A Cuban national has been convicted for his role in an international operation that involved using a travel agency as a front to illegally smuggle migrants into the United States, federal prosecutors said.
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Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 28, who lives in Hialeah, was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering concealment, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
Cabrera-Rodriguez is among 12 people accused of facilitating the smuggling operation by preparing visa applications, laundering millions of dollars in payment and exploiting the immigration process through the business, ASESORIA Y SERVICIOS MIGRATORIOS LLC.
Authorities said the organization encouraged thousands of Cubans to enter the U.S. through the southern border, charging between $1,500 and $40,000 for the smuggling services.
Over $20 million passed though upwards of 57 bank accounts controlled by the suspects, and records show they funnelled over $7 million through payment apps like Zelle.
The group spent over $2.5 million on flights alone, sometimes even chartering private planes to move groups of migrants, records showed.
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The suspects even advertised their smuggling services and bogus visa services across multiple social media platforms, prosecutors said.
Cabrera-Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 17 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Another suspect, 24-year-old Erik Ventura-Castro, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in July to 30 months in prison.
“Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez used his travel agency as a front to illegally smuggle Cuban aliens into the United States,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. “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, arranged to fly the aliens from Cuba to third countries, further coordinated with other smugglers throughout the Americas, and laundered over $20 million through 57 bank accounts. These criminal offenses targeted our immigration laws designed to keep our borders safe and money laundering laws designed to keep criminal proceeds out of the nation’s financial system.”
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