A federal jury in Florida has convicted a Cuban national from Hialeah for his role in a massive international human smuggling and money laundering enterprise that funneled thousands of undocumented Cuban migrants across the southern U.S. border, U.S. Justice Department prosecutors reported Friday.
Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 28, was convicted of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering concealment. He faces up to 20 years in prison at his scheduled Dec. 17 sentencing.
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According to trial evidence, Cabrera-Rodriguez and his co-conspirators ran an alien smuggling organization that charged migrants between $1,500 and $40,000 for transport, occasionally chartering private planes. The group used social media to solicit clients and submitted over 600 fraudulent Electronic System for Travel Authorization visa waiver applications to U.S. Customs and Border Protection using fake addresses and false citizenship claims.
“Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez used his travel agency as a front to illegally smuggle Cuban aliens into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “His travel agency provided a veneer of legitimacy to evade detection when the defendant falsely completed and filed at least 600 applications for visa waivers... and laundered over $20 million through 57 bank accounts.”
Investigators found that between 2021 and 2024, the enterprise moved millions through controlled bank accounts, including over $600,000 sent abroad to purchase flights for illegal entry.
“This was not help, and it was not humanitarian; It was a criminal enterprise built on treating people like cargo and using their desperation for financial gain,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno of Homeland Security Investigations Tampa, in a statement.
The case, prosecuted under Joint Task Force Alpha as part of Operation Take Back America, resulted in charges against 12 individuals.
Eight co-defendants have already pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing:
— Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez, 31.
— Miguel Alejandro Martinez Vasconcelos, 31.
— Layra Libertad Treto Santos, 30.
— Emanuel Martinez Gonzalez, 29.
— Walbis Pozo-Dutel, 31.
— Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero, 32.
— Gisleivy Peralta Consuegra, 41.
Erik Ventura-Castro, 24, pleaded guilty on May 7 and was later sentenced to 30 months in prison.
