Although Republican Florida Governor and human trafficker Ron DeSantis kept the plans secret for shipping asylum seekers to Massachusetts from Texas via a stopover in Florida–not publically releasing information required by law and not even telling Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott–one item has leaked out:  the name of the coyote he used to recruit the uninformed victims of his scheme.

According to the New York Times, the woman known as “Perla” is Perla Huerta, a former Army medic and counterintelligence agent who had been discharged in August.  Apparently working as a contractor for the State of Florida, Huerta was identified by people she recruited to work for her in Texas as well as the migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard after being promised benefits from Massachusetts for refugees–benefits which the asylum seekers didn’t qualify for.

A Venezuelan man who worked with Huerta to recruit fellow migrants to make the trip to Massachusetts says he, too, was scammed by her:  she allegedly told him they were working for a group that would help people get assistance in Massachusetts.  He felt betrayed when told she worked for Florida’s governor.  “I was also lied to,” he said. “If I had known, I would not have gotten involved.” All he was told, he said, was that “she wanted to help people head up north.”

DeSantis’s administration has blocked public access to the records surrounding the $1.5 million paid to Vertol Systems, the aviation company with connections to Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz and Larry Keefe, Florida’s public safety czar; the two men were retained by Vertol for legal work when they were in the private sector.

“I have been doing this long enough to know that the state of Florida is being deliberately opaque about this incident,” said Michael Barfield, director of public access at the Florida Center for Government Accountability. “I do believe there is a misuse of state funds.”