Feds say they busted ring that tried to smuggle Cuban migrants

Federal agents arrested three men Sunday in the Florida Keys as a boat was being lowered by one of them down a ramp at a marina in an alleged scheme to smuggle migrants out of Cuba.

Agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations said the men ran the operation out of a house in Key Largo.

Shortly after the arrest at the Harry Harris Park marina in the Upper Keys area of Tavernier, agents executed a search warrant at a Homestead house where Yosniel Fuentes was arrested, according to a complaint filed in federal court Monday.

Also at the Homestead house, located at Southwest 263rd Terrace, agents found a ledger containing a list of names and phone numbers of people in Cuba. The resident of the house, Alberto Garcia, told agents he planned to contact the people on the list “to see if they were interested in coming to the United States,” the complaint states.

Garcia was arrested at the boat ramp.

Along with Garcia and Fuentes, agents arrested Manuel Fonseca and Yudier Panaque. It was not immediately clear if attorneys were assigned to represent the men. They made their first appearance in front of a judge in Key West on Monday afternoon. They each face a charge of knowingly and willfully conspiring to encourage and induce aliens to enter the United States.

A Homeland Security Investigations spokesman declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation.

The arrests came as Coast Guard officials have reported an uptick in the number of Cuban migrants being intercepted at sea as conditions on the island continue to deteriorate. Crews have interdicted 107 Cubans so far in the fiscal year that began in October, already surpassing the total figure from the 12 months prior.