Migrant smuggling is big business in the Caribbean – and it’s a gold mine if you’re smuggling a top Major League Baseball prospect from Cuba. Now a Miami businessman has been charged with smuggling one of the most lucrative talents of all.
Cuban baseball star Yasiel Puig defected to Mexico two years ago. He eventually went to the United States and now plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But federal prosecutors in Miami say the way Puig got to the big leagues is a long and even violent criminal story.
One of the alleged central figures in that drama is Miami businessman Gilberto Suarez. He was arrested this week for illegally smuggling Puig and other Cuban sluggers to Mexico and then to the U.S.
One of the smugglers involved was later killed in a still unsolved case. Meanwhile, multi-million-dollar contracts were negotiated with Major League teams. Puig got a seven-year, $42 million deal.
Suarez appeared in Miami federal court Thursday afternoon and pleaded not guilty. He is just the latest person to be arrested for smuggling Cuban ballplayers in recent years.
