The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that six people were sentenced to prison for their roles in a conspiracy to smuggle people into the United States, file fraudulent asylum claims and launder the proceeds. According to the department, five of the defendants are Cuban nationals and one is a U.S. citizen.
The department said the defendants were responsible for more than 1,700 fraudulent asylum claims. It said people were charged between $1,500 and $40,000 for smuggling services, and that co-conspirators sometimes chartered private planes to move groups.
Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez, 27, was sentenced to four years in prison. Layra Libertad Treto Santos, 30, received 30 months. Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos, 31, Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero, 32, Walbis Pozo-Dutel, 32, and Emanuel Martinez Gonzalez, 29, each received two years.
All six had pleaded guilty earlier. Vega-Perez pleaded guilty to four conspiracy counts: smuggling aliens for financial gain, asylum fraud, international money laundering and concealment money laundering. The others pleaded guilty to between one and three of those counts.
Escalona-Marrero was ordered to forfeit $2.9 million, Martinez Vasconcelos $150,000 and Treto Santos $95,000. Forfeiture means giving up money or property tied to the crime.
According to court documents, the group advertised smuggling and immigration services on social media aimed at Cuban nationals living in Cuba. The department said the group smuggled people across the southern border. It also said the group filed hundreds of fraudulent applications for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, known as ESTA, a visa waiver, to help people enter through ports of entry.
The department said Cuban residents are not eligible for ESTA. It said the group falsely claimed applicants had not been in Cuba since 2011, and that the defendants knew the applicants lived in Cuba. Once people were in the United States, the group helped many of them file fraudulent asylum paperwork, the department said.
The department described each defendant’s role. It said Vega-Perez managed the group’s immigration benefits business and personally filed hundreds of fraudulent asylum applications. Martinez Vasconcelos helped pay for charter flights and sent at least $150,000 to companies outside the United States. Escalona-Marrero arranged for Cuban passports to be shipped from Mexico so Border Patrol would not confiscate them, and formed a shell company used to move proceeds.
The department said the group spent more than $600,000 with a single airline between July 2022 and November 2024. It said more than $22 million was laundered between 2021 and 2025, with money moved through multiple shell companies before it was paid out to the defendants.
A superseding indictment charged 12 people in total. Two others, Yuniel Lima-Santos and Gisleivy Peralta Consuegra, pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Erik Ventura-Castro was sentenced July 29 to 30 months in prison. Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez was found guilty after a trial in September and awaits sentencing. Marianny Lucia Lopez-Torres and Frandy Aragon-Diaz are at large.
Homeland Security Investigations Tampa, U.S. Border Patrol’s Miami Sector and the Fraud Detection and National Security unit of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services led U.S. investigative efforts. Authorities in the Cayman Islands also assisted, the department said. The case was prosecuted by the Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, as part of Joint Task Force Alpha and Operation Take Back America.