A woman who helped arrange a 2022 human smuggling trip from Cuba to Florida that ended in the deaths of 16 people pleaded guilty to federal charges that carry up to life in prison, prosecutors said Friday.
Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves, 26, who is in the U.S. without authorization, pleaded guilty Tuesday to “conspiring to smuggle aliens into the United States,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami said in a statement.
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, she admitted as part of a plea deal.
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.
The charges carry up to life in prison and a mandatory minimum of five years, the office said.
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.
A federal defender listed as representing Dominguez-Nieves did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
In 2022, at least 269 migrants — most of whom were trying to reach the United States mainland or Puerto Rico — died on sea routes through the Caribbean, according to the International Organization for Migration, an organization within the United Nations system.
On the U.S.-Mexico border, 686 migrant deaths were recorded in 2022, the group said in a 2023 report.
