On April 22, 2024, The Department of Homeland Security issued a criminal complaint for 44 year old Raymond Smith, the sole owner of G&G Roofing in Brevard County on charges of human trafficking. He was arrested and held by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
The complaint states On March 28, 2024, a source provided information to Homeland Security that Smith was transporting undocumented aliens in and out of the country via his boat. The undocumented aliens are employees for his roofing company G&G Roofing.
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The complaint states that Smith would have them travel to the Bahamas to work on Smith’s property in the Bahamas. The source providing the information admitted to previously transporting the undocumented aliens to the Bahamas at Smith’s direction.
He states that at Smith’s direction, they were to be transported to the Bahamas via vessel to avoid detection instead of flying on a plane where they would be required to present valid documentation to legally be admitted back into the United States.
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The source is cooperating with the government in hopes of receiving consideration on his own criminal conduct with Smith and the United States has found his information to be credible according to the complaint.
On April 17, another source provided information to Homeland Security that he traveled with Smith on at least 4 occasions to do work on his property in the Bahamas where Smith said to him that the workers present that were also working on the property were not US Citizens and “did not have papers,” and therefore had to travel to and from the US via vessel.
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On April 19, sureveillance was conducted at Smith’s residence which is located directly on the Indian River which has direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. A 42 foot Freeman offshore chenter console vessel wa observed docked at Smith’s residence.
At 7:20am, several individuals were observed boarding the vessel which then departed headed for Sebastian Inlet. At 9am, CBP AMO Marine Interdiction Agents observed the vessel crossing the 3-nautical mile boundary from shore, also known as the US Territorial Seas. Agents then approached and stopped the vessel to conduct a vessel documentation check and asked the captain who was operating the vessel (later determined to be Smith) and where they were headed.
Smith stated they were headed to Lobbers Cay, Bahams. There was a total of six adult males onboard; two US citizens and four Honduran Nationals. Two of the Honduran nationals were wearing G&G Roofings Construction shirts.
CBP AMO escorted the vessel back to the Sebastian Yacht Club boat ramp to conduct a border search of the vessel in a controlled and safe environment. At 10:41am, agents began interviewing Smith at the Yacht Club.
Smith stated he was president and sole owner of G&G Roofing. He founded the business 17 years ago. He stated all passengers on the vessel are employees of his and are on the payroll. He stated his company has approximately 80 to 100 employees. He admitted that one employee who had been with his company for 6 years was not a US citizen and was from Honduras and lives in Vero Beach.
He stated he did not know 4 of the other employees very well since they had only been with the company for less than a year. He stated he didn’t know the immigration statuses of the 4 employees traveling on the vessel. He said they were all being paid via the payroll to do work on his property in the Bahamas. Smith stated he confirmed all the passengers had passports or Temporary Florida Diver Licenses before traveling, but the passports were not US Passports.
Smith claimed he is not involved in the process of confirming that applicants to work for him are authorized to work in the US and that it is handled by administrative personnel and that he “would assume” his company would go through all the proper protocols when hiring individuals.
US Border Patrol was contacted for assistance in identifying the immigration status of the Honduran Nationals. They determined that 3 of the 4 have previously been encountered by immigration officials and have pending immigration cases. The 4th has had an active Expedited Removal order agianst him since 2018 and has no current immigration documents to live, work , or remain in the United States.
They found probable cause to believe that Raymond Smith knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien had come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law, transported, or moved such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of the law, for commercial advantage.
