Huh? It’s all political.
Before the ink was dry on the news stories though, he got a call from high up in the Justice Department telling him that he would get a visit from a lawyer with the CIA and to accommodate his request about those cases. And so the cases were gradually and quietly pleaded down or dismissed.
Why the cover up? The Cubans had worked for the CIA agaist Castro and the Sandinistas and throughout Latin America on other projects. They took up drug running to make some extra cash as the secret wars wound down. A deal was worked out to end the drug trade work in return for the charges being dropped and a few early pensions being granted. The CIA angle became known publicly only years later because of some reporters digging into the story. From the outside, in the Bush I era, drug charges being dropped against prominent Cubans had the odor of a political deal to help secure the loyalty of a key Florida voting bloc. Yet the whitewash was based squarely on national security considerations.