Cuban National in Hialeah Gets 30 Months for Smuggling Thousands Into U.S.

TAMPA — A 24-year-old Hialeah man was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for his role in an international alien smuggling, asylum fraud and money laundering conspiracy that funneled thousands of Cuban nationals into the United States through fraudulent visa waivers and the southern border.

Erik Ventura-Castro pleaded guilty on May 7 to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. Between January 2021 and June 2025, Ventura-Castro and co-conspirators operated an alien smuggling organization that charged between $1,500 and $40,000 per person for smuggling services, submitted hundreds of fraudulent Electronic System for Travel Authorization applications to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and sometimes chartered private planes to move groups of illegal aliens.

“Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is essential to maintaining safe and secure borders,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida. “The conspirators in this case used sophisticated methods to violate those laws and engaged in an elaborate human smuggling scheme, for profit. The diligence demonstrated by our law enforcement partners in this case ensured that this defendant was brought to justice.”

Ventura-Castro transmitted over $97,000 from the United States to the Cayman Islands, Colombia and Mexico to purchase flights for aliens to unlawfully enter the country. He submitted over 40 electronic payments to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for fraudulent ESTA applications. The organization advertised its smuggling and bogus visa services across multiple social media platforms, recruiting Cuban nationals by falsely claiming European citizenship to exploit tourist visa waivers. The defendants falsely represented that applicants had not been in Cuba since 2011, knowing Cubans are ineligible for the ESTA program.

“Ventura-Castro was part of a complex conspiracy responsible for smuggling aliens into the United States on a massive scale,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant and others recruited aliens using social media, charged thousands of dollars to bring them into the country illegally, and helped them get immigration benefits to which they were not entitled.”

Acting Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Tampa called the scheme an egregious crime threatening national security. “They knowingly orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to recruit and smuggle thousands of Cuban nationals into the United States, and unlawfully obtained immigration benefits through fraudulent applications, deliberate misrepresentations, and illicit financial transactions,” Ingegno said. “Such calculated criminal conduct undermines the integrity of our immigration system and will be met with the full force of the law.”

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow called the sentencing “evidence of our all-out war on immigration fraud.” “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is proud to have worked with our law enforcement partners to dismantle this criminal enterprise, which churned out thousands of fake asylum claims and flooded the country with illegal aliens,” Edlow said.

Twelve individuals were charged in a superseding indictment for their roles in the conspiracy. Five co-defendants — Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez, 31; Miguel Alejandro Martinez Vasconcelos, 31; Layra Libertad Treto Santos, 30; Emanuel Martinez Gonzalez, 29; and Walbis Pozo-Dutel, 31 — have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Defendants Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero and Gisleivy Peralta Consuegra are awaiting trial scheduled to begin Sept. 21.

The case was prosecuted through Joint Task Force Alpha, the Department of Justice’s lead effort combating human smuggling and trafficking by transnational criminal organizations. JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 465 domestic and international arrests, more than 424 U.S. convictions and more than 368 significant jail sentences.