Some 400 illegal migrants have been intercepted entering the U.S. Virgin Islands over the past six months, officials say.

From Oct. 1 through Tuesday, 277 Cubans, 45 Haitians, 42 Chinese, 14 Dominicans, 14 Poles and one Chilean were intercepted coming in to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ricardo Castrodad, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in San Juan, said this week.

The Coast Guard said smugglers are increasingly using a route that runs northwest along the Leeward Island chain and through the British Virgin Islands. It is difficult to choke off because the British Virgin Islands are as close as a mile from the U.S. Virgin Islands and the smugglers can blend in with the heavy tourist yacht traffic. Read more