14ymedio, Madrid, 7 February 2024 — A Cuban resident of Tampa, Florida, was accused on Tuesday by the United States Federal District Prosecutor’s Office of illegally transferring $100,000 from the Island to the United States. According to an official statement, Mirtza Ocaña, 38, faces a sentence of up to five years in prison if she is found guilty.
Ocaña was arrested last Monday, February 5, when she landed at Tampa International Airport on an international flight from Cuba and did not declare carrying money for an amount greater than 10,000 dollars, which requires the submission of the relevant forms. However, during a routine inspection, Department of Homeland Security agents found $30,000 in cash hidden in three packages of her luggage.
When they subjected her to a body search, the agents found another $70,000 in her clothes, and, in the interrogation after the discovery, Ocaña admitted that she flew between two and three times a month between Cuba and the United States to smuggle cash. The Cuban’s travel history revealed that, since May 2023, the woman had taken 45 trips from the Island.
The statement emp
