Liannys Vega-Perez

Introduction

Liannys Yaiselys Vega-Perez is a 27-year-old Cuban national who was sentenced on October 29, 2026, to four years in prison for her role in an international alien smuggling, asylum fraud, and money laundering conspiracy that moved thousands of Cuban aliens toward the United States. According to the Justice Department, Vega-Perez was the primary manager of the conspiracy’s fraudulent immigration benefits business and personally filed hundreds of fraudulent asylum applications. She pleaded guilty to four conspiracy counts — conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain, conspiracy to commit asylum fraud, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering — and was one of six defendants sentenced the same day in a scheme that charged migrants between $1,500 and $40,000 and that the department headlined “Defendants Responsible for Over 1,700 Fraudulent Asylum Claims”.

Background Information

Court documents describe an alien smuggling organization (ASO) that encouraged or induced thousands of Cuban aliens to enter the United States. The ASO smuggled them illegally across the southern border and used fraudulent Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) visa waivers to help others enter through ports of entry. Because Cuban residents are not eligible for the ESTA program, the organization made false representations that applicants had not been present in Cuba since 2011 and filed hundreds of fraudulent ESTA applications with U.S. Customs and Border Protection using fake addresses and false information, while knowing the applicants were residing in Cuba when the applications were submitted. The ASO advertised its smuggling services and bogus immigration services across multiple social media platforms targeted toward Cuban nationals living in Cuba. Co-conspirators sometimes chartered private planes to move groups of aliens. Once in the United States, the ASO assisted many aliens with filing fraudulent asylum paperwork to remain in the country.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Court documents state that Vega-Perez furthered the conspiracy by assisting in the logistics of moving aliens from their country of origin, including Cuba, into the United States, such as purchasing international and domestic flights for aliens to transport them toward, into, and throughout the country. She was the primary manager of the ASO’s immigration benefits business and personally filed hundreds of fraudulent asylum applications, and she and other defendants prepared, drafted, and submitted fraudulent asylum applications, immigrant visa applications, lawful permanent residence applications, and other applications for immigration benefits, in exchange for a fee. On October 29, 2026, she was sentenced to four years in prison on the four conspiracy counts to which she had pleaded guilty.

Vega-Perez and Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos, with others, conspired to regularly move funds to companies operating outside the United States, such as by purchasing international flights for aliens traveling into the country; between July 2022 and November 2024, the ASO spent more than $600,000 with a single airline for commercial flights. Vega-Perez, Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero, Layra Libertad Treto Santos, and others also conspired to conduct financial transactions designed to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of alien-smuggling proceeds, routing illegal proceeds through multiple shell companies before distributing them. Between 2021 and 2025, more than $22 million was laundered by the defendants.

Public Reaction and Consequences

“These defendants turned illegal immigration into a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise, smuggling aliens into the United States to line their pockets and laundering millions in illicit proceeds to conceal their operations,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Under President Trump, human smugglers and money launderers will never get a free pass.” Acting Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno of Homeland Security Investigations Tampa said the investigation exposed “a transnational criminal organization that treated our immigration system as a profit center, exploiting vulnerable people, manufacturing fraudulent immigration claims, and laundering millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.”

Sentenced alongside Vega-Perez on October 29 were five co-defendants: Miguel Martinez Vasconcelos, 31, two years in prison; Layra Libertad Treto Santos, 30, 30 months; Luis Emmanuel Escalona-Marrero, 32, two years; Walbis Pozo-Dutel, 32, two years; and Emanuel Martinez Gonzalez, 29, two years. Escalona-Marrero was ordered to forfeit $2.9 million, Vasconcelos $150,000, and Treto Santos $95,000. Twelve individuals were charged in a superseding indictment for their roles in the conspiracy: Yuniel Lima-Santos, 32, and Gisleivy Peralta Consuegra, 41, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing; Erik Ventura-Castro, 25, was sentenced on July 29 to 30 months in prison; Lazaro Alain Cabrera-Rodriguez, 29, was found guilty after a September trial and is awaiting sentencing; and Marianny Lucia Lopez-Torres and Frandy Aragon-Diaz are at large.

Current Status

Vega-Perez is serving a four-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain, conspiracy to commit asylum fraud, conspiracy to commit international money laundering, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Her case was supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the Justice Department’s lead effort combating human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and transnational criminal organizations throughout the Americas. The investigation was led by HSI Tampa, U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Fraud Detection and National Security, with substantial assistance from HSI’s Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. and CBP’s National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force, and valuable assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and authorities in the Cayman Islands. Trial Attorney Amanda Brown of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Derry for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 27, Vega-Perez faces four years in federal prison and felony convictions on four conspiracy counts spanning alien smuggling, asylum fraud, and two forms of money laundering — the counts that correspond to the roles prosecutors say she played: managing the fraudulent immigration benefits business, filing hundreds of false asylum applications, purchasing flights that moved migrants north, and helping launder the proceeds. Her conviction forms part of a broader enforcement record: to date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 486 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and trafficking, more than 447 U.S. convictions, and more than 377 significant jail sentences imposed and forfeitures of substantial assets.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Cuban Nationals and Florida Man Sentenced for Their Roles in an International Alien Smuggling, Asylum Fraud, and Money Laundering Conspiracy” — source