Cuban national led smuggling ring for about 5 years. He’ll be in prison for the same
For nearly six years, Tomas Vale Valdivia was one of the leaders behind an alien smuggling conspiracy that transported more than 100 Cuban nationals to Mexico and then into the United States. He also worked with others to bring baseball players from Cuba to the United States and engines from the United States to Mexico.
For his role in the scheme, Valdivia, 45, who is from Cuba, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison this week. Valdivia pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit alien smuggling for profit in November, records show.
Valdivia was charged in 2019 after the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Miami Office and the FBI launced an investigation into the operation. Investigators said Valdivia along with other conspirators charged about $10,000 to be smuggled out of the country.
Court records show that Valdivia was involved in the smuggling operation as far back as 2013. Investigators say Valdivia and additional unnamed associates operated in Miami, Florida, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti at least until 2018.
The case is part of Operation Sisyphus Task Force, which is made up of various agencies with the focus of combating Caribbean-based organized crime.
