United States Marshal Amos Rojas Jr. announced the arrest of Luis Rivera-Garcia, Juliet Estrada-Perez, and Enrique Gonzalez-Torres who were wanted for violating their supervised release on federal Credit Card Fraud charges in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Coast Guard was dispatched by the Disney Fantasy cruise ship after it rescued three people that were found clinging to a capsized approximately 40 miles north of Varadero, Cuba and about 50 nautical miles west of the island vessel of Cay Sal, Bahamas. The Disney cruise ship rescued the stranded people who turned out to be Cuban Nationals but were from the United States. One of the persons rescued had a valid Florida Driver License in their possession.
The three defendants were turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard at sea. Officials from the Coast Guard District Seven Command Center conducted a fingerprint analysis which showed two of the subjects had outstanding arrests warrant from the U.S. Marshals Service in New Orleans, Louisiana. All three defendants were turned over to Deputy Marshals from the U.S. Marshals office in Key West, Florida. Rivera-Garcia, 26, Estrada Perez, 23, and Gonzalez-Torres, 23, were all arrested on federal credit card fraud charges on October 7, 2015 by the United States Secret Service in New Orleans, Louisiana. All three defendants were released on bond on October 9, 2015 and were only allowed to travel throughout the Eastern District of Louisiana and to Southern District of Florida. Juliet Estrada-Perez was being supervised by the U.S. Probation office in Miami, Florida.
U.S. Marshals believe the three co-defendants may have been fleeing to Cuba to avoid prosecution in the U.S. All three defendants will make their initial appearance in federal court in Key West on Monday April 25, 2016.