Jury convicts Cuban national in $20 million smuggling, laundering scheme

A federal jury in the Middle District of Florida convicted a Cuban national on charges tied to an international alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy, the Justice Department announced.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 28, of Hialeah, Florida, conspired with others to operate an organization that encouraged thousands of Cuban nationals to enter the United States through the southern border. The smugglers charged between $1,500 and $40,000 for their services, and co-conspirators sometimes chartered private planes to transport groups of migrants.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said Cabrera-Rodriguez used his travel agency as a front for the scheme. Duva said Cabrera-Rodriguez filed at least 600 fraudulent visa waiver applications, arranged flights from Cuba through third countries and laundered more than $20 million through 57 bank accounts.

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U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida described the case as a conspiracy to violate immigration laws for profit. Acting Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno of Homeland Security Investigations in Tampa said the operation exploited vulnerable people.

The department said the organization advertised smuggling and bogus visa services on social media. Its services included helping Cuban nationals falsely claim European citizenship to seek entry under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA. Cuban nationals are not eligible for the program, but the defendants submitted fraudulent applications falsely claiming applicants had not been in Cuba since 2011, despite knowing they were there when the applications were filed, according to the department. Cabrera-Rodriguez also purchased international and domestic flights to help transport migrants into and throughout the United States. Between 2021 and 2024, he and co-conspirators transmitted more than $600,000 from the United States to purchase flights for migrants to enter the country unlawfully.

The jury convicted Cabrera-Rodriguez of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain, conspiracy to commit international money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering concealment. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 17 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Twelve people were charged in a superseding indictment tied to the conspiracy. Seven co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. An eighth, Erik Ventura-Castro, was sentenced July 29 to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty May 7.

The case was supported by Joint Task Force Alpha, a Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security partnership targeting human smuggling and trafficking networks. HSI Tampa, U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Fraud Detection and National Security led the U.S. investigative efforts.

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