Phony travel agent convicted in $20M human smuggling scheme that funneled Cubans into US:
A Cuban national who took part in a $20 million human smuggling scheme that brought hundreds of Cubans into the US was convicted by a federal jury on Thursday and faces up to 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice said.
Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 28, of Florida, was found guilty over his role in the smuggling and money laundering scheme shut down last year, which saw his travel agency charge between $1,500 and $40,000 for bogus immigration services.
The agency was accused of promoting bogus visa services from January 2021 through June 2025, effectively tricking Cubans into thinking that they could enter America legally by posing as European citizens.
“Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez used his travel agency as a front to illegally smuggle Cuban aliens into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“His travel agency provided a veneer of legitimacy to evade detection when the defendant falsely completed and filed at least 600 applications for visa waivers, arranged to fly the aliens from Cuba to third countries, further coordinated with other smugglers throughout the Americas, and laundered over $20 million through 57 bank accounts,” Duva added.
Cabrera-Rodriguez’s “ASESORIA Y SERVICIOS MIGRATORIOS LLC” would go on to fabricate documents, charter private planes and launder money through the Zelle payment app, according to the DOJ.
The company promoted itself on social media as dedicated to helping immigrants fill out permits and asylum paperwork, but in reality, the defendants filed hundreds of fake Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) applications to US Customs and Border Protection. --->READ MORE HERE
‘Treating people like cargo’: Hialeah man convicted in $20 million Cuban smuggling enterprise:
A federal jury in Florida has convicted a Cuban national from Hialeah for his role in a massive international human smuggling and money laundering enterprise that funneled thousands of undocumented Cuban migrants across the southern U.S. border, U.S. Justice Department prosecutors reported Friday.
Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 28, was convicted of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering concealment. He faces up to 20 years in prison at his scheduled Dec. 17 sentencing.
According to trial evidence, Cabrera-Rodriguez and his co-conspirators ran an alien smuggling organization that charged migrants between $1,500 and $40,000 for transport, occasionally chartering private planes. The group used social media to solicit clients and submitted over 600 fraudulent Electronic System for Travel Authorization visa waiver applications to U.S. Customs and Border Protection using fake addresses and false citizenship claims.
“Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez used his travel agency as a front to illegally smuggle Cuban aliens into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “His travel agency provided a veneer of legitimacy to evade detection when the defendant falsely completed and filed at least 600 applications for visa waivers... and laundered over $20 million through 57 bank accounts.”
Investigators found that between 2021 and 2024, the enterprise moved millions through controlled bank accounts, including over $600,000 sent abroad to purchase flights for illegal entry. --->READ MORE HERE
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