Five Cuban nationals and one U.S. citizen were sentenced today for their roles in a vast conspiracy involving alien smuggling, asylum fraud, and money laundering. As part of the conspiracy, aliens were charged between $1,500 and $40,000 for their smuggling services, and co-conspirators sometimes chartered private planes to move groups of aliens.
“These defendants turned illegal immigration into a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise, smuggling aliens into the United States to line their pockets and laundering millions in illicit proceeds to conceal their operations,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Under President Trump, human smugglers and money launderers will never get a free pass. Operation Take Back America is empowering the Justice Department to put more criminals like these behind bars and enforce the rule of law.”
“The conspirators in this case used sophisticated methods to violate our nation’s immigration laws while personally seeking to enrich themselves,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida. “We will continue to work with our task force partners to thwart these illegal activities and ensure that our borders are protected.”
“This investigation exposed a transnational criminal organization that treated our immigration system as a profit center, exploiting vulnerable people, manufacturing fraudulent immigration claims, and laundering millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tampa. “These criminals undermined the integrity of lawful immigration processes and created significant public-safety and national-security concerns. HSI and our law-enforcement partners will continue to identify, investigate, and dismantle transnational criminal networks that exploit our borders and our communities for financial gain.”
“Today’s sentencing is a clear warning to anyone seeking to profit by exploiting, abusing, or undermining America’s legal immigration system,” said Director Joseph B. Edlow of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). “USCIS will bring to bear all law enforcement resources at its disposal to dismantle criminal operations threatening the American people.”
According to court documents, Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez, 27, Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos, 31, Layra Libertad Treto Santos, 30, Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero, 32, Walbis Pozo-Dutel, 32, and Emanuel Martinez Gonzalez, 29, conspired with others to operate an alien smuggling organization (ASO), which encouraged or induced thousands of Cuban aliens to enter the U.S. The ASO smuggled the Cuban aliens illegally across the southern border and used fraudulent Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) visa waivers to help people enter through ports of entry. The defendants advertised their smuggling services and bogus immigration services across multiple social media platforms targeted toward Cuban nationals living in Cuba. The ASO advertised services included assisting Cubans with European citizenship to enter the U.S. on a European tourist visa waiver or ESTA and filed hundreds of fraudulent ESTA applications with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), using fake addresses and false information. Cuban residents are not eligible for the ESTA program, and to obtain ESTAs, the ASO made false representations that the applicants had not been present in Cuba since 2011. The defendants knew that Cubans are not eligible for the ESTA program, and that the applicants were residing in Cuba at the time the ESTA applications were submitted. The defendants also operated a fraudulent immigration benefits business. Once in the U.S., the ASO assisted many aliens with filing fraudulent asylum paperwork to remain in the country.
Passports and boarding passes obtained as part of the scheme
Social media account advertising ASO services
Social media account using photo from human smuggling event to advertise ASO services
Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez furthered the conspiracy by assisting in the logistics of moving aliens from their country of origin, including Cuba, into the United States, such as purchasing international and domestic flights for aliens to transport them towards, into, and throughout the United States. Vega-Perez was also the primary manager of the immigration benefits business and personally filed hundreds of fraudulent asylum applications. In addition, she and other defendants prepared, drafted, and submitted fraudulent asylum applications, immigrant visa applications, lawful permanent residence applications, and other applications for immigration benefits, in exchange for a fee.
Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos furthered the conspiracy by purchasing airline tickets to move individuals being smuggled from their country of origin towards the United States. He also provided funding to purchase charter flights to transport aliens to unlawfully enter the U.S., with the purpose of growing and advancing the ASO’s operations. Vasconcelos personally transmitted at least $150,000 to companies operating outside the U.S. in furtherance of these unlawful activities.
Layra Libertad Treto Santos furthered the conspiracy by personally filing fraudulent asylum claims on behalf of the immigration fraud benefits business while she was an employee and manager. Treto Santos used the ASO’s smuggling services for herself and her family members and referred multiple Cuban nationals to the ASO for smuggling services.
Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero furthered the conspiracy by working with a co-conspirator in Mexico to ship Cuban passports to the United States. The purpose was to avoid the passports being confiscated by U.S. Border Patrol so that aliens could use the passports to apply for asylum once they entered the United States. He also formed a shell company that, along with other companies, was used to move illegal proceeds of smuggling through to conceal the funds’ source and nature before distributing the funds back to himself and his co-conspirators.
Walbis Pozo-Dutel furthered the conspiracy by assisting with the logistics of transporting foreign nationals from their countries of origin, including Cuba, into the United States. For example, Pozo-Dutel provided foreign hotel and flight information to facilitate the aliens’ travel along the route into the United States. Pozo-Dutel also instructed the individuals on what to say if questioned by CBP officers.
Emmanuel Martinez Gonzalez furthered the conspiracy by helping coordinate the logistics of transporting aliens. Martinez-Gonzalez worked with his paramour and codefendant, Marianny Lucia Lopez-Torres, to arrange the travel of aliens upon their arrival in the United States and accepted payments from those aliens as a part of the smuggling operation.
Vega-Perez, Martinez Vasconcelos, and others, conspired to regularly move funds to companies operating outside of the United States and to other places outside the United States, such as by purchasing international flights for aliens to travel into the U.S. Between July 2022 and November 2024, the ASO spent more than $600,000 with a single airline for commercial flights.
Vega-Perez, Escalona-Marrero, and Treto Santos and others conspired to conduct financial transactions that were designed in whole or in part to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of proceeds of alien smuggling. The defendants set up multiple shell companies, through which illegal proceeds were moved before distributing the proceeds to the defendants. Between 2021 and 2025, more than $22 million was laundered by the defendants.
Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez was sentenced to four years in prison. Vega-Perez previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain, conspiracy to commit asylum fraud, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos was sentenced to two years in prison. Martinez Vasconcelos previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. Layra Libertad Treto Santos was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Treto Santos previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain, conspiracy to commit asylum fraud, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero was sentenced to two years in prison. Escalona-Marrero previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Walbis Pozo-Dutel was sentenced to two years in prison. Pozo-Dutel previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain. Emanuel Martinez Gonzalez was sentenced to two years in prison. Martinez Gonzalez previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain. Escalona-Marrero was ordered to forfeit $2.9M, Vasconcelos was ordered to forfeit $150,000, and Treto Santos was ordered to forfeit $95,000.
Twelve individuals were charged in a superseding indictment for their roles in the conspiracy. Yuniel Lima-Santos, 32, and Gisleivy Peralta Consuegra, 41, pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Erik Ventura-Castro, 25, was sentenced on July 29 to 30 months in prison. Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 29, was found guilty after trial in September and is awaiting sentencing. Marianny Lucia Lopez-Torres and Frandy Aragon-Diaz are at large.
This case was supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the U.S. Department of Justice’s lead effort in combating human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations throughout the Americas. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), JTFA investigates and prosecutes the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking networks that impact public safety and border security. Led by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and supported by other Criminal Division components, JTFA has dedicated prosecutors from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices along the Southwest border, Southern Florida, Northern New York, and Vermont. JTFA partners with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS components, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, and the Office of Field Operations. JTFA also partners with FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 486 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and trafficking; more than 447 U.S. convictions; and more than 377 significant jail sentences imposed and forfeitures of substantial assets.
HSI Tampa, U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Fraud Detection and National Security led U.S. investigative efforts, with substantial assistance from HSI’s Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. and CBP’s National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and authorities in the Cayman Islands provided valuable assistance.
Trial Attorney Amanda Brown of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Derry for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and other transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods.