Arequipa, Peru – Cuban migrant Yaquelin Domínguez Nieves was sentenced this Friday by a federal district judge in Miami seven and a half years in prison for his participation in a profit scheme to illegally introduce 18 Cubans by boat from the island.
The 25 -year -old Cuban declared himself guilty on January 21 of conspiracy for the traffic of people and related positions. The operation in which he participated ended with the life of 16 Cubans.
A press releasepublished by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, notes that Federal District Judge Beth Bloom imposed a superior sentence to that recommended by federal guidelines of sentence due to the severity of the crime.
For his part, federal prosecutor Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida and the special agent in charge Matthew J. Margelot of the Coast Guard Research Service (CGIS), Southeast Office, announced the sentence.
The Southeast Office of the CGIS investigated the case, with the assistance of the Key West sector of the US Coast Guard. UU., The US border patrol. UU., The Office of the Forensic Doctor of the County of Monroe and the Sheriff’s Office of Highlands County. The attached federal prosecutor Zachary A. Keller is in charge of the accusation in this case.
According to court documents, published by the AP agency, Domínguez Nieves and his then boyfriend, who still lived in Cuba, organized an operation people trafficking In November 2022. The defendant raised at least $ 11,500 from the relatives of migrants in southern Florida with the promise of bringing migrants from Cuba to the United States.
The boyfriend, who has not been arrested, embarked about 18 migrants in a small fishing vessel without life jackets and with a captain who apparently did not know how to operate it, as two survivors declared in the trial.
The AP note also emphasizes that the boat sank approximately 50 kilometers in the sea. The victims included children from nine months to seven, as well as two 16 -year -old teenagers, officials said.
As a result of the tragedy, four bodies of migrants were recovered in the sea, and the cause of death was determined as drowning.
This case is part of the Operation to recover America, an initiative at the national level that mobilizes all the resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve total elimination of cartels and criminal organizations transnational, as well as protect the US communities from violent crimes perpetrators.
