Case: 17-15405 Date Filed: 08/13/2020 Page: 1 of 57 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 17-15405 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cr-20091-KMW-2 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus JULIO ESTRADA, BARTOLO HERNANDEZ, Defendants-Appellants. ________________________ Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (August 13, 2020) Before ROSENBAUM, JILL PRYOR and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judge: Case: 17-15405 Date Filed: 08/13/2020 Page: 2 of 57 Julio Estrada, a baseball trainer, and Bartolo Hernandez, a baseball manager, partnered with business professionals, human traffickers, and members of a Mexican criminal organization to smuggle baseball players out of Cuba and into the United States so that the players could enter into lucrative “free agent” contracts with Major League Baseball (“MLB”) teams.1 At the time of the events underlying this appeal, MLB rules required Cuban citizens to obtain “unblocking” licenses from the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) before they could enter into free agent contracts. To obtain unblocking licenses, the players were required to prove that they had moved to a third country with no intention of returning to Cuba. The defendants’ operation would smuggle players into Mexico, Haiti, or the Dominican Republic, where Estrada, Hernandez, and other co-conspirators would procure fraudulent documents to establish the players’ residencies in those countries. The players used the false residency documents to obtain unblocking licenses permitting them to contract with MLB teams. Sometimes they also relied on the false documents to obtain visas, which allowed them to come to the United States to play baseball. 1 MLB defines “free agent” as a player who “is eligible to sign with any club for any terms to which the two parties can agree.” What Is Free Agency?, MLB (last visited July 1, 2020), http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/free-agency. 2 Case: 17-15405 Date Filed: 08/13/2020 Page: 3 of 57 A federal grand jury charged Estrada and Hernandez with smuggling four Cuban baseball players into the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(2), 2 and conspiring to commit crimes against the United States. At trial, the government’s theory of prosecution was that Estrada and Hernandez, along with others not parties to this appeal, aided and abetted in bringing noncitizens3 into the United States. After a 30-day trial, the jury convicted them of conspiring to bring and bringing four noncitizen Cuban players into the United States. On appeal, Estrada and Hernandez raise several challenges to their convictions, including whether: (1) the district court erred in ruling that the Cuban Adjustment Act (“CAA”) and the Wet-Foot/Dry-Foot policy did not provide the players with “prior official authorization” to come to, enter, or reside in the United States under § 1324(a)(2); (2) there was sufficient evidence to support their convictions; and (3) the district court committed evidentiary errors. After a thorough review of the parties’ briefs and the record, and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm their convictions. 2 Section 1324(a)(2) of Title 8 provides: “Any ...
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