Feds say they busted Cuban migrant smuggling ring operating out of the Keys


By David Goodhue

March 23, 2021 11:03 AM, Updated 6 hours 48 minutes ago

Federal agents arrested three men Sunday in the Florida Keys as a boat was being lowered by one of them down a ramp at a local marina in an alleged scheme to smuggle migrants out of Cuba.

Agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations say the men ran the operation out of a house in Key Largo.

Shortly after the arrest at the Harry Harris Park marina in the Upper Keys area of Tavernier, agents executed a search warrant at a Homestead house where another member of the alleged smuggling ring, Yosniel Fuentes, was arrested, according to a complaint filed in federal court Monday.

Also at the Homestead house, located at Southwest 263rd Terrace, agents found a ledger containing a list of names and phone numbers of people in Cuba. The resident of the house, Alberto Garcia, told agents he planned to contact the people on the list “to see if they were interested in coming to the United States,” the complaint states.

Garcia was arrested at the boat ramp.

Along with Garcia andFuentes, agents arrested Manuel Fonseca and Yudier Panaque. It was not immediately clear if attorneys were assigned to represent the men. They made their first appearance in front of a judge in Key West Monday afternoon.

A Homeland Security Investigations spokesman declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation.

The arrests come as Coast Guard officials report an uptick in the number of Cuban migrants being intercepted at sea as conditions on the island continue to deteriorate. Crews have interdicted 107 Cubans so far in the fiscal year that began in October, already surpassing the total figure from the 12 months prior.

According to the complaint, the law enforcement operation began on March 12 after an undercover agent met with Garcia and Fonseca at Garcia’s house in Homestead. The men asked the agent if they could borrow a boat from him to smuggle people from Cuba into the United States, the complaint states.

Garcia told the agent the boat would be stored in the back of Panaque’s house in Key Largo, according to the complaint. The men also discussed buying enough fuel tanks to store an extra 100 gallons.

The agent and Garcia then drove to Panaque’s house. While there, the agent learned that Garcia and Fonseca had conducted “multiple smuggling trips in the past and used Panaque’s residence as the staging location and/or as a ‘stash house’ to hold migrants until their smuggling fees were paid,” the complaint states.

The agent also heard Garcia on the phone while at the house, speaking with a woman from Cuba, who said she initially had the $10,000 requested, but no longer had the entire sum. Garcia also told the agent two other people were only going to pay $9,000 to make the journey because they were going to recruit other people willing to pay full price to be smuggled, according to the complaint.

The agent told Garcia he wanted collateral in case his boat was lost during the operation. Garcia assured him, according to the complaint, that the only way that would happen is if he ended up in prison. He said if law enforcement stopped the boat at sea and there were migrants on board, he would sink the craft.

“Fonseca and Garcia attempted to put [the agent] at ease by telling [the agent] about other smuggling ventures they had conducted around the Florida Keys,” the complaint states.

Two days later, the agent called Fonseca, who said he’d contacted some of the families of the people scheduled to be smuggled to discuss payment. Two or three families said they were having trouble coming up with the entire $10,000. One of the people to be smuggled was Panaque’s sister.

On March 16, the agent met Garcia at his house in Homestead, along with Fonseca and Fuentes. Garcia showed the agent a GPS device that he was going to install on the agent’s boat. It was to be used to navigate the vessel from Cuba to Cay Sal in the Bahamas.

Once in the Bahamas, the GPS would be discarded, and a new one would be installed to guide the boat to Florida, agents said.

A total of 20 migrants were to be picked up in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, agents said. The alleged smugglers picked Sunday as the day of the operation.

The agent was given an initial payment of $700 for fuel, according to the complaint. It was not clear from the complaint if the alleged smugglers were going to pay him more.

On Sunday, the agent towed the boat from the mainland to the Keys, first stopping at a Racetrack gas station in Homestead to meet Garcia, Fonseca, Fuentes and another man not named in the complaint. Garcia and Fonseca drove to the Keys in another car, and Fuentes drove to Garcia’s house in Homestead.

Once at Harry Harris park, Garcia, Fonseca and Panaque were arrested.

After agents read Garcia his rights, he told them the ledger at his house in Homestead belonged to him. He said the boat was in the process of being tested so he could go to Cuba to smuggle out his 16-year-old daughter, according to the complaint.

Garcia, Fonseca, Panaque and Fuentes each face a charge of knowingly and willfully conspiring to encourage and induce aliens to enter the United States.

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