The woman arrested in Tampa with $100,000 says she was paid to transfer cash from Cuba to the USA.

Cuban woman Mirtza Ocaña, detained this week at Tampa International Airport and charged with smuggling after being found with about $100,000 she was carrying from the Island, confessed she was paid to carry cash dollars to the United States several times a month.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the Middle District of Florida Federal Court and consulted by El Nuevo Herald, the 38-year-old woman “was paid between $1,000 and $2,500 per trip.”

On Tuesday, Florida federal prosecutor Roger B. Handberg announced the arrest and the filing of a criminal complaint against the woman, a resident of Tampa who dedicated herself to traveling to the Island as a mule. If found guilty, Ocaña faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

According to the complaint, the Cuban arrived at Tampa International Airport on a flight from the Island on February 5, 2024, and did not declare that she had more than $10,000 in her possession, an amount that would trigger reporting requirements.

However, during a routine inspection of her luggage, agents from the Department of Homeland Security recovered approximately $30,000 in cash, hidden in three wrapped packages.

The Cuban later admitted that she flew from Cuba to Tampa two or three times a month to smuggle cash into the United States and that she knew that bringing these sums without reporting it is illegal. Also, taking more than 5,000 units of any currency out of the Island is prohibited by Cuban laws.

Agents searched Ocaña and discovered another $70,000 in cash hidden in her clothing. Ocaña’s flight history later revealed that she had flown from Cuba to Tampa 45 times since May of 2023.

The Prosecutor’s Office statement specified that this case is being investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations Office (HSI) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office, and that the detainee will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Buchanan.

El Nuevo Herald indicated that the judicial records say that Ocaña was unemployed and does not speak English. Last September, she created a company, Ocana & Paradise, LLC.

Judge Sean P. Flynn ordered the release of the Cuban woman and that she be subjected to a home surveillance program with an electronic device. He also instructed her to seek psychiatric treatment, employment, and to surrender her passport.

On her Tik Tok and Instagram profiles, Ocaña announced air and maritime shipments of food and medicine to Cuba.

Experts consulted by El Nuevo Herald suggested that the detainee could be transferring money from Island MIPYMES that pay foreign suppliers or also sums resulting from the sale of properties that some residents of Cuba seek to deposit in foreign bank accounts, among other hypotheses.

Ocaña’s detention occurred a few days after Western Union suspended its remittance operations to Cuba from the United States due to technical issues in the Cuban banking system. The situation continues amid the opacity of the financial institutions of the regime.