Woman pleads guilty in human smuggling trip in which 16 drowned

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.

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.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woman-pleads-guilty-human-smuggling-trip-16-drowned-rcna189232

---