"THE CUBAN CONNECTION"

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100380010-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 29, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
NBC Nightly News
September 29, 1982 6:30 PM
S T A T I O N W R C T V
NBC Network
Washington, DC
ROGER MUDD: It is widely believed that the Cuban
government deliberately emptied its jails onto the shores of
Florida. And in tonight's "Special Segment" on the Cuban con-
nection, Brian Ross has evidence the Castro government is also
allowing and encouraging a multibillion dollar drug traffic into
Florida.
BRIAN ROSS: The Church of San Ambrosio in a wealthy
suburb of Bogota, Colombia. Two years ago, a baby girl was
christened in this church. The baby's father, Johnny Crump, a
very successful narcotics smuggler in Colombia. And the baby's
godfather, Ambassador Fernando Rovello, the Ambassador to
Colombia from Cuba.
Now this picture and the close relationship between a
narcotics smuggler and the Cuban Ambassador is of great interest
to the United States government. Federal law enforcement author-
ities say they have evidence that Ambassador Rovello, until the
closing of the Cuban Embassy in Bogota in 1980, was not only
Fidel Castro's man in Colombia, but also Castro's man in the
narcotics business.
For the last two years, according to federal authori-
ties, the Castro government, in deals worked out by its former
ambassador in Bogota, has allowed certain Colombian drug
smugglers who have paid up to $500,000 a boat to operate inside
Cuban territorial waters, a safe haven from American ships and
planes patrolling the Caribbean and just a few hours from Florida
by speed boat.
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ROSS: Johnny Crump, the Colombian narcotics smuggler,
says he was able to run his drugs through Cuba until early this
year when he was caught in a cocaine deal in Miami. Now, to stay
out of prison, Crump is providing federal authorities with
details of his meetings and alleged drug dealings with Cuban
government officials in Bogota and Havana.
CRUMP: They use that as a way to hurt the United
ROSS: By helping you as a drug smuggler.
CRUMP: Yeah. Right.
ROSS: And the small boats could come to the mother ship
inside Cuban waters?
CRUMP: Inside Cuban waters. They motorize from the
mother ship and then go smuggle....
ROSS: Back to the United States.
CRUMP: ...to the United States....
ROSS: Crump says the Cubans knew which drug boats were
his, because each of his boats used the code name Vivianna, the
name of his baby daughter, whose godfather was the Cuban Ambassador.
For the last three months at the Federal Courthouse in
Miami, a grand jury has been hearing testimony about the alleged
secret deals between Colombian drug smugglers and the Castro
government. NBC News has learned that top officials of the
Justice Department now believe that there is enough evidence to
take the unusual step of asking for indictments against Cuban
government officials, including Ambassador Rovello, on drug
smuggling charges, even though it is unlikely that any of the
Cuban officials could ever be brought to trial.
And federal authorities also say there's evidence that
Cuban government intelligence service has been operating its own
drug ring and that this man, a former sergeant in Cuban intelli-
gence who has now defected, has admitted he was assigned to run
cocaine and other drugs from Havana to Miami. On a flight out of
the Bahamas, he showed us the route he took. At one point, he
spotted a beached boat he says he was forced to abandon during
one drug run. He took us to a remote drug smugglers' air strip
where the wreckage of three planes was still on the ground. He
says he operated as a spy and a drug dealer for the DGI, the
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Cuban equivalent of the CIA.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN [Translated]: Cuban intelligence
ordered me to transport to Miami cocaine, for the first time on
a fast boat to the border. I brought 60 kilos of cocaine to
Miami.
VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: We're concerned about
Cuba's role in this.
ROSS: Vice President George Bush, who helped to set up
a big federal drug task force in Florida, says whether it's for
economic reasons or whatever reasons, there is little doubt Cuba
has gone into the drug business.
VICE PRESIDENT BUSH: And I can't go into everything we
might be trying to do about it. But I think there has been hard
evidence that the kind of problem you mentioned exists.
ROSS: That Cuba has served as a base for some drug
VICE PRESIDENT BUSH: That there is -- that there is an
involvement of Cuba in the -- in the overall drug problem.
ROSS: This country is now spending a lot of money to
stop drugs from being smuggled into Florida. But even with it
all, federal authorities say those smugglers with connections in
Havana are often beyond the reach of American law.
Brian Ross, NBC News, Miami.
MUDD: The Cuban government in Havana indicated to NBC
News it would have no comment on the Brian Ross report.
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