Smugglers using Cuba as stopover

Published Monday, October 6, 1997, in the Miami Herald

Smugglers using Cuba as stopover

From there, they send drugs to Europe

By GERARDO REYES
Herald Staff Writer

A 75-year-old woman is found to have a kilo of cocaine -- more than 2 pounds -- hidden in her luggage. Another passenger admits he carries dozens of plastic capsules filled with heroin in his stomach. A young man also carrying drugs inside his body is arrested in the company of his Russian girlfriend.

A tale of ``mules'' at Miami International Airport? No. Cases like these have become routine at Jose Marti Airport in Havana, and the unusual frequency with which they happen has placed Cuba on the map as a favorite stopover for traffickers shipping drugs to Europe.

The traffickers, aware that drug searches at European air terminals are a lot less strict on flights originating in Cuba than on those from Colombia, Mexico, Peru or Bolivia, are using the island with relative ease to introduce small but lucrative amounts of narcotics into such markets as Russia and the Netherlands.

Cuban Justice Minister Carlos Amat said in August that ``we don't see an increase in drug trafficking on the island, but we do see greater efficiency on the part of the authorities'' in making arrests.

The U.S. government thinks differently. In its annual report to Congress last year, the White House described Cuba as ``a country with significant potential for drug trafficking.''

The potential has become a fact, according to Cuban authorities and diplomatic sources who provided the following data:

More than 80 percent of the 125 foreigners in Cuban prisons are charged with drug trafficking. Drugs have been detected at the airport hidden in teddy bears, diluted in soft drinks, even embedded in travelers' clothing or as an ingredient in the paint used for a picture.

Cuban authorities say 175 of the flights that move through Havana every week are considered to be suspect because of a high probability that they carry drugs in or out of Cuba.

Almost 220 pounds of drugs have been seized at Jose Marti Airport in the first nine months of this year.

Of the 125 foreign prisoners, 45 are Colombians arrested at the airport for possession of cocaine or marijuana, which they carried in their baggage or their intestines.

Colombia's ambassador in Havana, Alberto Villamizar, who has met several times with Cuban authorities to seek solutions, told The Herald the figures are alarming.

Number of arrests growing

When Villamizar assumed his post in July, the number of Colombians under arrest for drug trafficking was 30; three months later, it was 45.

``The problem worries us. Five arrests a month is a serious matter,'' the ambassador said. ``But we and the Cuban government are looking for ways to improve the inspection of flights in Bogota, so that Colombian travelers will not be hassled so much in Havana.''

Colombians are the second-largest group of Latin tourists visiting Cuba, after Mexicans. Cuban music and Havana's night life, plus the lure of affordable tour packages, have turned the island into an important tourist destination.

During the high season, Colombian airlines Avianca and AeroRepublica each have two flights a week to Havana, while the Panamanian airline Copa and Cubana de Aviacion fly the route at least once a week.

Villamizar estimates that 20,000 Colombian tourists visited Cuba last year.

The Colombians who were arrested carried an average of 1 kilo -- 2.2 pounds -- of cocaine or heroin.

Bound for Moscow

Authorities in both countries think the mules originating in Colombia relay the drugs to other passengers of various nationalities who are waiting at the airport to carry them to Europe.

Among the routes used most to relay drugs beyond Cuba are the direct Havana-Moscow flights made at least twice a week by Cubana de Aviacion or Russia's Aeroflot.

A recent report in the Russian daily Izvestia said Cuba heads the list of countries from which drug traffickers enter Russia. The report did not give total figures but cited the cases of two passengers who arrived from Havana carrying more than 18 pounds of cocaine.

Flights from Cuba are arousing suspicion at other European airports. In February, police in Rome arrested six Italians and one Cuban accused of being members of a gang that smuggled cocaine mixed with rum into Italy, inside ornate bottles made in Cuba.

The police seized two bottles containing rum and about 28 ounces of cocaine with an estimated value of $63,000.

Reports suggest complicity

The Cuban government's efforts to fight drug trafficking have been acknowledged by Washington, but recent reports suggest a probable level of complicity between Cuban authorities and drug dealers inside the island.

Last week, Cuban officials admitted implicitly that Mexican drug chieftain Amado Carrillo Fuentes visited Cuba several times. Mexican government investigators told The Herald they have evidence that Carrillo, who died in Mexico City in July after botched cosmetic surgery, made investments in Cuba and has a wife and a 2-year-old daughter in Havana.

The officials suspect Carrillo lived in a Cuban government guest house.

Herald staff writer Juan O. Tamayo contributed to this report.