Posted on 11/01/2006 3:42:51 PM PST by MadIvan
A sports agent has been charged with smuggling Cuban baseball players into the US, with the aim of getting them signed by Americas top teams.
Gustavo Gus Dominguez is accused of hiring four men to use a speedboat to carry 19 Cubans to Florida in 2004, five of whom were talented baseball players.
Experts say that the case, the first time a baseball agent has been charged with smuggling, reveals the dark side of businessmen who represent defectors from Cuba, where baseball is the national sport.
For years agents have helped Cubans to get signed by baseball teams once they were outside the communist island, and when they had already defected to the US.
Now sports agents are recruiting smugglers to get the players off the island, which usually involves a dangerous journey transporting them across the 90-mile Florida Straits.
At least 100 Cuban players have defected to the US since 1991. One agent, Joe Kehoskie, said that the smuggling rackets had been an open secret for a long time. I dont want to gloat about someone being arrested, but it seems like the [business of representing] Cuban defectors has turned into a smuggling business, Mr Kehoskie told the Miami Herald.
According to Mr Dominguezs indictment, he deposited $50,000 (£26,000) into a Californian bank account to fund the operation.
In July, 2004, he rented a flat in Woodland Hills, California. Four days later the four alleged accomplices loaded 22 Cubans on to a 28-foot speedboat in Cuba, but they were intercepted at sea by US border agents.
A month later the men went back to Cuba to pick up another 19 Cubans, many from the first aborted trip, and got them to the Florida Keys. From there the five players were taken to Los Angeles in vans.
Once there, the defendants then allegedly provided the players with food and clothing and began to train them. One player has since signed with a minor league affiliate to the Atlanta Braves; another with the Arizona Diamondbacks minor league team; and a third with the Saltdogs baseball team in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In court Mr Dominguez, who says that he represents 38 Cuban defectors, pleaded not guilty. If convicted he and his alleged accomplices face up to 10 years in prison. Under US law, if Cuban immigrants make it to dry land they cannot be deported back to Cuba, but are treated as asylum seekers.
Julie Myers, assistant secretary of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said: Although this case involves a Beverly Hills sports agent and talented baseball players, it is remarkably similar to the human smuggling operations.
THE BILLION DOLLAR GAME
Baseball is Cubas national sport and Fidel Castro is a fan
Rolando Arrojo led the Cuban national baseball team to victory against the US in 1996. He was later signed to a US team for $7 million (£3.6 milion)
Castro criticised him, but in Cuba Arrojo had earned the equivalent of $11 a month, lived in a three-bedroom home with eight relatives and rode a bicycle to the stadium
Other Cuban-born players signed by US teams are Rey Ordonez, paid $6.5 million in 2003 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and Rafael Palmeiro, paid $3 million by the Baltimore Orioles
There have been more than 150 Cuban US major-league players
Top players can earn $25 million a year
In 1992 the baseball industry made $1.2 billion. The estimated revenue for 2006 is $5.2 billion
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
chico escuela says" baseball been bery bery good to me"
RAT should be Republican.
"Other Cuban-born players signed by US teams are Rey Ordonez, paid $6.5 million in 2003 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and Rafael Palmeiro, paid $3 million by the Baltimore Orioles"
So what? America gets millions of illegals each year. At least some of them can pitch.
"These agents are only helping innocent men flee Marxist tyranny."
"America gets millions of illegals each year. At least some of them can pitch."
MUST HAVE BEEN REALLY CROWED ON THAT INTER TUBE
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