Baseball agent, trainer sentenced on smuggling convictions
MIAMI — A sports agent and a baseball trainer convicted of operating a sophisticated, sometimes violent network that smuggled Cuban players to the U.S. were sentenced to prison Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a sentence of nearly four years for agent Bartolo Hernandez and just over five years for trainer Julio Estrada. Both were convicted by a jury in March of conspiracy and alien smuggling charges that included some high-profile Major League Baseball players who paid them a cut of their lucrative contracts.
During a four-hour hearing, Williams heard from numerous friends and family members of the two men about how close they remain with most of the players who made it to the U.S. and how involved they are with youth baseball in South Florida. Williams acknowledged what she called a “paradox” between the upstanding community figure and smuggler within both men.
But she said the case, which came to a close a day after this year’s World Series ended, is actually fairly simple.