MIAMI – A woman told a detective that she grew frustrated when she and her two daughters were struggling with food shortages in Venezuela while the girl’s father was playing baseball professionally in the United States, records show.
She told the detective that after she and the baseball player broke up in 2017, and he refused to pay child support in 2018, a neighbor connected her to a Miami-based attorney who promised David Odúbel Herrera was going to pay.
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The woman said the attorney was very generous. She mailed gifts to Maracaibo from Miami. The kindness ended when the victim had lost all control over her finances and she was an isolated migrant in the U.S., according to Doral Detective Kelsey Beinvenu.
Jeneffer Natally Gaskin Azuaje, who falsely identified as an attorney, was really a Venezuelan American labor trafficker in Florida, according to Beinvenu, also a member of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office human trafficking task force.
Gaskin Azuaje told the victim that she had hired an attorney in Venezuela to negotiate the first deal in court there, but the ultimate goal was to get millions in child support in the U.S., according to Beinvenu’s affidavit in support of the arrest warrant.
“The court ordered Herrera to deposit $1,000 for each of his daughters in a Venezuelan bank account. When the victim left Venezuela, there were $15,000 in the account, but she never received it because [Gazkin Azuaje] had control of it,” Beinvenu wrote about the deal in Venezuela, records show.
The negotiations started again in the U.S. after Gaskin Azuaje helped the victim to apply for a U.S. Visa, travel to Miami-Dade, and connect with Herrera’s manager while he was in spring training in Clearwater, according to Beinvenu.
“Herrera offered $1.3 million, but [Gaskin Azuaje] said no and wanted $4 million,” Beinvenu wrote adding, “Herrera’s manager then offered a trust fund with $830,000, add his two daughters to his MLB contract and would recognize his youngest daughter, but [Gaskin Azuaje] said no and wanted more plus a house.”
During the negotiations, the victim reported she woke up at about 4 a.m. to do unpaid domestic work and she earned about $15,535 while working at a McDonald’s with Gazkin Azuaje’s social security number, according to Beinvenu.
The victim reported Gaskin Azuaje was very controlling, kept all of her earnings and her daughters’ visa documents, identifications, birth certificates, medical records and school records, according to Beinvenu.
“The bad thing about me: I get revenge,” Gazkin Azuaje said during an argument, according to the victim, who was homeless in Miami-Dade.
Police officers questioned the victim in Spanish on Oct. 6 and Oct. 13, 2022, at the Doral Police Department’s headquarters, and she talked to federal investigators on Feb. 23, at the Homeland Security Investigations Miami office, according to the May arrest warrant.
Authorities investigated Gaskin Azuaje, who was born in Venezuela and became a Florida licensed real estate agent in 2016. Records show she was a Doral-based entrepreneur with Global International USA, Beauty Bar by Ileana, Servimax USA; Alimentos Mundiales Venamerica, and Miami Equipment and Export.
Gaskin Azuaje was at a three-bedroom house in Kendall when officers arrested her on Monday, according to the arrest report. Her real estate license was revoked before it was set to expire on Sept. 30, and only one out of her five businesses were active, state records show.
Miami-Dade correctional officers booked Gaskin Azuaje shortly before 6 p.m., at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, county inmate records show. She was being held without bond on Tuesday.
Gaskin Azuaje is facing charges of labor trafficking, a first-degree felony; scheme to defraud, a third-degree felony; and unlawful use of a two-way communication device, a third-degree felony.
Herrera could not be reached for comment. Detectives were asking anyone with information about this or other cases involving Gaskin Azuaje to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
Read the arrest warrant