Florida man pleads guilty to helping baseball star Puig flee Cuba

By Zachary Fagenson MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man who received $2.5 million after helping to smuggle Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig out of Cuba pleaded guilty on Tuesday, according to court documents. Gilberto Suarez, 40, faces up to 10 years in prison at a March sentencing for conspiring to bring in or harbor aliens. In his plea agreement, he acknowledged coaching Puig on his 2012 defection from the communist-controlled island. After leaving Cuba, Puig, now 24, signed a seven-year, $42 million contract with the Dodgers. Suarez received about $2.5 million, according to the plea agreement, which said the payout came from a Dodgers player, but did not specifically name Puig. Under his deal with prosecutors, Suarez agreed to forfeit a bank account, house, condominium, a 2014 Mercedes-Benz and three handguns. Suarez was "starting to prepare for the next court hearing,” his lawyer, Bijan Parwaresch, said in an email. Suarez is accused of paying $250,000 to a group connected to a Mexican drug cartel to get Puig from Cuba to Mexico’s east coast, according to an indictment. He later instructed Puig to rent a car after he arrived in Mexico and to drive 750 miles (1,200 km) to the U.S. border at Brownsville, Texas, the plea agreement said. Major League Baseball has voiced concerns over human traffickers helping Cuban players leave the country for the United States and lucrative contracts, although it says its own policies are not to blame. (Editing by Letitia Stein and Peter Cooney)