At some point in the late ’90s, Sanchez, in letters to the federal judge who sentenced him to nine years in prison for money laundering, says he came to the United States on a raft. In 2006, court records show, he fled to Mexico after being charged with attempted murder in Miami-Dade County. He admitted to the federal judge that trafficking humans was his way of life while in Mexico, calling himself a “sinner and a smuggler.” It’s unclear when he returned to the United States, but when he did, he set up a pressure cleaning business, bought a bakery in Miramar and continued to quietly profit from his trade in human flesh, according to documents filed alongside his plea of guilt.