{"id":336036,"date":"2026-07-10T18:45:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T18:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/336036\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T18:45:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T18:45:36","slug":"man-accused-of-stowing-away-on-cargo-ship-to-tampa-had-2-prior-similar-encounters-feds-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/336036\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of stowing away on cargo ship to Tampa had 2 prior similar encounters, feds say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal authorities have charged a man with illegally entering the U.S. by hiding aboard a cargo vessel traveling from the Dominican Republic to Port Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time he has faced such an accusation; prosecutors say he\u2019s done it at least twice before.<\/p>\n

So far, his persistence hasn\u2019t paid off.<\/p>\n

A criminal complaint<\/a> filed June 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida<\/a> accuses 46-year-old Nelson Batista of violating a federal law prohibiting stowaways on vessels or aircraft.<\/p>\n

Batista allegedly arrived aboard the Canada Pearl<\/a>, a bulk carrier cargo ship that traveled from Barahona, Dominican Republic, to Tampa.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Court Watch<\/a> first flagged the case Friday.<\/p>\n

According to an affidavit from Christopher Hileman, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP<\/a>) officer, authorities were notified June 23 that Batista would be arriving in Tampa as a stowaway aboard the vessel, which was scheduled to dock at Red Wing Berth 302 at Port Tampa Bay<\/a> the following day.<\/p>\n

The complaint says Batista was discovered while the Canada Pearl was heading toward Florida, after which the vessel\u2019s captain notified shipping agent Hunter Villard<\/a> of the man\u2019s presence. Villard, in turn, alerted CBP.<\/p>\n

Under federal law<\/a>, it is illegal for people to board or conceal themselves on a vessel or aircraft without authorization and remain aboard while traveling across state or national borders. If convicted, Batista faces up to five years in prison<\/a>, a fine or both.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors contend that their investigation established each element of that offense; Batista, they say, boarded without permission, remained aboard during international travel and was discovered only after the vessel had departed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Notably, the affidavit says a review of federal law enforcement databases found that Batista had two prior encounters with CBP between 2005 and 2006, when he was discovered as a stowaway aboard vessels arriving in Corpus Christi, Texas, from foreign locations.<\/p>\n

The complaint does not say where Batista was traveling from in those earlier incidents.<\/p>\n

U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Tuite approved the complaint June 25. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Daab, Deputy Director of the Division of Criminal Justice within the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in New Jersey<\/a>, is prosecuting the case, PACER records<\/a> show.<\/p>\n

David Dee, a Tampa-based lawyer in private practice<\/a>, is serving as Batista\u2019s defense attorney.<\/p>\n

Sea stowaway cases reaching Florida ports are relatively uncommon, but they are not unprecedented.<\/p>\n

In January 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard and CBP caught three<\/a> stowaways on a merchant vessel a few miles offshore from PortMiami, before it reached harbor.<\/p>\n

In June 2013, authorities discovered three stowaways<\/a> aboard the cargo ship Melbourne Strait after it arrived at Port Everglades. The vessel\u2019s previous port of call was Venezuela.<\/p>\n

And in 2012, four stowaways were apprehended after they jumped ship<\/a> at the mouth of Port Everglades. That vessel\u2019s last port of call was Puerto Cortes, Honduras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal authorities have charged a man with illegally entering the U.S. by hiding aboard a cargo vessel traveling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[138363,63508,138364,138365,138366,138367,138368,17399,135,137,136,4630],"class_list":["post-336036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-canada-pearl","tag-cbp","tag-christopher-hileman","tag-christopher-tuite","tag-david-dee","tag-erik-daab","tag-nelson-batista","tag-port-tampa-bay","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-u-s-customs-and-border-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}