Eliezer Lazo pleads guilty to extortion of Cubans, including Leonys Martin
By Nick Bond @THEN1CKSTER on Aug 22 2014, 8:19p
lthough the harrowing tales of Yasiel Puig's journey are better known, the road that Rangers center fielder Leonys Martin took was equally dangerous. Eliezer Lazo is facing punishment for leading an organization that kidnapped Martin and, according to the AP, put over 1,000 others through "prison-like conditions" on their way to the U.S..
Lazo, a 41-year-old felon already serving time for Medicare fraud, pleaded guilty on Friday to extortion charges that could add up to 20 years to his current five-year sentence. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Davidson, many of those being smuggled were "crowded together in rooms of 20 or more under armed guard" where they "were restrained and beaten while relatives could hear the screams on the phone."
In a report by Yahoo's Jeff Passan, Charles Robinson and Rand Getlin, the details from Martin's lawsuit tell a story of armed kidnapping and the young prospect being held hostage in Mexico while his family was sequestered in Florida. According to the lawsuit, Lazo -- along with several accomplices -- kept Martin and others captive as they waited for the prospects to be signed to contracts in MLB.
Martin's lawsuit was a counter-suit against Lazo's Estrellas del Baseball company. Despite having paid EDB over $1.2 million, the company claimed that Martin had agreed -- under, as he claims in the court filings, the duress of an armed guard -- to pay 35 percent of his earnings to them in exchange for the service they supposedly provided and was still on the hook for another $450,000.
More:
http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/8/22/6058205/eliezer-lazo-guilty-plea-extortion-leonys-martin-cuba
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Earlier article:
Feds Indict Three for Smuggling Cuban Baseball Prospects into U.S. and Holding Them Hostage
By Michael E. Miller Thu., Dec. 5 2013 at 7:30 AM
Baseball is America's pastime. But it's also an international business that sucks in scores of foreign-born players every year. Behind that business are men who secret ballplayers into the United States in exchange for a slice of their future earnings.
This side of baseball tends to remain in the shadows. Every once in a while, however, an arrest or a lawsuit peals back the lid on this lucrative smuggling industry.
That's what happened yesterday when Feds announced an indictment against three Cubans for trafficking their fellow countrymen into the U.S. and keeping at least one baseball star hostage until he paid up.
See also: Cuban Baseball Agents: Risks and Lies
Federal prosecutors announced yesterday that they were charging Eliezer Lazo, 40, Joel Martinez Hernandez, 37, and Yilian Hernandez, 30, for alien smuggling, extortion, and kidnapping conspiracy.
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But court records and news clippings reveal that Lazo, Martinez, and Hernandez were more than ordinary Caribbean coyotes. They were key players in a tri-national smuggling operation that stocks the Major Leagues with Cuban peloteros.
Lazo -- who has been arrested for battery and burglary but never convicted of a felony -- was first busted for human smuggling back in 2008. He and an accomplice were stopped by the Coast Guard with five passengers aboard their boat as they tried enter the U.S. from the Bahamas.
More:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/12/feds_indict_three_for_smugglin.php
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