MIAMI – April 15, 2025 – A Cuban woman who entered the United States illegally has been sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison for her role in a human smuggling operation that led to the deaths of 16 children, including children, during a failed maritime journey from Cuba to Florida.
Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves, 25, was sentenced Monday by US District Judge Beth Bloom after pleading guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens and related charges earlier this year. Judge Bloom imposed a sentence above recommended federal guidelines, citing the severity of the crime and the tragic loss of life.
According to federal prosecutors, Dominguez Nieves and her boyfriend organized a for-profit smuggling trip in November 2024, arranged for 18 Cuban immigrants to be transported by boat from Playa Jaimanitas, Cuba. The ship was a small fishing boat, piloted by an inexperienced captain, lacking a life jacket, and was capsized for about 30 miles of the journey.
Sixteen passengers owned and their bodies were later restored, including three people who had been washed on land in Monroe County. The two survivors told investigators that the boats were dangerously overcrowded and unequipped for the voyage.
Investigators discovered Dominguez Nibes was raising more than $11,500 from the South Florida passenger parents to fund the trip.
The case was investigated by the Coast Guard Investigation Service (CGIS) Southeast Field Office with support from the U.S. Coast Guard sector’s Key West, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Monroe County County Prosecutor’s Office and the Highland County Sheriff’s Office.
The prosecutors are part of Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice initiative aimed at disrupting illegal immigration networks, dismantling cross-border criminal organizations and combating violent crime. US lawyer Zachary A. Keller led the prosecutor.
The US Lawyer’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and its CGIS special agent, Matthew J. Margelott, has announced the ruling.
