The Lee County Human Trafficking Task Force met with Florida Gulf Coast University officials Thursday to further their goal of creating a center for combating human trafficking on campus. WGCU’s Amy Tardif reports.

Two incidents with U.S. Coast Guard Crews in Sanibel Island landed four men in federal court Monday afternoon. Two are being brought up on human smuggling charges, while two more are charged with resisting arrest.

After receiving a report that 11 Cuban nationals were smuggled onto Sanibel Island, the U.S. coast guard caught up with the suspected human smugglers south of Knapp’s point on Sanibel Island. The 2 men are now in the custody of Customs and Boarder Patrol. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez says the Cuban immigrants took a huge risk.

“These human smugglers, they have no regard for human life. They’re just in it for the money. Family members who would even think or contemplate about paying these people should think twice. Not only are they breaking the law and they could be subject to criminal prosecution, but they’re putting the lives of their loved ones in the hands of people who have a callous disregard for life.”

Coast Guard crews brought 2 more men into custody Saturday, after disabling another smuggling boat headed outbound from San Carlos Bay in Lee County. The vessel let them on an 18-mile chase, and tried repeatedly to ram the coast guard rescue boats. The 375 gallons of fuel found on the boat, led officials to believe it was the fueling vessel for Sunday’s operation.

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Four men are in federal custody today after being brought up on charges ranging from human smuggling to resisting arrest after two incidents this past weekend with the U.S. Coast Guard in Sanibel Island.

Eleven Cuban immigrants - including 4 women, 6 men, and one child, were brought to Sanibel Island by human smugglers this weekend. Coast Guard crews caught up with the vessel a mile south of Knapp’s point on Sanibel and brought 2 men into Customs and Boarder patrol custody. Coast Guard spokeswoman Sondra-Kay Kneen says 2 other men, in what she calls a “go fast” boat, were taken into custody Saturday after attempting to flee coast guard crews.

“We came along side just to question, just to maybe do a routine boarding and the “go fast” made an attempt to ram the coast guard boat and then once they tried to ram it, it began to run. We had two 25-foot rescue boats on scene and we chased them. While we were chasing them, they continued to try and ram the coast guard boats.”

Coast guard crews disabled the vessel by firing into one of the engines. Kneen says they believe the men taken into custody Saturday were driving the fueling vessel for Sunday’s smuggling mission.

Next week is National Police Week. And along with numerous ceremonies scheduled in the nation’s capitol, officials will remember the hundreds of officers killed on duty nationwide in 2006.


Last year 145 law enforcement officers across the country died while on duty. Sixteen of those were from Florida which was the third highest number in the nation. Those killed along with another 237 officers from past years will have their names added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Chairman and CEO of the national law enforcement officers memorial fund Craig Floyd says walking into the memorial is a special experience.

"The memorial is a beautiful three acre park in place appropriately named judiciary square. As you walk into this three acre park you will be embraced by two marble walls, on either side that have the names of nearly 18-thousand federal, state, and local law enforcement officers that have been killed in the line of duty."

One name added to the memorial will be a Lee County sheriff’s deputy who was killed in the line of duty while making a traffic stop. Deputy Margena Nunez died last October when she was hit by a drunk driver. National Police Week runs from May 13th through the 19th.

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The name of Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy Margena Nunez will be one of sixteen law enforcement officers from Florida memorialized next week in Washington D-C. May 13th through the 19th is National Police Week. And thousands of law enforcement officials along with family are expected to show up in the nation’s capitol for the week long ceremony. The events are hosted by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. CEO of the Fund, Craig Floyd, describes some of the events scheduled for Sunday.

“It’s a time where 20-thousand or more police officers and survivors of the fallen and supporters of law enforcement from the general public…attend and stand at the memorial, listen to speeches, listen to beautiful songs, we light candles in honor of the fallen…we shine a blue laser light skyward in honor of the thin blue line of protection that law enforcement provides our country.”

Officials will add 145 names to the memorial this year which is the number of law enforcement officers that died in 2006 while on duty. There are nearly 18-thousand names on the memorial that date back to 1792.

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The Charlotte County Sheriff’s office recently started a new program to help troubled juveniles. Fresh Start had its first run earlier this month. It’s designed to scare youths away from committing future crimes by taking them to jail. Charlotte Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Carpenter explains what the participants do there.

“We take them through the jail, go through the whole process, I mean the whole process. Not just booking as a juvenile./ they’re putting on the old black and white striped uniforms. There’s also a feature in that when they come in it’s to embarrass them, yes, and they go into the pods where all these guys are still in their cells, they don’t have any contact with them. They can see how they live.”

Carpenter says Fresh Start is patterned after the national “Scared Straight” Program created in Rahway State Prison in New Jersey more than 20 years ago. Around that time, a study conducted by Rutgers University examining the Scared Straight program concluded it actually increased the chance of youths being arrested in certain cases. According to a Surgeon General report, many studies also found this type of shock program ineffective and, at times, even harmful to youths. Earlier this year, a 16-year-old girl who was participating in a “Scared Straight” program in Georgia tried to strangle herself. However, Carpenter says Charlotte County’s Fresh Start program is different.

“It is all supervised. Sometimes that Scared Straight Program got a little out of hand around the country many many years ago and they just felt that the kids were just a little too close to contact. This is very well supervised. They’re not mingling. They can’t be touched by any inmate. The inmates are locked in their cells.”

The program is not only for first time juvenile offenders but also for those considered to be “at risk.” The idea came from Deputy Larry Langston who brought the proposal to Sheriff John Davenport. Langston, who heads another juvenile program in Charlotte, said he observed programs similar to Fresh Start in other areas and thought they were effective. The Sheriff’s Office is currently in the process of scheduling youths for the program.

The ‘Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System’ is a dedicated digital radio network for officials from 17 state agencies. They’ll use the new system for local and statewide communications.

Tiffany Koenigkramer (KOH-nig-KRAY-mur) is spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Management Services, which oversees the project.


“So now all state agency law enforcement officers are now able to communicate with one another on one radio system. For example an FHP from Tallahassee can now talk with FDLE or Fish & Wildlife down in Miami using the same radio system.”

The new network also allows officers to travel throughout the state without changing equipment.

Until now, officials going from one area to another often had to switch radios because of multiple systems.

The Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System allows officials from 17 different agencies to stay in constant communication, no matter where they are in the state.

Initially begun in 1988, it’s funded with a 1-dollar surcharge on all boat and vehicle registrations in Florida.

Project Manager - Linda Fuchs (FYUKES) - says the state began a pilot project in 1990...


“They continued with that project and building out the system until 1999 when it was decided it was better to change course. That the project was taking too long and costing too much money with the state owning the system.”

So in 2000 Governor Jeb Bush decided to end state-only development of the project…and put together a public/private partnership.

Now 6 years later the radio system is ready. More than 65-hundred officials will use the new network for all local, and inter-agency communication.