A US Customs and Border Protection Coastal Interceptor Vessel patrols Caribbean waters. CBP says agents intercepted a vessel after an alleged smuggling trip from St Thomas toward Culebra. Photo: VI Consortium

CBP said the operation began at approximately 6:30 AM on September 15, 2026, when an Air and Marine Operations unit alerted the agency’s Fajardo Marine Unit to a vessel travelling from St Thomas toward Culebra. Marine Interdiction agents then notified Puerto Rico Police officers on Culebra, who responded to the area where the vessel had made landfall.

Officers detained three people who identified themselves as citizens of India travelling as a family unit — an adult man, an adult woman and a juvenile, according to CBP. The Fajardo Marine Unit subsequently deployed two vessels to assist in the search and intercepted the boat allegedly used to transport the family. One person remained aboard.

Kavon Wheatley identified as boat operator

Following interviews conducted by Ramey Sector Border Patrol agents and members of the Homeland Security Task Force’s Human Smuggling Unit, authorities identified the vessel operator as Kavon Wheatley, a British national from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. CBP said Wheatley was charged under 8 U.S.C. § 1324, the federal statute covering the bringing in, harbouring and transportation of unauthorised immigrants.

CBP did not disclose in its Friday announcement whether the family had paid for the trip, how long they had been on St Thomas before departing, or where on St Thomas the vessel began its voyage. The agency also did not provide additional details about the circumstances under which the family reached Culebra.

The three Indian nationals will be processed under applicable immigration law and placed into removal proceedings, CBP said. All four people involved were transported to the Ramey Border Patrol Station for further processing. Authorities also intend to seize the vessel and its 200-horsepower engine under federal customs law.

“Human smugglers routinely place lives at risk for profit, using dangerous maritime routes and unsafe conditions,” said Christopher Hunter, director of CBP’s Caribbean Air and Marine Branch. He said the interdiction demonstrated the importance of coordination among Air and Marine Operations, Border Patrol, Puerto Rico Police and federal partners.

Smuggling route

The St Thomas-to-Culebra corridor has surfaced in previous federal smuggling cases. The Consortium reported that in October 2024, CBP agents encountered a disabled vessel near West Cay after receiving information that undocumented migrants were being loaded in Fortuna Bay on St Thomas. Authorities said ten passengers — four Dominican nationals, four Romanians and two Brazilians — had paid to be transported from St Thomas to Culebra. The vessel’s operator, Omailly Sanchez Taveras, was later convicted of alien smuggling and sentenced in May 2026 to 10 months in federal prison.

Federal authorities have also encountered drug-trafficking vessels moving along the same maritime corridor. In a separate case previously reported by the Consortium, CBP Air and Marine Operations agents pursued a vessel traveling between St. Thomas and Culebra in July 2025 and recovered 65 packages of cocaine after bags were thrown overboard during the chase.