A Russian national is accused of stealing a massive luxury yacht and leading authorities in Florida on a boat chase as police feared he planned on fleeing to the Bahamas for a “smuggling venture.”
Nikolai Vilkov, 29, was arrested on May 5 after the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies had to use smaller boats to pin the stolen 68-foot, two-million-dollar yacht against the shoreline in Jupiter Island, Sheriff John Budensiek said in a press conference.
Budensiek said the “bizarre” ordeal started at around 1:07 a.m., when Vilkov is suspected of stealing a tow boat just hours before the chase.
Investigators found the suspect at the Lucky Shuck restaurant in Jupiter, then wandering around by the boats docked in the marina near the bar around 2 a.m.
Minutes later, Vilkov allegedly took control of a tow boat and headed north.
His first boat-jacking ended when the vessel got stuck on a sandbar and he was forced to flee the scene and walk down US 1 Highway, Budensiek said.
Investigators said they lost sight of Vilkov’s whereabouts from 3 a.m. to 1 p.m. until he was spotted chatting with people at the Tiki 52 Bar & Grill near the Blowing Rocks Marina.
Budensiek said witnesses told police they saw the suspect getting on and off the 68-foot yacht, but he was able to blend in like he belonged.
The marina’s dockmaster reported the luxury vessel had been stolen at 3:55 p.m.
Authorities deployed multiple boats that “locked on to” the vessel, but were at an “extreme tactical disadvantage.”
“We’re talking about a three-story yacht, 68-foot, and our vessels with one or two marine officers were not suited to safely take those individuals into custody,” Budensiek said.
Police had shut down the Hobe Sound bridge, a drawbridge on Indian River, in an attempt to end the chase, but were forced to open it for safety reasons when Vilkov got closer.
However, about a quarter mile later, Vilkov appeared to have trouble maneuvering the yacht, giving the police boats and SWAT officers on the shore the chance to take back the ship.
SWAT operators used tear gas and breaching rounds on the yacht as it was pinned down, then called out for the suspect to surrender, but got no response.
Vilkov surrendered to authorities and was taken into custody. He told investigators that he spoke little English, but they weren’t buying the excuse.
“We do know that he interacted with Jupiter police earlier in the day,” Budensiek said. “We know he interacted with people in the docks, so we don’t really believe him in that regard.”
The Department of Homeland Security used a Russian translator for the interview, where Vilkov was “caught in a multitude of lies” and tried to “frame that he was insane.”
Investigators found that the Vilkov had a wife and child and that they flew from Turkey to Mexico in November 2022.
They were granted asylum in Mexico and allowed to enter the US through the Southern border during the Biden administration in December 2022, Budensiek revealed.
While Vilkov’s whereabouts from 2022 to 2025 are unknown, his driver’s license shows that he’s from Charlotte, North Carolina. His wife and child also flew back to Russia from the US in April 2024.
“This does highlight a problem that we’ve seen with immigration, illegal immigration specifically. We don’t know what he did in Russia,” Budensiek said. “We know he showed up on the Mexican border; he was allowed into our country, but we have no idea what his criminal history is overseas. So we could be dealing with a real bad guy or not, but we’re just not sure.”
Investigators have yet to uncover any prior run-ins with the law that Vilkov has had since being in the US.
His motives for stealing the 68-foot yacht, or how he knew how to operate it, remain a mystery.
Authorities speculated that Vilkov was stealing the ship to the “Bahamas for a smuggling venture,” but they weren’t “able to verify that.”
Vilkov is being held without bond and charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and resisting arrest without violence.
“He has an ICE detainer on him, and the next time he steals a vessel… it’ll be back in Russia, not here in the United States,” Budensiek said. “When he serves his time here, he’ll be deported out of our country.”
