Posted on 08/14/2006 8:29:35 AM PDT by TexasCajun
Federal prosecutors in Miami were prepared to indict Raul Castro as the head of a major cocaine smuggling conspiracy in 1993, but the Clinton Administration Justice Department overruled them, current and former Justice Department officials tell ABC News.
The officials say Castro, as Cuban Defense Minister, permitted Colombian drug lords to pay for the use of Cuban waters and airstrips as staging grounds for smuggling runs into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s.
"It was a major investigation involving numerous witnesses that was killed at the highest levels in Washington," said a former Justice Department official with direct knowledge of the case.
"There were numerous national security and intelligence issues that would have made the case difficult," said Tom Cash, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Miami.
Convicted Colombian drug boss Carlos Lehder of the Medellin cartel testified in a 1991 federal trial that he met twice in Havana with Raul Castro to arrange safe passage for cocaine flights over Cuban airspace.
The draft indictment, as described by a former Justice Department official who saw it, listed Raul Castro as the leader of a conspiracy involved in smuggling seven and a half tons of cocaine into the United States over a 10-year period. At least a dozen other Cubans were also to be indicted.
In 1989, a top Cuban General, Arnoldo Ochoa, was convicted by a Cuban court and ordered executed with three other military officers for their roles in drug smuggling.
Cuban waters continue to be used by drug smugglers, according to federal law enforcement officials.
"The smugglers know that the U.S. Coast Guard can't go after them in Cuban waters," one official said.
There was no immediate comment from the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, D.C. In the past, Fidel Castro has denied that his country or his brother had any role in protecting drug smugglers
I am a Conservative with a streak of libertarianism. Though I think ferrets are cute (i'll stick to dogs)and that pot (which I don't smoke..I'll stick to cigars) should be legalized, I won't vote libertarian because that's all they talk about!
But then again, I am not sure why I am voting Republican when all they want to do is spend spend and spend.
They say a chicken in every pot...maybe I should run on the promise of Pot in every Bong????
And my guess is that 1% of the people agree with you. Convince another 50% and it'll be the law of the land.
"The cost base analysis of fighting the war on drugs shows it to be a huge waste of money."
Pfffft! The cost of the War on Drugs is lost in rounding.
The 2006 federal ONDCP budget (for enforcement AND education) is $12.4 billion -- in a total federal budget of $2.57 trillion. That's less than one-half of one percent.
"And when you legalize it, you then take the criminal nature out of it and you take out all the cartels."
Legalize all drugs in the U.S. and you'll bring all the cartels here to smuggle our legal recreational drugs to the rest of the world where drugs remain illegal -- unless your pipe dream includes the legalization of all drugs worldwide. Hey, if you're going to dream, dream big.
"We just don't have the guts or common sense to do it.
It doesn't take guts to give up.
Spoken like a true fiscal conservative.
Go away, hypocrite.
Where did I assume that?
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