Video: Disney Cruise Ship Rescues Three Fugitives

The Disney Cruise Lines ship Disney Fantasy rescued three wanted fugitives on Thursday and handed them over to the authorities. 

In a release, the U.S. Marshals said that the cruise ship saved two men and one woman found holding on to a capsized boat about 40 nm off the coast of Cuba. The individuals, identified as Luis Rivera-Garcia, 26, Juliet Estrada-Perez, 23, and Enrique Gonzalez-Torres, 23, were brought aboard and later transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard's custody at sea. When they were fingerprinted, the Coast Guard found that two had outstanding arrest warrants in New Orleans. 

All three were on supervised release on bond: they had been arrested last year in Louisiana on federal credit card fraud charges.

While awaiting trial, Estrada-Perez and Rivera-Garcia appear to have traveled, as they were arrested again in Fort Myers, Florida, in mid-April. They were allegedly in possession of 28 fraudulent credit cards. The two were released on bond again shortly after.

After Estrada-Perez’ and Rivera-Garcia’s second run-in with authorities, the U.S. District Court in New Orleans issued warrants for their detention for violation of supervised release. The warrants were put out on April 19, and the fugitives were rescued off of Cuba two days later. 

As Estrada-Perez, Rivera-Garcia and Gonzalez-Torres all violated the conditions of their bond in an apparent attempt to reach Cuba and escape prosecution, they will all face trial at a federal court in Key West. 

A passenger on the Disney Fantasy posted video of the three fugitives being transferred to a USCG vessel; the video suggests that its author was initially under the impression that the three were Cuban migrants.