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A federal jury this week convicted a Cuban national of running a $20 million smuggling and money laundering scheme that funneled thousands of Cubans into the United States through his Florida travel agency.
Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 28, of Hialeah, Florida, faces up to 20 years in prison at his Dec. 17 sentencing on three conspiracy counts: alien smuggling for financial gain, international money laundering, and money laundering concealment.
The scheme filed at least 600 bogus U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization applications, falsely claiming Cuban applicants held European citizenship and had not been on the island since 2011, prosecutors said. Cubans are not eligible for the visa waiver program.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said the travel agency “provided a veneer of legitimacy to evade detection” while Cabrera-Rodriguez and co-conspirators laundered more than $20 million through 57 bank accounts, chartered private planes, and coordinated with smugglers across the Americas.
Between 2021 and 2024, the group wired more than $600,000 out of the country to buy flights that moved migrants from Cuba through third countries and across the U.S. southern border, with Cabrera-Rodriguez also arranging domestic flights to shuttle them within the United States, prosecutors said.
Acting Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno of Homeland Security Investigations Tampa called the operation “a criminal enterprise built on treating people like cargo,” saying alien smuggling groups exploit vulnerable people while undermining border security.
Seven co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Erik Ventura-Castro, 24, was sentenced in July to 30 months in prison. The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a Justice Department initiative targeting transnational human smuggling and cartel networks.
The indictments were part of the DOJ’s Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative aimed at addressing illegal immigration and transnational crime.
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