EXCLUSIVE: A drama series about one of the characters involved in a high-stakes operation to smuggle Cuban baseball players into the United States is in the works.
Julio Estrada is the character in question. The baseball coach was convicted of smuggling Cuban players into the United States to sign with Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. He would then take a cut of their lucrative contracts. Ballplayers named in the case included Texas Rangers outfielder Leonys Martin and Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox.
Estrada’s exclusive lifetime rights were taken over by Naomi Harvey’s independent label, Golden Possum. The as-yet-untitled series is in development, she told Deadline. It will dramatize Estrada’s rise and fall: from respected family man and youth coach in Miami, to being accused of being part of a scheme that reshaped the way Cuban athletes enter the American market.
Convicted of federal conspiracy and smuggling charges, Estrada was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017, alongside sports agent Bartolo Hernandez who was sentenced to four years in prison. Now free, he has long maintained that he had become the scapegoat in this affair.
“The biggest lie of the U.S. government was that our argument was going to have a deterrent effect on future Cuban players, [but] “More than 200 players have signed since then,” Estrada said. “Nothing has changed. I never thought I would be called a ‘trafficker’. For the first time, I want people to hear my side of the story.
The lifetime rights agreement gives Golden Possum exclusive access to Estrada, his archives and his case documents. “Julio’s tale takes us into the secret world behind the bright lights of baseball – where cartels, scammers and billion-dollar franchises collided,” Harvey said. “This isn’t just about sports; it’s about loyalty, corruption and the true price of the American dream.”
