Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- A 58-year-old Cuban woman who reportedly spent two months lost at sea has been sent to a detention facility as part of an ongoing investigation, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.

Magali Arojo was one of at least six Cubans on a boat that washed up on Mustang Island Wednesday night.

She was hospitalized until Friday and planned to stay with a Cuban-American family in the Corpus Christi area until relatives from Miami could join her or pay her way there, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported Monday.

Arojo instead was sent to the Port Isabel Service Processing Center pending the investigation, including whether there was a previously unknown seventh occupant aboard the 30-foot boat, the Border Patrol officials said.

The group left Manzanillo, Cuba, on a raft on June 25, the Border Patrol has said. They apparently purchased their 30-foot boat, water and fuel in the Cayman Islands five days later.

The group had planned to travel through Mexico to the border and then sneak across the Rio Grande, the Border Patrol said. Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Bonnie probably blew their boat off course.

Two of the five men found with Arojo were sent to Dallas to stay with relatives. The rest were sent to stay with family in Miami.

Under the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are usually allowed to stay, while most picked up at sea are sent home.

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