Steve Gorman, Brian Ellsworth

MIAMI (Reuters). Rescue crews searched the waters of Florida’s Atlantic coast for 39 missing people on Tuesday. A survivor was found clinging onto a boat which had capsized. The incident, according to U.S. Coast Guard, is being called a human smuggling plot gone awry.

Following his rescue, the survivor revealed to authorities that he’d left the Bahamas’ Bimini islands about 50 miles (80km east) from Miami on Saturday night in a boat, along with 39 other persons, according to the Coast Guard in a tweet (NYSE:).

Survivors claim that their vessel was swept away by rough weather 45 miles (72.4 kilometers) east of Fort Pierce Inlet. The incident occurred off Florida’s Atlantic Coast, about half way between Miami Beach and Cape Canaveral. But, they said no one was wearing a life vest.

The man was found by a good Samaritan on Tuesday morning, still on his boat’s hull. He was then rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter and cutter vessel.

According to the Coast Guard, this “suspected human smuggling enterprise” was responsible for possible loss of life. According to a Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer Jose Hernandez Hernandez, the nationality of all aboard is still unknown.

Hernandez explained that the rescue came just days after another failed migrant crossing attempt. 32 people were saved from a sinking vessel in Bimini last Friday. Bimini has long been an important transit point for sea-going criminals.

In the waters of Florida, there are often incidents of vessels being overturned, or taken into custody. Many of these people include Cubans and Haitians who want to travel to the United States.

Twelve Cuban migrants died in May 2021 and eight others were saved after their boat was flipped off Key West, Florida.

According to the Coast Guard, at least 557 Cuban migrants have been rescued by sea since October. This is in addition to almost 7,400 Cubans that were interdicted in the five previous years.

As the Caribbean nation is dealing with political and economic crises as well as kidnappings by gangs, vessel crossings of Haitian migrants are also increasing. At least 159 Haitian nationals were intercepted by the Coast Guard in this fiscal year, according to Coast Guard.

After rescue operations and interdictions of three illegal passages through the Mona Passage, near Puerto Rico, 90 persons were returned to Dominican Republic.