DOJ shuts down $18M human smuggling scheme that brought hundreds of Cubans to America

Source: New York Post

Twelve people have been charged with running an $18 million human smuggling ring that brought hundreds of Cuban nationals into the US, the Department of Justice said. US Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office said the group promoted bogus visa services from January 2021 through June 2025, tricking Cubans into thinking that they could enter America legally by posing as European citizens. The group would go on to fabricate documents, charter private planes and launder money through the Zelle payment app as the operation swelled into a multi-million dollar venture to skirt US asylum laws.