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Smugglers Blamed In Theft Of 5 Go-Fast Boats In Pinellas

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 25, 2008

In less than two months, five expensive go-fast boats have been stolen from docks on the Intracoastal Waterway in Pinellas County, and investigators think a sophisticated crime more typically seen in Miami has made its way to the Tampa Bay area.

"Obviously they're working their way up," Largo Police Department Sgt. John Trebino said of the thieves. "This is definitely a group working together."

A private investigator hired by the insurance companies responsible for the boats thinks they will be used, if they already aren't, for smuggling – people, not drugs.

"It's done very quickly," said Charlie Meacham, a private investigator based in Jacksonville. "They steal these boats, refuel, go to Cuba, and take the Cubans to Mexico. Then they smuggle them into Arizona or New Mexico, right up the pipeline."

The first of the five boats recently reported stolen was a 34-foot Sea Vee with three 275 horsepower outboard engines. It was valued at $215,000, said Jim Bordner of the Pinellas county Sheriff's Office.

It was reported stolen from a vacant Belleair Beach waterfront home July 15 and had been gone so long that a neighbor started using the boat owner's lift, Bordner said. Only when the owner of the boat, who is in the construction business, told an employee to go to the home and attach registration stickers to the vessel did anyone notice it had been taken, Bordner said.

Ten days later, another report was filed, this time with the Clearwater Police Department. A 2002 Sea Ray Super Sun Sport, a powerboat worth more than a $1 million, was stolen between 4 a.m. July 25 and 5 a.m. July 26, as was a 2004 Yamaha WaveRunner personal watercraft, said Elizabeth Daly-Watts, Clearwater's public safety spokeswoman.

Then, on Aug. 12, another boat – this one a 2003 Yellowfin with three 250 horsepower outboard motors – was reported stolen from a home in Belleair Beach, Bordner said.

The owner got a call from the Coast Guard because an emergency beacon that had been on the vessel had been activated, Bordner said. The owner, who wasn't aware his vessel has been stolen, told the Coast Guard his boat was on its lift. When he found out that wasn't the case, he called the Coast Guard to see about the signal, but it couldn't establish the origin, Bordner said.

On Aug. 13, a $250,000 38-foot Fountain 38TE was reported stolen from a Largo home, Trebino said.

Three days later, on Aug. 16, a 31-foot Contender was discovered missing at a waterfront home on Julia Circle in the Vina del Mar neighborhood of St. Pete Beach, said Detective Scott Collins of that city's police department. That theft took place sometime during a three-day period, Collins said.

The insurance companies responsible for most, if not all, the five stolen vessels has hired Meacham, Meacham said. Meacham said go-fast vessels like the ones taken from Pinellas typically are used by Cubans to smuggle aliens from Cuba to Mexico, where the illegal immigrants eventually make their way across the border to New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.

"They know what they are doing," Meacham said of the thieves. They might be driven to a waterfront home, hop a fence, go to the dock and lower the boat from the lift before powering it away, he said. Or the thieves may simply drive up on a personal watercraft.

As for fuel, the thieves are not foolish enough to buy it at the few places where it's available along the waterway in Pinellas, investigators say.

Trebino thinks they may be storing fuel in drums in the Gulf of Mexico and keeping track of them with a GPS system.

Meacham thinks they might be using some sort of mother ship.

Meacham has tracked to Mexico some of the 100-plus boats stolen throughout the state the past few years, and he is trying to retrieve them. "Over the next 30 days I will have several meetings at high levels of the Mexican government to get these boats back," Meacham said.

One problem is that the smuggling business is profitable, with little risk, he said.

The few Cubans who have been caught using boats to smuggle aliens haven't been getting hefty sentences in U.S. courtrooms, Meacham said.

"It's a lucrative profession with very low prison time if you get caught," Meacham said.

"If you smuggle enough people to create $300,000, you are looking at six months to eight years," he said. "If you smuggle $300,000 worth of narcotics, you are looking at life in prison."

And the boats, with their speed, never seem to lose their appeal.

One Yellowfin that was stolen in Naples was recovered in Grand Cayman, Meacham said. The insurance company decided to sell it for salvage, and someone purchased it and fixed it up.

It recently was seized by Mexico, he said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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