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BORDER NEWS
The first mate and cook of a ship discovered last October off the California coast with 54 Chinese migrants hidden on board have been convicted of conspiracy and alien smuggling.  The prosecutors countered the defendant’s claim that they did not know the men were on board until after they began the voyage with pages from the cook’s diary in which he wrote that he had accepted money from smugglers to allow the men on board the ship.  The captain of the ship, along with four other crewmembers, pled guilty and provided testimony in this case. 
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Two Cuban men have been convicted of alien smuggling in Florida.  Lawyers for the men tried to have the case moved from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, arguing that they would not receive a fair trial.  The crux of their argument was that the Elian Gonzalez case had inflamed anti-Cuban sentiment outside of Miami.  The attorneys plan to appeal the case on the grounds that it was originally to have been tried in Miami, but was moved when the judge who was to hear the case fell ill.  Each of the men faces two years in prison. 
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This week authorities at the Port of Miami-Dade discovered four men hiding in a cargo container.  Three more men were found dead.  All of the men were from the Dominican Republic, the place from which the cargo ship sailed.  After the discovery of the men, authorities searched all of the containers on board the ship, but no more stowaways were discovered.