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It looked like an immigration services company. It advertised on Instagram and WhatsApp, promised work permits and green cards, and had a Tampa address. Federal prosecutors say it was the front office of a smuggling network that moved thousands of Cubans into the United States, filed more than 1,700 fraudulent asylum claims and laundered more than $22 million.
Six members of the network were sentenced in federal court in Tampa on Oct. 29 to between two and four years in prison. Five are Cuban nationals and one is a U.S. citizen. USCIS, which helped uncover the scheme, announced the sentences again on Nov. 6.
What stands out is not the size of the operation but how it worked. The group used two routes into the country at once: one across the southern border, and one through U.S. airports on visa waivers Cubans aren’t allowed to have. Then it sold its own clients fake asylum cases to keep them here.
The playbook
Court filings describe a business that grew from a small operation into a full-service pipeline between 2021 and 2025. Each piece was built to beat a specific safeguard.
Marketing in plain sight. The network recruited in Cuba through social media and encrypted chats, including a WhatsApp group that advertised ESTA and tourist visa processing for Spanish citizens. One promotional video showed stacks of passports, airline tickets and visa approvals.
Exploiting a visa waiver. The Electronic System for Travel Authorization lets citizens of countries such as Spain fly to the U.S. without a visa. Many Cubans hold Spanish or other European citizenship through ancestry, but anyone living in Cuba is barred from the program. The group filed hundreds of ESTA applications with fake addresses, falsely stating that clients had not been in Cuba since 2011. Clients then flew in through regular ports of entry.
Coaching for inspection. One defendant, Walbis Pozo-Dutel, told travelers what to say if Customs and Border Protection officers questioned them.
Keeping passports out of Border Patrol’s hands. Migrants taking the overland route risked having their Cuban passports confiscated at the border. Defendant Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero worked with a co-conspirator in Mexico to ship the passports separately into the U.S., so clients would have them when they filed for asylum.
Selling the next step. Once clients arrived, the front company, Asesoria y Servicios Migratorios LLC, sold them immigration paperwork for another fee. According to the 2025 indictment, it churned out boilerplate asylum claims, sometimes without clients’ knowledge or consent, and locked clients out of their own USCIS online accounts. The same Instagram account that advertised its services also posted videos of people being smuggled into the country.
The network also moved unaccompanied minors. In one case cited by the Justice Department, a teenage girl was told to pose as the lifelong friend of an unrelated adult man at the border.
Following the money
Clients paid between $1,500 and $40,000 each, depending on the route and services. Some groups flew on chartered private planes. From July 2022 to November 2024, the network spent more than $600,000 with a single airline on commercial tickets, and Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos alone sent at least $150,000 to companies abroad.
To hide the proceeds, the defendants set up multiple shell companies and routed money through them before paying it back out to themselves. When charges were filed in September 2025, prosecutors cited more than $18 million in receipts across 27 accounts, including more than $7 million that moved through payment apps such as Zelle. By sentencing, the government put the total laundered between 2021 and 2025 at more than $22 million. Authorities in the Cayman Islands assisted the investigation.
The sentences
All six pleaded guilty before sentencing on Oct. 29.
| Defendant | Age | Role, per prosecutors | Sentence | Forfeiture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez | 27 | Managed the immigration-services front; personally filed hundreds of fake asylum claims; booked travel | 4 years | — |
| Layra Libertad Treto Santos | 30 | Filed fake asylum claims as employee and manager; used the smuggling service for herself and family | 30 months | $95,000 |
| Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero | 32 | Shipped Cuban passports in from Mexico; formed a shell company to launder proceeds | 2 years | $2.9 million |
| Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos | 31 | Bought airline tickets; funded charter flights; wired $150,000+ abroad | 2 years | $150,000 |
| Walbis Pozo-Dutel | 32 | Arranged foreign hotels and flights; coached travelers for CBP questioning | 2 years | — |
| Emanuel Martinez Gonzalez | 29 | Arranged travel after arrival; collected payments from migrants | 2 years | — |
The Justice Department did not say which of the six is the U.S. citizen.
What’s left
Twelve people were charged in the superseding indictment. Beyond the six sentenced in October:
- Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 29, of Hialeah, was convicted by a jury in September and is awaiting sentencing, which Latin Times reports is set for Dec. 17.
- Erik Ventura-Castro, 25, was sentenced July 29 to 30 months in prison.
- Yuniel Lima-Santos and Gisleivy Peralta Consuegra have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
- Marianny Lucia Lopez-Torres and Frandy Aragon-Diaz remain at large.
The case was brought under Joint Task Force Alpha, a Justice Department and Homeland Security effort against smuggling networks in the Americas. HSI Tampa, Border Patrol’s Miami Sector, USCIS’s Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate and IRS Criminal Investigation led the investigation.
The case also leaves open questions for the people who paid the network. Prosecutors say many asylum filings were made without clients’ knowledge. Officials have not said what will happen to the pending cases of migrants whose applications were prepared by the front company.
Sources
- USCIS news release, “Cuban Aliens and Florida Man Sentenced for Their Roles in an International Alien Smuggling, Asylum Fraud, and Money Laundering Conspiracy,” Nov. 6, 2026
- Cuban Nationals and Florida Man Sentenced for Their Roles in an International Alien Smuggling, Asylum Fraud, and Money Laundering Conspiracy — U.S. Department of Justice, Oct. 29, 2026
- Twelve People Charged for Their Roles in International Alien Smuggling, Asylum Fraud, and Money Laundering Conspiracies — U.S. Department of Justice, Sept. 4, 2025
- How a Cuban Smuggling Cartel Laundered $22 Million — Latin Times, Oct. 30, 2026
- Cuban national convicted for international alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy — IRS Criminal Investigation, Sept. 25, 2026
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