Three men were sentenced for a violent human smuggling operation across Cuba, Miami and Louisiana, that involved kidnapping migrants, torturing and forcing them into labor, the Department of Justice announced.
According to a news release issued Friday, three men—40-year-old Osmel Benitez of Miami, 39-year-old Victor Manuel Perez Cardenas of Tampa, and 45-year-old Jhonny Walther Izaguirre Lopez of Baton Rouge, Louisiana—were convicted in the operation that happened in May 2024.
Officials say it was then that all three conspired to kidnap migrants who had been smuggled from Cuba to the United States.
On May 18, 2024, Perez Cardenas took those migrants “by boat to a deserted shoreline on Key Largo. Armed with a firearm, Perez Cardenas escorted the aliens to a nearby road, where Benitez and other members of the enterprise were waiting with vehicles to transport them to Miami,” the news release reads.
Several of the victims were taken to a farm property in Miami that same day, where the men and others held them captive while trying to extort money from their friends and families.
“At the property, Benitez and other members of the enterprise beat the aliens with a stick and a machete and conducted mock hangings of two aliens,” officials said. “In one recorded incident, Benitez and another co-conspirator forced an alien to stand on a chair, placed a noose around his neck, and struck him with the flat side of a machete.”
The footage of that mock hanging was sent to the migrant’s family “to coerce payment,” and Izaguirre Lopez along with others “contacted the aliens’ families and friends, threatening to kill or harm the captives unless money was sent.”
When four of the migrants were unable to pay, it was decided that Izaguirre Lopez would take them to Louisiana “to work for his construction company in order to pay off their debts.”
On May 20, 2024, law enforcement intercepted Izaguirre Lopez on the Florida Turnpike in Sumter County as he was driving the victims.
More than a year later, all three of the men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap. Additionally, Benitez and Izaguirre Lopez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide and obtain forced labor, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to possess a firearm, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Benitez and Perez Cardenas pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle, transport, and harbor aliens in violation of U.S. law, while Izaguirre Lopez pleaded guilty to transporting aliens within the U.S.
Benitez, Perez Cardenas and Izaguirre Lopez were sentenced to 34, 17.5 and 28 years in prison, respectively.
Since Benitez and Perez Cardenas are Cuban citizens and Izaguirre Lopez is Honduran, all are subject to deportation after completing their sentences.
“The violent, inhumane conduct that Benitez, Cardenas, and Lopez doled out to the victims of their illegal alien smuggling and kidnapping operation is almost beyond imagination,” said Brett Skiles, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami. “The depths of their depredation included mock hangings, forced labor, and threats to kill or harm – heinous conduct commensurate with their sentences. Let this case serve as a warning to other human smugglers that their illegal actions will not be tolerated.”
Three additional alleged co-conspirators, Victor Rafael Arcia Albeja, Jose Angel Marrero Rodriguez, and Yoelys Prada Ramos are awaiting trial.
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