A Cuban Uber driver is facing first-degree felony charges for allegedly kidnapping and raping a woman he picked up from a club in Miami Beach.
Yusel Keoma Perez-Leyva, who is in the country illegally, reportedly confessed to transporting her to his apartment and sexually assaulting her.
Police arrested Perez-Leyva, 42, on June 18 following an investigation into the reported assault. The victim told police she went out on June 3 and had been drugged and sexually assaulted after a night of clubbing.
“BIDEN-RELEASED illegal alien Uber driver arrested for allegedly RAPING a woman in Miami,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on X announcing his arrest.
BIDEN-RELEASED illegal alien Uber driver arrested for allegedly RAPING a woman in Miami.
Local police arrested Yusel Keoma Perez-Leyva, from Cuba, after a woman said she had been drugged and sexually assaulted after a night of clubbing. Video surveillance showed Perez-Leyva… pic.twitter.com/QvrRFIXBBg
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 26, 2026
Detectives with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office detained him after recovering surveillance video showing Perez-Leyva “carrying” the woman to his apartment near Miami Lakes.
He reportedly told deputies that he had engaged in “sexual intercourse with the intoxicated victim,” according to the deputies’ report, per Local 10 News.
Perez-Leyva now faces two first-degree felony charges: Kidnapping punishable by life, and sexual battery on a physically incapacitated or helpless victim. He’s also being held on an immigration detainer.
Perez-Leyva was born in Cuba and illegally entered the United States through Arizona in 2021, when he was released by the Biden Administration, DHS said.
NBC6 Miami reported the victim told police she remembered going out on June 3 and walking out of a nightclub in Miami Beach.
After waking up in a hospital on June 4, the woman told Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies that she had been out clubbing and believed she was drugged.
🚨 Miami-Dade County, FL: Last week, illegal alien @Uber driver Yusel Keoma Perez-Leyva was arrested for Kidnapping and Sexual Battery.
He is accused of picking up an inebriated woman, transporting her to his apartment, and sexually assaulting her.
Perez-Leyva illegally entered… pic.twitter.com/8otgfTofC5
— Illegal Alien Crimes (@ImmigrantCrimes) June 26, 2026
She said she blacked out after walking out of the nightclub. The victim didn’t remember other details and woke up the next day at a local hospital.
She experienced vaginal soreness and believed that she had been raped, according to the police report.
On June 18, detectives located Perez-Leyva and took him to the special victims’ bureau in Doral for questioning, Local 10 News reported.
Perez-Leyva told detectives that he was working as an Uber driver when he picked up the woman in Miami Beach, according to the arrest report, and he reportedly admitted having sex with the woman.
It remains unclear whether she was drugged before leaving the club or by Perez-Leyva.
Uber released a statement confirming that Perez-Leyva was working as an Uber driver. The company said “the driver was not using Uber at the time of the incident,” but added “we are deeply disturbed by this report and have banned him from the platform.”
During a June 20 bond hearing, a judge ordered him to stay away from the victim, denied him bail, and ordered his pre-trial detention, according to court records.
He is being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with his arraignment scheduled for July 9.
DHS has asked Florida authorities not to release him without first notifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since Florida cooperates with ICE, “he will be turned over to ICE custody and never released into American communities again,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said.
In late January in a separate incident, a female Uber driver in Miami was violently attacked and sexually assaulted by a passenger who was identified as 26-year-old Oscar Ernesto Sanchez-Aguire, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
The victim told Local 10 News that the passenger told her to turn down a dark street. He allegedly then attacked her, covered her mouth, and began to grope her and sexually assault her.
The attack caused the driver to lose control of her SUV and crash into a church and storage facility wall in Little Havana. Sanchez-Aguire attempted to flee the scene but was arrested by City of Miami Police blocks away.
He was charged with battery and culpable negligence resulting in injuries. ICE also lodged an arrest detainer for him.
