[NYTr] Sports Agent Gets 5 Years for Smuggling Cubans to US
 
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:10:13 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
AFP via Turkish Press - Jul 10, 2007
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=184764&s=&i=&t=Sports_agent_gets_fi

Sports agent gets five years for smuggling Cubans to US

A man who helped bring five Cuban baseball players to the United States
illegally has been jailed for five years, becoming the first sports
agent in the United States sentenced for human smuggling, authorities
said Tuesday.

Gustavo Dominguez, 48, had been found guilty of organizing to smuggle
the players into the United States and paying for the trip "for the
purpose of profiting by subsequently representing them as their sports
agent," the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said in a
statement.

A judge in Key West, Florida on Monday sentenced the Los Angeles sports
agent to five years in prison.

Dominguez is the first sports agent to be charged and convicted of
alien smuggling, ICE said.

"ICE thanked Major League Baseball officials for their cooperation
during the investigation," the statement said.

According to the evidence presented at the trial, Dominguez had first
tried to bring the players into the United States in July 2004, but the
migrants were interdicted at sea by the US Coast Guard. He brought the
five to the United States in a second trip the following month.

Under legislation known as "wet foot, dry foot," Cuban migrants who
make it to the United States are generally allowed to stay, but those
interdicted at sea are sent back to the communist-run island.
       
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