i've heard that there is a fair amount of illegal traffic in and out of florida. there's a lot of coastline there, and it's close to the carribean, which makes a good international way station (a lot of traffic in and out of the area, pretty much every island is a different country - some privately owned, and some of them have rather slack harbor patrols).
as for methods, it's just a matter of avoiding the coast gaurd, which only has so many patrol ships to deal with quite a large expanse of ocean and an awful lot of boats.
i read a book by diane duane a while back that dealt tangentially with smugglers. iirc, the way it worked was this:
small, inconspicuous private boat (preferably something known to have a relatively limited range) goes out from the florida coast, presumably for pleasure or sport fishing or something. way too many other boats like it out there for anyone to notice it or bother with it. boat goes out to a quiet stretch of ocean where no one has a particular reason to go but no particular reason not to. preferably, this would be in international waters (though according to
an article on their website the
coast guard does patrol in international waters, i'd think those patrols would not be as heavy as they would be closer in, particularly with so much area to cover) which aren't that far from the coast. another boat, this one from the carribean, happens by. goods are transferred. the two boats move apart. first boat goes back to florida to be offloaded. depending on the particulars, the second one either wanders off or continues with the rest of its cargo (which happens to be legitimate) into port.
so, that's one possible scheme which, supposedly, is actually relatively common. i think i may have seen it in a couple movies, too. of course it's also possible to simply stash things among legitimate cargo (hidden, mislabled, whatever) and assume that those boxes won't be found/checked/discovered.
as for what... it could be anything. people (immigrants, workers, slaves), drugs, guns (probably mostly handguns), gems (probably uncut), or just general merchendise to be brought in without taxes and/or to be sold on the black market (perhaps knock-offs of expensive items like watches, perfume, designer clothing, or electronics).
the coast guard's website talks mainly about
people (illegal immigrants, but that could cover a wide range) and
drugs . there's also
this page which has statistics about illegal immigrants (how many were caught each year, from where, etc).
a search for the definition of international waters (still can't find the exact distance. thought it should be easy... oh well) turned up
this page about illegal human traffic (i.e. smuggling in people for whatever reason).
there's also the us customs & boarder proection
homepage. that may be handy at some point, but i haven't found anything offhand.
hope this helps.
guess that leaves only one thing...
erin's writing!! 
)
