Clinton Donor-Drug Smuggler Fingered Castro

by Carl Limbacher

Seldom has an American president behaved as solicitously toward Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as Bill Clinton has during the Elian Gonzalez fiasco. But for Castro, it's not the first time this particular American president has bent over backwards.

"A US drug investigation targeting Fidel Castro's regime was dropped because two sources told prosecutors the key informant orchestrated lies about Cuban government involvement," reported The Miami Herald in November 1996.

The informant? None other than Cuban drug smuggler Jorge Cabrera, who a year before had written a $20,000 check to the Democratic National Committee days after he was tapped for a contribution in Havana. Within a month of his donation Cabrera was dining with Vice President Al Gore in Miami and being feted by Bill and Hillary at the White House.

News of Cabrera's donation came out only after he was put on trial for his coke smuggling. In January 1996, the Clinton supporter was caught in Miami by the DEA, which nabbed him with three tons (yes, tons) of cocaine and 30 boxes of Cuban cigars.

News accounts painted the Clinton drug-lord-donor as a minor figure, leaving the impression he was a small time dealer. But when the DEA confiscated his Volkswagon Jetta, agents found pictures of Cabrera posing with Castro and other top Cuban officials.

In reality, the White House friend had been dealing with the top eschelons of the notorious Cali cartel.

According to what Cabrera later told investigators, Castro not only knew about his operation to smuggle coke into Florida -- he was complicit in it.

"Castro pulled me aside," Cabrera's lawyer Steve Bronis says the smuggler told him. "He knew everything about me."

Then Castro allegedly told him, "I know your friends from Cali. I've met them. I know they're here (in Cuba). I like doing business with them."

Cabrera told his story to Justice Department prosecutors, thinking that fingering longtime enemy of America Fidel Castro would go a long way towards whittling down his sentence.

Though other sources corroborated key parts of Cabrera's story, in the end the case came unraveled because Miami's US Attorney Patty Diaz decided Cabrera was an unreliable witness.

Cabrera's lawyer suspected the Clinton administration had torpedoed the case for political reasons. Steve Bronis told The Miami Herald, "If Cuba is involved in drug smuggling and for some reason or other pressure was put on the Justice Department to look the other way, to derail the investigation, then that's obstruction."

Though his sentencing judge acknowledged that the Clinton donor had given the DEA "substantial assistance" in trying to make the coke case against Castro, he hit Cabrera with a 19-year jail sentence.

Now, with the Justice Department pulling out all the stops to turn little Elian Gonzalez over to Castro, it's worth remembering the Cabrera case -- and how much the Clinton gang was willing to overlook to stay in Fidel's good graces.

END

Carl Limbacher

NewsMax.com
April 10, 2000

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