A Cuban national who took part in a $20 million human smuggling scheme that brought hundreds of Cubans into the US was convicted by a federal jury on Thursday and faces up to 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice said.

Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 28, of Florida, was found guilty over his role in the smuggling and money laundering scheme shut down last year, which saw his travel agency charge between $1,500 and $40,000 for bogus immigration services.

The agency was accused of promoting bogus visa services from January 2021 through June 2025, effectively tricking Cubans into thinking that they could enter America legally by posing as European citizens.

“Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez used his travel agency as a front to illegally smuggle Cuban aliens into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. 

“His travel agency provided a veneer of legitimacy to evade detection when the defendant falsely completed and filed at least 600 applications for visa waivers, arranged to fly the aliens from Cuba to third countries, further coordinated with other smugglers throughout the Americas, and laundered over $20 million through 57 bank accounts,” Duva added.

Cabrera-Rodriguez’s “ASESORIA Y SERVICIOS MIGRATORIOS LLC” would go on to fabricate documents, charter private planes and launder money through the Zelle payment app, according to the DOJ.

The company promoted itself on social media as dedicated to helping immigrants fill out permits and asylum paperwork, but in reality, the defendants filed hundreds of fake Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) applications to US Customs and Border Protection.

“It was a criminal enterprise built on treating people like cargo and using their desperation for financial gain,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tampa.

“Alien smuggling organizations do not provide a service; they exploit vulnerable people for profit while undermining the integrity of our borders and immigration system,” Ingegno added.

Cabrera-Rodriguez was convicted of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering concealment. 

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 17, where he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Twelve other defendants in the case have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, with a 13th defendant, Erik Ventura-Castro, 24, sentenced to 30 months in prison in July.

The indictments were part of the DOJ’s Operation Take Back America, a nationwide program aimed at tackling illegal immigration and transnational crime.