Three charged in deadly migrant boat capsizing off Puerto Rico

David Goodhue, Miami Herald on Oct 12, 2026

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A federal grand jury indicted three Dominican men who crewed an overloaded migrant boat that capsized late last month, killing at least three people and leaving 10 missing and presumed dead, according to court records.

The boat capsized late Sunday night, Sept. 27, after one of the defendants, Danny De La Rosa, who was a crewman, attacked several of the migrants with a machete, according to the Oct. 7 indictment. The 40-foot homemade boat was overloaded with 64 people, who panicked and jumped overboard after De La Rosa began stabbing people, a Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint states.

This caused the boat to overturn, sending everyone into the water. The boat was off Mona Island, an uninhabited island with Puerto Rico to the east and Hispaniola to the west, when it capsized. Many passengers tried to swim to the rocky island. A civilian boat crew rescued four people the following morning.

When the U.S. Coast Guard arrived, its crews began rescuing people from the water and from Mona Island. But, the crews also found three bodies.

In all, 49 people were rescued. Most were from the Dominican Republic, but two were from Haiti, according to the complaint. The Coast Guard suspended its search Thursday, Oct. 1, with 10 people still missing.

At a press conference last week at Coast Guard Sector San Juan, officials praised the efforts of the Coast Guard, the civilian crew and the Dominican Republic military in the search and rescue, but also warned of the dangers of paying human smugglers.

“Human smugglers exploit vulnerable people for profit and place lives at extreme risk in one of the most dangerous maritime environments in the region,” Coast Guard Investigative Service Special Agent in Charge Josh Packer said.

Federal investigators say the boat left Boca de Yuma Saturday, Sept. 26, and was bound for Puerto Rico. The survivors told investigators that they paid the smugglers between $1,000 and $5,000.

Along with De La Rosa, agents arrested Maximo Castillo-Cabrera and Victor Alfonso Montilla-Espirito Santo, both of whom piloted the boat, according to the complaint.

All three face the death penalty if convicted, according to court documents. They are charged with conspiracy to bring in “illegal aliens” for financial gain, bringing in “illegal aliens” for financial gain, brining in “illegal aliens” for financial gain resulting in death and a count each of improper entry by an alien.

De La Rosa is also charged with violence against maritime navigation, resulting in death, according to the indictment. A judge last week ordered all three men held until trial. The Miami Herald has reached out to their attorneys for comment.

Almost a week after the boat capsized, the Coast Guard stopped a similarly overloaded migrant boat carrying 61 people about 12 nautical miles northwest of Cabo Cabron in the Dominican Republic. The Coast Guard was able to safely get everyone off the boat, which was rapidly taking on water, the agency said. They were transferred to the Dominican Republic Navy, the Coast Guard said.

Capt. Robert E. Stiles, deputy commander of Coast Guard Sector San Juan, told reporters that there have been several recent migrant boat treks through the waters off the Dominican Republic and through the Mona passage, which he called “a treacherous body of water,” known for rough seas and sudden storms.

And, the boats are usually “makeshift, at best,” Stiles said.

“They are often overloaded with children, with women who are pregnant and with other folks who are looking to make it to the United States through the agency of human traffickers and smugglers,” Stiles said. “These are folks who operate without honor.”

And, unbeknownst to the migrants, many times when the smugglers reach Mona Island, which is a designated Puerto Rican ecological preserve with no permanent inhabitants, they are dropped off to fend for themselves, said Stiles.

“They pay thousands of dollars for these voyages, and under the best of circumstances, if they make it ashore at all, they are going to be looking at a life of evading law enforcement,” Stiles said.