A gang of 4 criminals dedicated to the trafficking of Cuban immigrants was taken into custody by federal agents of the Department of Homeland Security in South Florida and were brought before the courts on the charge of encouraging and instigating the entry of foreigners into the United States.
Alberto García, Manuel Fonseca, Yudier Panaque and Yosniel Fuentes, are the 4 criminals identified by the police and who appeared in federal court in Key West. The band charged $10,000 for each person they took out of Cuba to the United States.
Of these 4 men, 3 were arrested red-handed in a Tavernier marina when they were preparing an operation to leave for Cuba and bring people illegally. García, Fonseca and Panaque were joined by the arrest of Fuentes, who was detained while agents carried out a search warrant for a home in the Homestead area, southwest of Miami.
The group of criminals fell into the trap set by federal agents who infiltrated a person allegedly interested in the services offered by the band. The undercover agent obtained a recording where García and Fonseca are heard asking for $10,000 to bring a person from Cuba to the United States.
In the conversation, the criminals gave details of what the operation to be carried out this past weekend would be like.
García told the undercover agent that the boat would be stored in a house in Key Largo just where it would arrive with the immigrants brought from Cuba. There in a nearby house he would stay hidden until relatives picked him up one by one.
Similarly, it was found that the last transfer of immigrants that the band carried out was in early March when a group of 20 Cubans from Pinar del Río managed to enter the United States.
According to information provided by the Coast Guard, since the beginning of the fiscal year in October 2020, more than 87 Cuban rafters have been intercepted trying to reach the coasts of the United States to seek a better life, the vast majority of these Cubans are returned to the Island, however there are times when they have been released while their immigration case is being reviewed.
Last week the coastal authorities reported on the rescue of 8 Cuban rafters who remained castaways on an islet in the Bahamas.