More charges levied in Cuban smuggling ring

6:25 PM ET

In October 2013, a prized Cuban baseball player was given a fake passport and visa bearing a false name to use to board an airplane in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, en route to Miami.

According to federal prosecutors, who have identified the player only by the initials J.A.C., he received the fraudulent papers from a member of a human smuggling ring that had orchestrated his escape from Cuba on a cigarette boat in August 2013. After J.A.C. signed a contract with a major league team, prosecutors say, he would go on to pay his smugglers more than $5.8 million. (Neither J.A.C. nor any other player has been charged with a crime.)

The details concerning J.A.C. were outlined in a superseding indictment levying new alien smuggling charges against Bart Hernandez, a player-agent initially indicted in February. The indictment also charged two other men — Julio Estrada and a Haitian national still residing in Haiti named Amin Latouff — with playing crucial roles in the alleged smuggling operation.

Slugger Jose Abreu, whose full Spanish name is Jose Abreu Correa, defected from Cuba in August 2013 and signed a $68 million contract with the Chicago White Sox in October of …

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