BY JENNIFER BABSON

 CARD SOUND ROAD -- An unusually large group of Cuban migrants waded to shore along Card Sound Road near Key Largo early Thursday morning -- hours after the U.S. Border Patrol detained a man who is suspected of involvement in migrant smuggling activity.

 It's not clear whether the two incidents are linked.

 The 37 migrants -- 20 men, 11 women, and six girls -- were drenched and bore mosquito bites, though no major injuries were reported. The group, which included a 6-month-old, told investigators that they left Havana at 8 p.m. Wednesday in a 29-foot, homemade boat fashioned out of sheet metal, Border Patrol spokesman Joe Mellia said.

 A witness on the scene said they looked to be in good health, though some appeared to be slightly dehydrated. Most were wearing blue jeans and shorts. The migrants were taken to the Border Patrol's Pembroke Pines station and then to the Krome detention center for processing.

 Though the group claimed their boat sank off the Keys, investigators believe they were smuggled in by speedboat -- an almost daily occurrence during the summer
 months when smooth seas make for an easier and faster ride.

 "The usual size of groups that we've apprehended in the past is between 25 and 30 people; 37 is above the norm,'' Mellia said. ``This is our busy season, June, July, and August, as far as smugglers and apprehensions go.''

 The suspected smuggler was intercepted by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter Wednesday afternoon, after the ``go-fast'' boat in which he was riding with another man was
 spotted by a Coast Guard aircraft about three miles from Anguila Cay in the Bahamas, Coast Guard spokesman Jamie Frederick said.

 Coast Guard officers later found 13 life jackets and several empty fuel tanks aboard the boat, which was towed to Islamorada, Frederick said. Border Patrol agents
 arrested one of the men -- a Cuban national whose name is not being released -- for being in the United States illegally, after they discovered he had allegedly lied to the Coast Guard about his immigration status. The man intercepted along with him was released.

 Organized Cuba-to-U.S. smuggling runs have become big business in the Florida Keys, netting as much as $8,000 per head for a trip that usually takes anywhere from four to seven hours. Investigators say the smugglers typically live in South Florida, are often recent migrants or Cuban Americans, and prefer to pick up their cargo under cover of darkness. Sometimes they rendezvous with a refueling boat in order to make more room on the smuggling vessel for migrant passengers.

 Since Oct. 1, the Border Patrol has apprehended 1,757 Cuban migrants -- almost as many as the 1,820 the agency logged the previous year. Roughly 95 percent of this year's migrants are believed to have been smuggled.

 In March, a federal "rapid response team'' was formed to probe deaths stemming from migrant smuggling in South Florida -- including at least five Cubans believed to have perished on smuggling boats.

                                    © 2001