MIAMI (AP) - Officials with the U.S. government and Major League Baseball are testifying in a trial about smuggling of Cuban players and say there were a lot of red flags regarding how the athletes came to America.
Prosecutors say sports agent Bartolo Hernandez and baseball trainer Julio Estrada oversaw criminal smuggling networks that used bogus documents for dozens of players. The documents are required for Cuban players to enter the U.S. and negotiate lucrative free agent contracts.
After looking through the players' documents, a Treasury Department investigator says there appeared to be too many similarities to be legitimate. For example, players had the same blood type, home address and what appeared to be phantom jobs.
The trial in Miami federal court is expected to last several weeks.
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