Well I know what you might be thinking here. A sports agent was caught smuggling in Cuban cigars. Nope that’s not the case here.
Gustavo “Gus” Dominguez and four others were charged with conspiracy to smuggle Cuban immigrants into the United States, including some that were baseball players.
“Though the case involves a Beverly Hills sports agent and talented baseball players, it is remarkably similar to the human smuggling operations that ICE (the immigration agency) encounters every day,” Julie Myers, the agency’s assistant secretary, said in a statement. “The ringleaders put the lives of illegal immigrants at risk and sought to profit from their labor.”
According to the indictment, Dominguez and two others successfully smuggled in 19 Cuban Nationals into Florida and transported them to Los Angeles. There they were provided with food and clothing along with a place to live and began baseball training there. It is not know whether or not any of these players were signed by any major league clubs.
Is the guy that hard up for money that he has to illegally import players into the country. A good percentage of the Cubans who defect to the United States usually end up with a decent major league contract with the agent taking usually 10% of that. Is spending the rest of your life in jail worth that? To me, it is not. But obviously Gus Dominguez and his associates thought they could get away with this. It will be interesting to see as this case comes to fruition whether or not any of these players were signed by an major league clubs.
