Brevard business owner arrested, accused of human trafficking
Raymond Smith, owner of G & G Roofing in Rockledge, is accused of transporting migrants without documents to the Bahamas from the U.S. to work on his property in Lubbers Cay.
A cooperating source quoted in the federal criminal complaint from the Department of Homeland Security states, “At the direction of Smith, the undocumented aliens 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.”
According to the complaint, those transported were also employees of G & G Roofing.
“Smith stated that he ‘would assume’ his company would go through all the proper protocols when hiring individuals,” the complaint said.
According to Smith’s statement in the court documents, the company has been in business for 17 years, with 80 to 100 employees on the payroll.
An additional source quoted in the federal case against Smith claims he witnessed workers, as he put it, ‘without papers’ working on the Bahamas property at least four times.
Federal agents conducted surveillance on Smith’s waterfront home on the Indian River Lagoon and followed his boat on April 19. After intercepting the vessel and conducting a search, the report states agents found four Hondurans on board, three of whom had pending immigration cases.
The fourth “has had an active expedited removal order against him since 2018 and has no current immigration documents to live, work or remain in the United States.”
WESH 2 spoke with someone at G & G Roofing who told us that the company is not making a statement on Smith’s arrest. They forwarded our request to his lawyer. We have yet to hear back.