Two Cuban men have pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges after they were busted in the middle of an operation in the waters off of Key Largo last year, authorities said.
Yordany Capote-Leon, 31 and Yuniel Cabrera Piloto 44, pleaded guilty to alien smuggling charges in the Oct. 24, 2024 operation, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said Tuesday.
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WATCH HEREAuthorities said the two men departed from the U.S. to Bahamian waters on a cuddy cabin style boat and while in Bahamian water loaded 18 people onto the boat.
They headed back toward the U.S. followed the U.S. Coast Guard before U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers ordered them to stop after they crossed back into U.S. waters off the coast of Key Largo.
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Capote-Leon and Piloto ignored the orders and kept going, but when authorities used warning shots, they stopped the boat.
Authorities took Capote-Leon, Piloto, and the 18 people into custody.
All 18 were Ecuadorian nationals who did not have authorization to enter the United States, and three of them had previously been removed from the U.S., officials said.
Everyone involved pleaded guilty, and most were repatriated back to the Bahamas.
Last month, Capote-Leon was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
A judge last week accepted Piloto's guilty plea and he's scheduled to be sentenced on May 8, where he faces up to 10 years in prison.
