MIAMI — A South Florida operation that conspired to smuggle
Cubans into the U.S. has been broken up after its leader and five members were
arrested in Florida’s Miami-Dade and Broward counties this month, the United
States Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
Miguel Bernal, the alleged leader of the organization, has
been charged with conspiracy to smuggle aliens into the United States.
Also charged were Frankley Ortiz, 37, and Lazaro Garcia, 52,
both of Hialeah, Fla., and Maikel Perez Tarajano, 33, Jose Aguila Gomez, 46,
and Osmel Echevarria Hernandez, 29, all of Miami.
Their arrests come amidst a heightened effort by the
Department of Homeland Security to crack down on human smuggling, said Nicole
Navas, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Miami.
According to the indictment, the six men conspired to bring
20 Cubans into the U.S. in March of last year.
ICE began investigating Bernal last March and worked with
the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring the charges against the men,
Navas said. A 26-foot boat and two boat engines were seized from Bernal on
March 22, 2008, the indictment said.
If convicted, the men face maximum sentences of 10 years in
prison. Gomez is also facing charges in an unrelated case.
“We have a lot of human smuggling cases here in South
Florida,” Navas said. “We’ve had smugglers that have sentences
ranging from five years to life in prison for cases involving death.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 217 people were
charged in maritime smuggling cases in 2008, more than the number charged in
2006 and 2007 combined. So far this year, 80 people have been charged in such
cases.
Anthony Mangione, special agent in charge of ICE’s Office of
Investigations in Miami, said the increase in cases can be attributed to stronger
efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to put a stop to the smuggling.
“DHS now is eight years old and we’ve now really
started to mature as an agency,” he said. “We work together so much
better now that we are able to make these kinds of cases that before we weren’t
able to make.”
A lawyer for Bernal declined to comment and lawyers for the
other men could not be immediately reached.
Hernandez pled not guilty to the charge on Dec. 3. The other
men have arraignments scheduled for Friday and Monday.
Bond for each of the men was set at $100,000.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
