Two Women Sentenced for Smuggling and Trafficking

Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves, a Cuban woman, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for her involvement in a 2022 human smuggling operation resulting in the deaths of 16 people, including children, when a boat sank en route to Florida. Her then-boyfriend, who orchestrated the operation from Cuba, remains at large. Meanwhile, Maria Del Carmen Sanchez, a 71-year-old Mexican national, was sentenced to over four years in prison for smuggling and labor trafficking Mexican nationals into Hartford, Connecticut. Sanchez's scheme involved extorting and threatening 19 victims with high fees and harm if they failed to pay. Both cases highlight severe human rights abuses and the dangerous conditions migrants often face. These sentences reflect the U.S. judicial system's response to human smuggling and trafficking crimes.