14ymedio, Havana, 22 August 2024 — Accused of illegally trafficking 20 Ecuadorian and Chinese migrants to Florida by land and sea, Dianelys Pérez Escourido, Omar Liván Ripoll Pérez, Humberto Tamayo and Víctor Febles Gualpa will be prosecuted in the United States. The Cubans are in the Cayo Hueso prison, along with a fifth person involved, Joel Gil Egued, whose nationality was not specified.
According to Rick Ramsay, Sheriff of Monroe County, the detainees are part of a “sophisticated gang” that charged $20,000 to each Ecuadorian to reach the United States (no details were given about the payments required from Chinese migrants).
The officer explained to the Miami WPLG television station that each migrant deposited “$4,000 to leave Ecuador, another $3,000 in the Bahamas, in addition to $1,000 to the operator of the vehicle that would transfer them when they made landfall in the United States.” Another $12,000 had to be paid to reach the final destination: New York or New Jersey.
The migrants, intercepted after disembarking near County Road, offered details of the group’s modus operandi, which used speedboats and SUV-type vans, in which they transported the undocumented migrants.
Ramsay did not specify the immigration status of the detained Cubans, but he did reveal that they are originally from Havana and Camagüey. Also, according to local television Channel 12 News, bail for each person involved was set “at $100,000.”
Dianelys Pérez Escourido, 44 years old, has a discreet profile in Miami, where the Camagüeyans Omar Liván Ripoll Pérez (28) and Humberto Tamayo (48) were also arrested. The investigators located the Havanan Victor Victor Febles Gualpa (38) in West Palm Beach, and Joel Gil Egued (48) was found in Cabo Coral.
The sheriff said that the local prosecutor’s office decided to take the case after officials from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office decided not to file charges. “The Sheriff’s Office and the State Prosecutor’s Office do not tolerate criminal behavior and will always work to hold those who violate the law accountable,” he stressed.
Cases of people from the Island involved in crimes of migrant smuggling are not new. On Monday, Cuban Enrique Nerey Valdivia was found guilty of smuggling migrants in the state of Texas. Judge David S. Morales, who presided over the trial, set sentencing for November 6.
Two other Cubans, Diojany Carrillo Rodríguez and Dariel Ibáñez Hernández, were also arrested in July and face charges of human trafficking. According to Texas State Security spokesman Chris Olivarez, the Maverick County Police caught them on Highway 277 while they were transporting two Mexican migrants and handed them over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Carrillo Rodríguez, who was driving a Chevy Malibu vehicle, acknowledged that he picked up the undocumented Mexican at an Eagle Pass point and that he had a GPS location for an address in the city of Houston. As for Ibáñez Hernández, a source confirmed to 14ymedio that his situation is yet to be defined, although he was informed that once the sentence is known, he will be deported to the Island.
Meanwhile, Cubans Rainel Lázaro Silies and Lima Gálvez González were arrested in April 2023 for the crime of migrant smuggling in U.S. County Kinney (Texas). The couple’s arrest took place in the town of Brackettville, when five undocumented people were transported in a vehicle with a license plate from the state of Kentucky.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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