Woman Pleads Guilty To Human Smuggling That Claimed 16 Lives

A woman has pleaded guilty to federal charges that carry up to life in prison, after she reportedly arranged a 2022 human smuggling trip from Cuba to Florida that ended in the deaths of 16.

Prosecutors, on Friday, said 26-year-old Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves, who is in the U.S. without authorization, pleaded guilty to “conspiring to smuggle aliens into the United States.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami said in a statement that Dominguez-Nieves collected the money from the migrants’ family members in the U.S., at least $11,500 in all, and sent that to her boyfriend in Cuba who put the migrants on a boat.

The small fishing boat left Playa Jaimanitas in Cuba on Nov. 16, 2022, and sank 30 miles into the trip. Of the 18 people aboard, 16 people drowned.

There were no life jackets on board and the two survivors told authorities that the captain “did not appear to know how to operate the vessel,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

According to NBC News, the charges carry up to life in prison and a mandatory minimum of five years.

A plea agreement does not spell out any sentence that prosecutors will recommend, but it does indicate they will ask that it be reduced because of her cooperation. Sentencing is scheduled for April 11.