When people get busted for smuggling illegal immigrants into the country, they are normally thrown in jail promptly. However, while most other people would cringe at the sound of the judge’s gavel, Janet Edwards is being allowed to go on a “once in a lifetime” skiing vacation in Switzerland with her boyfriend’s 17 year-old daughter reports The Miami Herald.
Back in November, Edwards and her boyfriend Lawrence Blessinger were grabbed by U.S. Department of Homeland Security for using their sail boat to smuggle service laborers from the Bahamas to their homes in the Florida Keys and Long Island, NY.
And it doesn’t stop there.
According to court documents, the immigrants all hail from Paraguay and were flown to the Bahamas before being sailed by Edwards and Blessinger to their home in Key Colony Beach, Florida. In addition to illegally smuggling the citizens of Paraguay into the USA, they also charged two of the immigrants a total of $2,500 for transportation. For one of those illegal immigrants, 50 dollars was deducted for each week of work till her debt had been fully paid. For all intensive purposes that makes the immigrant an “indentured servant.”
Indentured Servant (noun)- A person who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time especially in return for payment of travel expenses and maintenance- Merriam WebsterÂ
Even with those seemingly damning accusations, the judge is allowing Edwards to travel to Switzerland. The reason behind the allowance– $6,000 in non-refundable expenses already paid towards the May ski trip.
Both suspects are out on bail after paying 10% of a $250,000 bond. In 2014, Blessinger was taken into custody after illegally discarding 500 pounds of refuse in a lot in Key Colony. The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office did not prosecute Blessinger for the crime.
Find the entire Miami Herald article here:Â Human smuggling suspect allowed travel to Switzerland for skiing trip