MIAMI — A Cuban woman was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by a federal district judge in Miami on Friday for her role in a tragic human smuggling operation that left 16 people dead, many of them children.

On Nov. 16, 2024, a small fishing boat carrying 18 Cuban migrants departed Playa Jaimanitas, Cuba, en route to South Florida. About 30 miles into the Florida Straits, the overloaded vessel sank. Sixteen people drowned; only two survived. According to the two survivors, the boat was overcrowded, lacked life jackets and was captained by someone with little to no navigation experience.

Three of the victims’ bodies later washed ashore in Monroe County. The official cause of death was drowning.

Federal prosecutors say 25-year-old Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves and her boyfriend partially organized the smuggling trip . According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Dominguez-Nieves had entered the United States unlawfully just a month earlier. Dominguez-Nieves pleaded guilty on Jan. 21, 2025, to conspiracy to smuggle aliens resulting in death, along with other related charges.

Court documents state that Dominguez-Nieves collected more than $11,500 from relatives of the passengers living in South Florida.

Federal court records also reveal that Dominguez-Nieves had been in a long-term abusive relationship with a man 12 years her senior, beginning when she was just 15. According to the documents, the relationship was marked by escalating violence. Her boyfriend physically assaulted her multiple times — dragging her by her hair, slamming her into walls, strangling her to the point of unconsciousness, and once holding a knife to her throat, saying, “If you’re not mine, nobody can have you.”

In 2022, the boyfriend instructed Dominguez-Nieves to travel from Cuba to the United States. Once here, she was to collect money from relatives of the migrants for a smuggling trip he was organizing. When she questioned him, he threatened to have her deported — back to Cuba and back to his control.

“Conditioned to obey, based on years of abuse and manipulation, Ms. Dominguez-Nieves complied, collecting approximately $11,500 for Muniz. She will regret this decision for the rest of her life,” her public defenders wrote in a sentencing memorandum. They requested a 60-month sentence.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom imposed a 90-month sentence —exceeding the advisory federal sentencing guidelines — because of the severity of the offense and the resulting loss of life, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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