By YVES COLON
             Herald Staff Writer

             Once the airplane takes off, they head for the restroom.

             The passengers being smuggled into Miami shut the lavatory door behind them and
             start shredding their travel documents -- passports, visas and airline tickets. Then
             they flush them down the toilet.

             Cubans know the routine by heart, immigration officials say. They show up before
             immigration inspectors at Miami International Airport without any documents. That
             way, investigators for the Immigration and Naturalization Service can't trace the
             smugglers. All that's left for the Cubans to do is express credible fear of persecution,
             get processed and wait for parole.

             ``This stems from the fact that we cannot remove them,'' said Mark Briesemeister,
             INS supervisor of special agents for the district's anti-smuggling unit. ``There is
             nothing in place to remove Cuban nationals.''

             Smuggling through the back door -- Miami International Airport -- occurs quietly but
             steadily while South Florida remains riveted to images of Cubans and Haitians
             dropped off by boats on Key Biscayne and Miami Beach. Entry by air is no cheaper
             for the illegal immigrants, but it's safer than risking the ocean.

             It isn't only Cubans and Haitians who arrive at MIA. Airlines have contended with
             Chinese using phony passports on flights from Brazil; undocumented Africans
             hopping across the Atlantic from London; Dominicans boarding airliners in Santo
             Domingo with counterfeit U.S. visas.

             Many learn the tricks

             In one recent case, eight Guyanese presented eight phony Canadian passports to
             inspectors. Investigators identified one as the smuggler. The others said they paid
             him thousands of dollars for the trip. He subsequently pleaded guilty and will be
             sentenced this week.

             The Cubans who arrive at the airport get to stay in the United States. Most of those
             from other countries are deported right after they're caught.

             Cubans, for example, are spending as much as $10,000 for smuggling packages that
             involve flying to a third country, buying false passports, then boarding planes to
             Miami. They may come alone or in a group, ``any number of different ways,''
             Briesemeister said.

             ``They know exactly what the procedures are and what will happen to them because
             information is shared,'' Briesemeister said. ``It's getting to be more and more of a
             problem.''

             The potential profits draw a large pool of smuggling talent from throughout Latin
             America, he said. Several years ago, Panama was the preferred transit country, but
             as investigators focused their energies there, the smugglers have switched to other
             countries, including Costa Rica and Venezuela.

             ``You start banging too hard, the smugglers change route, going to large airports in
             large cities where there is a large amount of traffic,'' Briesemeister said. ``They go
             where they have the best chances of getting through. Sometimes there's safety in
             numbers.''

             Using forged papers

             Once they're in a third country, the immigrants find it relatively easy to hook up with
             a smuggler, who buys a passport and substitutes the clients' photos. The client needs
             the passport and a ticket to get on the plane. Sometimes, instead of throwing away
             the documents, the immigrant hands them to a third person with connections to the
             smuggler. Cubans don't need those documents anymore because they know they're
             not going home again.

             ``It's well known they get coached,'' Briesemeister said. ``They know what to do,
             what not to do.''

             Briesemeister has eight agents in his unit, compared with three in 1993. In the past
             year, the unit has referred 36 cases to the U.S. Attorney's Office involving
             smuggling through ports of entry. Fifty percent of those cases involve Cubans, he
             said.

             The Guyanese case occurred in August, when Phillip Persaud arrived at Miami
             International Airport on Surinam Airways Flight 2463. Persaud, also known as
             Parmanand Persaud and Paul Singh, was accompanied by seven other Guyanese
             citizens.

             He handed the inspectors eight Canadian passports -- all fakes. His group told
             investigators they got their Canadian passports in Scarborough, Ontario, for $60.
             They claimed they were a family returning from a funeral in Guyana.

             They were lying.

             And, the agents figured out, Persaud was feeding them those lies. Three members
             of the ``family'' later told investigators they paid Persaud between $5,000 and
             $15,000 to obtain the passports and smuggle them into the United States through
             Miami.

             Persaud later told investigators he paid $10,000 to someone he identified as ``Mr.
             Jim'' in Guyana. He denied smuggling the group, but nonetheless was charged with
             smuggling aliens. In December, Persaud changed his plea to guilty on four counts.
             He is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.

             U.S. countermeasures

             As the problem grows, INS is responding. The assistant district director in charge of
             inspections, Jack Garofano, said he has stepped up training and detection of
             fraudulent documents for his 325 inspectors at MIA. Garofano is in charge of 17
             ports of entry in Florida and the Bahamas.

             His department, he added, has increased cooperation and training with the airlines to
             help them fight smuggling.

             For instance, INS inspectors look for suspicious passengers who carry too much
             luggage or who have incongruous information on their passport or green card.

             Briesemeister said smugglers are getting to be much more efficient than they used to
             be. Knowing that law enforcement agents can't be everywhere, they're now slipping
             migrants through the area's sea ports, he said.

             ``They come on boats, too, day cruisers out of the Bahamas,'' he said. ``We suspect
             complicity between crew members or passengers that were on the ship to begin
             with.''

             His agents can't let up the pressure, Briesemeister said. Although it's inevitable that
             smugglers will get some migrants through, 90 percent of the cases sent to the U.S.
             Attorney's Office have ended in conviction.

             ``Fraud happens a lot,'' he said. ``But if we can prosecute enough of these people,
             we can deter somebody else from coming in.''
 

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