Puerto Rico’s San JuanAccording to the U.S. Department of Justice, a Dominican national was sentenced on Friday to nine years in federal prison for his involvement in a people smuggling scheme that killed a three-year-old kid close to Rinc, Puerto Rico.
Alcibades De Paz, 34, entered a guilty plea in August and was found guilty of smuggling non-citizens into the United States, which led to his death. De Paz was in charge of a ship that carried migrants from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico in December 2022, according to the prosecution. De Paz restarted the ship’s engine after it failed and maneuvered it toward the Puerto Rican coast while dodging police.
On December 23, 2022, the ship capsized as it got closer to the coast, killing the small boy and endangering the lives of other passengers. According to officials, the incident happened while local law enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol were trying to safely intercept the vessel.
De Paz was sentenced to three years of supervised release in addition to the nine-year prison term. In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri stressed the seriousness of the case.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Juan looked into the situation, with help from the U.S. Border Patrol’s Ramey Sector and the Puerto Rico Police Bureau. The case was brought under the Department of Justice’s Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force program, which targets networks of people smugglers that pose threats to humanitarianism and national security.
According to authorities, De Paz’s sentencing highlights the grave repercussions of human smuggling, which results in fatalities.
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