Thread: Agent indicted in smuggling of Cuban ballplayers to USA

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Agent indicted in smuggling of Cuban ballplayers to USA
Updated 10/31/2006 10:57 PM ET
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
A baseball agent who has represented Cuban defectors was indicted by a Miami grand jury on Tuesday for allegedly smuggling ballplayers and other Cuban nationals into the USA.
Gustavo "Gus" Dominguez, vice president of Total Sports International in Encino, Calif., is charged as part of a 53-count indictment related to two operations in 2004.

Geoffrey Rodrigues, Robert Yosvany Hernandez, Ramon Batista and Guillermo Valdez, allegedly hired by Dominguez to transport the Cubans by speedboat to the USA, also were indicted.

Dominguez has represented several Cuban defectors, including Andy Morales, who was signed by the New York Yankees and later the Boston Red Sox. Dominguez did not return a phone message left at his office.

The indictment says Rodrigues traveled in a 28-foot speedboat on July 28, 2004, from the Florida Keys to Cuba, where he picked up 22 people.

The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted them at sea as they attempted to return to Florida, the indictment says.

A second smuggling operation on Aug. 22 succeeded, the indictment said. The smugglers reached the Florida Keys with 19 Cubans, including five baseball players.

Once the Cubans reached land, two other associates drove the players in two rental vans from Miami to Los Angeles, according to the indictment.

Dominguez and his associates rented apartments and provided food for players Osmany Masso-Arredondo, Allen Guevara-Perez, Francisely Bueno-Trueba, Osbek Castillo-Perez, and Yoankis Turino-Montalno so they could begin training, the indictment says.

Castillo-Perez, 25, of Havana, is listed as a pitcher on the roster of the Missoula Ospreys, a minor league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Pioneer League. Osprey general manager and vice president Matt Ellis did not return a phone message left at his office Tuesday afternoon.

Bueno-Trueba, 25, of Havana, is listed as a left-handed pitcher on the roster of the Mississippi Braves, a Southern League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Braves office in Pearl, Miss., had closed for the day.

Julie Myers, an assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement that "Though this case involves a Beverly Hills sports agent and talented baseball players, it is remarkably similar to the human smuggling operations that ICE encounters every day. The ringleaders put the lives of illegal immigrants at risk and sought to profit from their labor."








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There is also a big article in todays edition of the Miami Herald on this as well.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15897749.htm

What about the ball players? Will they be brought up on charges for conpiring to smuggle themselves into the United States? Regardless of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy the United States has regarding Cuban's, these folks need to be rounded up and deported back to Cuba. Why should they be treated any differently than illegal immigrants crossing our southern border? In view of the massive illegal immigrant problem we're having, the policy regarding the Cuban immigrants needs to end ASAP!

I agree the Cubans should be sent back but I can tell you now that they will never be sent back. The wet foot dry foot policy is racist! The Chinese also live in a communist country with human rights violations yet they cannot stay here as easily as the Cubans.