Three men were sentenced for a violent human smuggling operation across Cuba, Miami and Louisiana, that involved kidnapping migrants, torturing and forcing them into labor, the Department of Justice announced.

According to a news release issued Friday, three men—40-year-old Osmel Benitez of Miami, 39-year-old Victor Manuel Perez Cardenas of Tampa, and 45-year-old Jhonny Walther Izaguirre Lopez of Baton Rouge, Louisiana—were convicted in the operation that happened in May 2024.

Officials say it was then that all three conspired to kidnap migrants who had been smuggled from Cuba to the United States.

On May 18, 2024, Perez Cardenas took those migrants "by boat to a deserted shoreline on Key Largo. Armed with a firearm, Perez Cardenas escorted the aliens to a nearby road, where Benitez a

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