Fort Lauderdale Air Rescue Firm Runs 'Deportation Depot' Ambulances, Got License a Day After Site Opened, Then Gave $100,000 to Donalds-Linked PAC

A Fort Lauderdale aviation company best known for helicopter rescue missions is responsible for emergency medical transportation at "Deportation Depot," the state-run immigration detention center at Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, and it received its Florida ground ambulance license one day after the facility began accepting detainees, according to an investigation by Jacksonville Today, the newsroom of Jacksonville public broadcaster WJCT. The reporting, republished by WUSF on Sunday, also found that the company, Tropic Air Rescue, gave $100,000 in October to a political action committee connected to Gov.-elect Byron Donalds.

Tropic Air Rescue owner Anthony Marinello told Jacksonville Today the donation had nothing to do with his work at the detention site. State records cited by the newsroom show the company made no political donations before it began work as a subcontractor on the state's detainee transportation contract.

What Jacksonville Today found

Jacksonville Today said it began looking into medical care at the facility after reviewing taped phone calls from detainees. The calls, recorded by an advocate and translated from Spanish by the newsroom, included reports from detainees of frequent ambulance sightings at the Northeast Florida site.

According to the investigation, the detention center is not relying on Baker County Fire and Rescue for much of its emergency help. Instead, urgent medical transportation is handled by Tropic Air Rescue, which entered the ground ambulance business as the facility opened.

State records show Marinello's company received its ground ambulance license on Sept. 3, 2025, the day after "Deportation Depot" began taking in people detained in immigration enforcement actions initiated by the Trump administration, Jacksonville Today reported.

To receive a ground ambulance license in Florida, a company must meet equipment and staffing requirements, including retaining a medical director. State records list Tropic Air's medical director as Dr. Donald Locasto, a former fire department medical director and professor in Cincinnati. Reached by phone, Locasto told Jacksonville Today he splits his year between Ohio and South Florida and has no concerns about the care detainees are receiving.

From Bahamas charters to detention work

Marinello, a former New Jersey state trooper and mayor of Springfield Township, acquired the husband-and-wife-run Tropic Air Charters in 2021, according to the report. The Fort Lauderdale company had focused on moving cargo and passengers between the Bahamas and Florida. Marinello rebranded it as an emergency rescue operation with a fleet of helicopters, and by 2024 the company was drawing news coverage for rescue missions to Haiti.

Marinello told Jacksonville Today he met Robbie Meek, a politically connected emergency management contractor, in 2023. That was the same year Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency over immigration, a declaration that, according to reporting by The Florida Trident, allowed the state to award contracts with little oversight.

The Trident has reported that a company associated with Meek began making donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party of Florida in 2022. By 2025, IRG Global Emergency Management, a company Meek leads, had won state contracts worth millions of dollars to haul materials used to build "Alligator Alcatraz," the immigrant detention facility in the Everglades that Jacksonville Today noted closed in June, partly because of soaring costs.

The contract and the payments

Meek subcontracted Marinello's company in 2025 as part of a $40 million agreement between IRG Global and the state to transport detainees, according to the investigation. Meek did not respond to phone calls or emails from Jacksonville Today. Marinello declined to tell the newsroom how much his company is earning from its ground ambulance service and from deportation flights.

The state's contract tracking system shows nearly $38 million has been paid to IRG for its work at "Deportation Depot," including almost $7 million on Nov. 3, Election Day, Jacksonville Today reported.

The newsroom also found a discrepancy in vehicle records. Florida Department of Health officials said Tropic Air has seven licensed ambulances, but Baker County records show personal insurance cards for three vehicles belonging to Access Restoration Services, another company associated with Meek.

The key figures from the reporting are below.

What Marinello says

Marinello expressed no reservations about caring for detainees and described his quick move into ground ambulance work as a business decision driven by the contract. He told Jacksonville Today that the company had no reason to hold an ambulance license until the work called for one.

"It's called a contract," Marinello said. "We had no reason to have it until we had a reason to have it. That's what it's all about. They give you a reason: We want that to happen. So, OK. This is how we make it happen. We get the ambulances, we get the license, and we're able to proceed with it."

On the political contribution, Marinello said the $100,000 donation was unrelated to the company's work at the detention site.

The political backdrop

The donation came in October, in the final weeks of the governor's race. The month before, Donalds' Democratic opponent, David Jolly, had suggested the detention center should be investigated following a critical inspector general report, according to Jacksonville Today. Donalds went on to win the Nov. 3 election and will take office in January, inheriting the state's role in immigration detention from DeSantis.

The reporting does not allege that the donation was tied to any official action, and Jacksonville Today did not report any response from the Donalds camp. The newsroom's findings rest on state licensing records, contract payment data, county records and interviews with Marinello and Locasto.

Why it matters for Florida

"Deportation Depot" is one of the state-run detention operations Florida stood up to support the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, and its costs are paid through state contracts awarded largely under emergency powers. How those contracts are awarded, and who is providing medical care to people held there, has drawn growing scrutiny.

Jacksonville Today noted that its investigation comes as reports of medical neglect in the national immigration detention system multiply, with researchers writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association that deaths in ICE custody are higher than they have been in two decades.

What's next

The state contract with IRG Global remains active, and payments continued through Election Day. The incoming Donalds administration and the Legislature, which convenes for its organization session later this month, will decide whether the emergency contracting arrangements behind the state's detention sites continue. Meek has not publicly responded to the findings. The Florida Press will follow any response from state officials or the companies involved.