smuggling deaths

MIAMI, May 19 (UPI) -- A Haitian boat captain has been charged in the deaths of nine people who drowned in a failed smuggling operation off Florida, U.S. immigration officials said.

Jimmy Metellus, 33, was charged Monday with alien smuggling resulting in deaths from a capsizing off Boynton Beach last Wednesday in which nine died, 16 were rescued and five remain missing, The Miami Herald reported Tuesday. The dead included a 1-year-old girl and a woman who was eight months pregnant.

Metellus told authorities four other men organized the trip while he agreed to sail the boat for free from the Bahamas to Miami so he wouldn't have to return to a life of hardship in Haiti, immigration officials said.

The four other alleged smugglers were paid thousands of dollars by the boat's passengers, Metellus told authorities.

As of Monday, no one else had been charged for the deaths and the investigation was ongoing, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.