U.S. FUGITIVE/CUBA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200980006-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2008
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 8, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/08/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200980006-5
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
8 December 1983
U.S.'FUGITIVE/ BROKAW: Guess where Robert Vesco has turned up? He's the
CUBA well-known fugitive who's been on the run from the federal
government fQr more than 10 years now. New evidence now has
surfaced that Vesco and Cuba have been working together on a
number of projects. As Brian Ross reports in this Special
Segment tonight on the Vesco connection, some of that evidence
turned up during the invasion of Grenada.
ROSS: In the 10 years Robert Vesco has been on the run, he.has
used the millions he is accused of stealing on Wall Street to
make himself welcome in the Bahamas, in Costa Rica, and now,
according to American authorities, Vesco is busy making himself
welcome in Cuba doing favors for anew protector, Fidel Castro.
Federal authorities say one of of Vesco's first favors for
Castro was on Grenada. In the days since the American invasion
in bombed-out Grenadian government buildings, Army intelligence
found evidence amidst the rubble that Vesco had come here to
meet with Grenadian government officials. And NBC News has-
learned that Vesco played an important role in the construction
of the airfield that so troubled President Reagan. Cuban army
-construction workers spent more than two years here and were
able to build most of the new airfield at Point Salines without
outside help. But the Cubans did not have the right equipment
for one of the trickiest parts of the job, putting the runway
over *Hardy Bay. Federal authorities say Vesco, through an
intermediary, secretly arranged for a Florida dredging company
to come to Florida to dredge the bay. Federal authorities say
Vesco's intermediary was Michael *Yamanas, a convicted drug
smuggler who is now a federal witness providing information
about Vesco's activities on behalf of the Cubans. An official of
the Florida dredging company.said the company did not know
anything about Vesco but confirmed that the company got the
Grenada job through a Michael Yamanas. Yamanas has reportedly
told federal authorities that Vesco's man on Grenada was Finance
Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, now under
arrest in Grenada. And that part of the airport deal, Yamanas
says he gave Coard a'$115,000 pay-off. Vesco's help with the
airport here in Grenada was important to the Cubans, and since
then, federal authorities say Vesco has gone on to do a lot more
for the Cubans. Using his connections with drug smugglers and
organized crime figures, Vesco has set up-an extensive network
in the United States and Canada to smuggle-American high
technology products into Cuba.? This is one of Vesco's shipments
that never made it to Cuba, an advanced sugar cane processor
available only,in the United States. The machinery was bought
.by a dummy company set up by Vesco with money sent by Vesco from
Cuba. But U.S.,customs agents in Brownsville, Texas, seized the
machinery just before it was to be loaded on the plane'and
smuggled to Havana. The man who 'ran the smuggling operation for
NT NUF.D
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 Approved For Release 2008/08/21: CIA-RDP88-01 O7OROOO2OO98OOO6-5
Vesco was an old friend, the mafia boss in Toronto, Canada,
Albert *Volpy. Volpy, who was arrested in Texas, is now a
fugitive back in Toronto after Vesco arranged for him to be
bailed out of jail. POZIO: Government officials in Cuba and
Mr. Vesco...
ROSS: U.S. customs agent Henry *Pozio says Vesco is very
valuable to the Cubans, and they are giving him first-class
treatment. POZIO: He's living in Havana, Cuba in a beach-front
estate, and with a yacht, boat ramp. The whole thing has been
provided for him by the Cuban government.
ROSS: Federal authorities say what Vesco is doing for the
Cubans is not because he necessarily likes Fidel Castro's
politics, but because Robert Vesco -is just running out of places
to hide. Brian Ross, NBC News, Grenada.
Approved For Release 2008/08/21: CIA-RDP88-01 O7OROOO2OO98OOO6-5