Ambulances and a police car sit outside of Deportation Depot at Baker Correctional Institution on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. | Simone Endress, Jacksonville Today
Published on November 6, 2026 at 12:15 pm
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An air rescue company that made a six-figure political contribution after securing work at Deportation Depot got its license to operate a ground ambulance business just as the controversial detention center opened.
Jacksonville Today started researching medical care at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Sanderson after a review of taped phone calls by detainees. The calls, recorded by an advocate and translated from Spanish by Jacksonville Today, included reports from detainees of frequent ambulance sightings.
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The reports come as stories about medical neglect inside the country’s web of detention centers are proliferating, with researchers writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association that deaths in ICE custody are higher than they’ve been in two decades.
Deportation Depot isn’t relying on Baker County Fire and Rescue for much emergency help, though. The responsibility for urgent medical transportation rests with an aviation company better known for its humanitarian rescue missions. Tropic Air Rescue’s entry into the ground ambulance business preceded a hefty contribution from the company to Gov.-elect Byron Donalds and is also tied to a multimillion-dollar state contract held by another big GOP donor, according to state records and news reports.
Anthony Marinello, a former New Jersey state trooper and mayor of Springfield Township, acquired the husband-and-wife-run Tropic Air Charters in 2021. Marinello rebranded the Fort Lauderdale company, which previously focused on moving cargo and passengers between the Bahamas and Florida, as an emergency rescue outfit with a fleet of helicopters, according to his website. By 2024, he was being featured in news stories for daring rescue missions to Haiti.
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The transformation of Marinello’s company brought him into business with Robbie Meek, a politically connected emergency management contractor whose state ties would usher Tropic Air into the deportation business.
Opportunity at Deportation Depot
Marinello and Meek met in 2023, the same year that Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency around immigration, Marinello told Jacksonville Today. According to reporting from The Florida Trident, the emergency allowed DeSantis to hand out contracts with very little oversight.
The Trident reported that a company associated with Meek began shelling out hundreds of thousands in donations to Florida’s GOP in 2022. By 2025, IRG Global Emergency Management, a company that Meek leads, had won contracts with the state worth millions to haul materials critical in the construction of Alligator Alcatraz, Deportation Depot’s sister facility in South Florida, which closed in June partly due to soaring costs.
Meek, who didn’t respond to phone calls or emails, subcontracted Marinello in 2025 as part of a $40 million agreement between IRG Global and the state to transport detainees. Marinello declined to say how much money he’s making running both ground ambulance services and deportation flights.
To date, nearly $38 million has been paid to IRG for its work at Deportation Depot, with almost $7 million changing hands on Nov. 3, Election Day, according to Florida’s contract tracking system.
The ambulance license
State records show Marinello got his ground ambulance license Sept. 3, the day after Deportation Depot began accepting people swept up in immigration raids initiated by President Donald Trump’s administration.
To be awarded a ground ambulance license in Florida, a company must meet requirements around equipment and personnel, including retaining a medical director. According to state records, Tropic Air’s top doctor is Donald Locasto, a former fire department medical director and professor in Cincinnati.
Reached by phone, Locasto said he spends half the year in Ohio and the other half in South Florida and has no concerns about the care detainees are receiving.
Marinello also expressed no reservations about caring for detainees, calling his move to quickly get into ground ambulance work a business decision.
“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, okay. This is how we make it happen. We get the ambulances, we get the license, and we’re able to proceed with it.”
Florida Department of Health officials said Marinello’s company has seven licensed ambulances, though Baker County records show personal insurance cards for three vehicles belonging to Access Restoration Services, another company associated with Meek.
In October, Tropic Air made a $100,000 contribution to a political action committee connected to Donalds. The month prior, Donalds’ opponent, Democratic candidate David Jolly, suggested Deportation Depot should be investigated in the wake of a critical inspector general report.
Marinello said the donation had nothing to do with his Deportation Depot work. But state records show Tropic Air made no political donations prior to its subcontracting arrangement.
