A DEFECTOR TELLS OF DRUG DEALING BY CUBA AGENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00135R000701310130-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: April 15, 2008
• Sequence Number: 130
• Publication Date: April 4, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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f DealingL'I11~J
Drug
?
By Cuba Agents
Trafficking in New York
and Florida Described
By SELWYN RAAB
A Cuban defector has told Federal
and New York State law enforcement
officials that agents of the Cuban Gov-
ernment conducted narcotics trafficlt-
ing in the New York metropolitan area
and in Florida in 1980 and 1981.
The defector, Mario Estebes Gonza-
lez, was arrested on drug charges 16
months ago. Since then, in testimony in
Federal District Court in Miami and in
statements to officials, Mr. Estebes has
said that his chief mission on behalf of
the Cuban Government was to distrib-
ute cocaine, marijuana and methaqua-
lone tablets in New York, northern New
Jersey and Florida.
He has testified that he delivered be-
tween $2 million and $3 million to Cuban
officials from proceeds of drug traffick-
ing in the United States in a 15-month
period.
Mr. Estebes told Federal officials
that he and about 3,000 other Cuban
agents infiltrated into the the United
States among 125,000 refugees who
were allowed to leave Cuba from the
port of Mariel in the spring of 1980.
Immunity From Prosecution
In return for his cooperation, he is
being protected by the Federal Govern-
ment and has been granted immunity
from prosecution for some narcotics
trafficking crimes he has admitted.
In Washington, Miguel Martinez, the
first secretary and press spokesman of
the Cuban Government's Cuban Inter-
est Section in Washington, declined to
comment on Mr. Estebes's allegations.
The United States and Cuba have no for-
mal diplomatic relations and there has
been no comment from Havana about
Mr. Estebes's arrest and statements.
Richard D. Gregorie, who is charge of
the narcotics section for the United
States Attorney's office in southern
Florida, said Mr. Estebes's allegations
about the Cuban Government's com-
plicity in narcotics trafficking were
"very credible." Many aspects of Mr.
Estebes's statements have been "inde?
pendently corroborated," Mr. Gregorie
asserted in an interview.
Arrested by Coast Guard
Justice and State Department offi-
cials gave various explanations for the
Cuban Government's purported role in
drug deals. The officials offered these
theories about why the Cubans had be.
come involved in drugs in the United
States: to obtain hard foreign currency
for use in international trade; to retali-
ate against American trade restrictions
on Cuba; to cause social unrest in the
United States, or to help finance leftist
movements in Latin America.
The 33-year-old Mr. Estebes was ar-
rested by the Coast Guard on Nov. 29,
1981, while he was transporting 2,500
pounds of marijuana in a speedboat off
the Florida coast.. He was indicted on a
chargc of possession of marijuana with
intent to distribute and faced a maxi-
mum prison term of 15 years. Because
Continued on Page B7
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Agents 'Drug Deals in New York and Florae
:~3efector Tells of Cuban Agents
- i
Continued From Page BI
he was cooperating, got a nine-
month prison sentence.
assistant United
Mr. Gregorie,
States attorney, admitted Mr. Es ebess
voluntarily role as a
Cuban agent and gave Federal officials
details of how Cuban officials arranged
the drug trafficking. "It was a fortui-
tous break; we had no idea who he
was," Mr. Gregorie said.
Mr. Estebes told Federal officials
and investigators from the New York
State Senate's Select Committee on
Crime that he believed that about 3,000
other Cuban Government agents en-
tered the United States as refugees in
the emigration of Cubans from Martel.
Mr. Estebes, the officials said, main-
-A that the agents had a variety of
District court in Miami in February
that ended in the conviction arof five men
accused of smuggling
e
Florida. The drugs, he testified, wer
brought by ships from Colombia to the
small port of Paredon Grande on the
north shore of Cuba in the old Bahama ' ere
Channel. There, the dd in small boats
loaded and transported
to Florida.
No Means of Extradition
In the same case, four ' Cuban offi-
cials, including the commander of the
Cuban Navy, Vice Adm. Aldo Sant-
maria Cuadrado, were indicted on con-
spiracy charges ' last Nov. '5. Since the
United States has no dipl?matic rela-
tions with Cuba, the Justice Depart-
ment has no means to extradite the offi-
cials to stand trial.
E t bas who is now being
e
Department officials said. A Sp Es-
man for the department
tebes may be a witness in other narcot-'
ics trials and therefore had declined to
be interviewed.
Mr. Estebes is scheduled eto ate ofy at
a public hearing
row about drug trafficking in New York
City and northern New Jersey.
The -hearing, which has been called
by Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, R8-
publican of New York, and the State
Senate Select Committee on Crime, will
also review charges that the Cuban
Government released thousands of peo-
ple imprisoned for violent crimes and
allowed them to enter the United States
by boat from Martel in 1980.
.. Federal Help Sought
The chairman of the crime commit-
tee, State Senator Ralph J. Marino, Re-
publican of Oyster Bay, L.I., said one
purpose ol the hearing was to obtain
drug and other crime problems t created
by criminals who entered the United
States as refugees in the emigration
from Martel.
New York City Police Department
records show that from May w who 1980
are
through last December, people
believed to have entered the country in
the Martel exodus have been arrested
on charges of 6,288 felonies and meanors. are t
on h
on howw m many of the Martel refugees
have been convicted of crimes in the
tad States
U
rain
assignments, including drug traffick-
ing, disrupting Cuban exile groups, and
economic espionage.
Mr. Estebes was a principal witness
for the prosecution at a trial in Federal
Mr. s
guarded in an undisclosed place by Fed-
eral agents, is expected to be given a
new identity and placed in,the Federal
Witness Protection Program, justice
se time
- - demand ore, f
tatrav e
vertl ro
That's why travel advertisers have made
The New York Times Magazine Number
Five in travel advertising pages among all
consumer magazines.
NOV jork %ine
m
Verne Jervis, a spokesman for the
Immigration and Naturalization Serv-
ice, said Cuba hao refused to accept the
return of Mariel?refugees convicted of
crimes in this country.
The hearing tomorrow will begin at
9:30 A.M. at the Federal Court of Inter-
national Trade at 1 Federal Plaza.
Mr. Estebes was questioned in Miami
through a Spanish-speaking interpreter
by investigators from the crime com-
mittee on March 19. In a report to the
committee, the investigators said Mr.
Estebes told them that drugs obtained
by Cuban agents in Florida were trans-
ported to dealers in New York City and
to Newark, Elizabeth and Union City in
New Jersey.
Concealed Compartments
rie, Mr. Estebes said he was air
sabotage boats used by the gr
missions to Cuba.
A Change In Assignmens
Mr. Estebes said his assign
Alpha 66 was soon changed, a<
to Mr. Gregorie.
Mr. Gregorie said Mr. Estel
cated that in August 1980 he un
.a brief drugs training program
and returned to Florida with
contacts in the illegal narcoti,
Before his arrest, Mr. Estebes
had access to speedboats and
frequently to and from Flo:
Cuba, a distance of about 100 m
"He ran narcotics, and he w
bring in as many drugs as I
Mr. Gregorie said. "He said 1,
superiors in Cuba: 'I'm a goo
if that is what you want me to
do it.' "
According to Mr. Gregorie
tebes said he delivered betwE
lion and $3 million in cash to I
Officers at the interior M
Cuba.
'A Narcotics Runnel
Mr. Gregorie said it would
rate to describe Mr. Estebe
"He was really a narcotics
the Cuban Government," MI
said. He said that when
iM
was asked by Federal why he had admitted his rol
r
dercover agent, Mr. Este
that "I am tired of helping C
-bring in drugs."
At the trial in February,
testified that he saw Vice Ad
maria give orders pa
loading of narcotics at Pare
brought in by a reputed ii
narcotics trafficker, Jai,
Lara. Mr. Guillot Lara, a
has been indicted on Ft
charges and is a fugitive, :
the justice Department.
The drugs, Mr. Esteb
were later smuggled into F
According to the report, Mr. Estebes
said heroin and other narcotics were
shipped to the New York area inside
vans with concealed compartments to
hide the drugs.
"We have checked out Estebes's with the Justice Department the credibility Enforcement dministra-
tion, and they are satisfied he Is telling
the truth,, ? said Senator Marino. .
In account's of his background Fed-
eral and state investigators, Mr. Es-
tebes said he was born in Havana and
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had been trained as a naval mecl
He said he was employed by the S;
Bureau of Missions in the Cuban I
try of the interior when he w+
structed in the spring of 1980 to eni
United States on a boat from Mari
Records in the Community Re]
Service of the Justice Depar
which supervised the relocati
Cuban refugees, show that Mr. E
was released from a refugee ce
Fort Chaffee, Ark., on June 4
There is no record of when he arr
the United States.
Mr. Gregorie, the assistant
States attorney, said Mr. Estebe
assignment from Cuba's Ministr
Interior was to join Alpha 66, e
group opposed to the Governr.
Fidel Castro. According to Mr.
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STAT
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