For the first time, federal prosecutors revealed that a paid FBI witness in a weapons case involving Cuban exiles was talking to the Cuban government about exile militant Luis Posada Carriles and his wealthy Miami benefactor.

BY JAY WEAVER AND OSCAR CORRAL

A federal informant playing a critical role in a South Florida weapons case against the wealthy Miami benefactor for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles also was sharing details about the exiles with a Cuban government official known as ''Daniel'' as far back as 2001, prosecutors have revealed.

Prosecutors also disclosed for the first time that the FBI informant, Gilberto Abascal, traveled by boat with Posada's benefactor and other friends last year to pick up the CIA-trained Posada in Mexico and bring him back to the United States illegally.

Details of Abascal's past contacts with a Cuban official and Posada's entry into the United States surfaced Friday as attorneys for the weapons-case defendants, Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat, sought to obtain more information from prosecutors that could help their clients' defense.

For months, prosecutors claimed to have no evidence that Abascal communicated with Cuban government officials. Yet the April 6 letter made public Friday acknowledges that Abascal met with ''Daniel'' and perhaps others at least six times -- an admission that could bolster claims that the defendants were set up by the Cuban government.

The explosive admission was made public just two weeks before the May 8 trial in Fort Lauderdale, a location opposed by the defendants because they maintain they cannot get a fair trial outside of Miami-Dade.

`DOUBLE AGENT'

Attorney Arturo Hernandez and other defense lawyers are seeking to mine any U.S. government evidence that can support their contention that Abascal was a ''double agent,'' who assisted Cuban leader Fidel Castro in his campaign to target Posada and Alvarez. They hope to discredit Abascal -- who court records show was paid more than $25,000 by the FBI, suffers from a bipolar condition and takes heavy medication -- because he is the government's main witness.

The court documents show that ''Daniel'' tried to get Abascal to inform on Cuban exiles involved in a 2001 failed commando raid against the Cuban government.

Abascal, who received $11,768.90 from the U.S. government for ''protection and relocation,'' told The Miami Herald Friday he is determined to testify against Alvarez. ''I'm not going to serve 20 years for anybody,'' he said, referring to charges he might have faced had he not agreed to cooperate with the FBI.

Abascal told The Herald that Alvarez's boat, the Santrina, brought Posada to Miami after picking him up in Isla Mujeres near Cancún. It's the first time one of the five passengers on the boat has echoed Castro's version of Posada's entry into the United States in March 2005.

But Abascal appears to be contradicting himself. In an interview with The Miami Herald last year, he said, ''I did not hear anything about that,'' when asked if the Santrina went to Mexico to meet with Posada.

The other passengers on the boat, including the captain, Jose ''Pepin'' Pujol, Mitat and Alvarez, all told The Herald that Posada entered the country through the Mexican border to Texas.

''If [Abascal] is a double agent of Fidel, then they receive instructions to smear Posada Carriles and Santiago Alvarez, the ones Fidel knows are his real enemies,'' Pujol said Friday. ``Abascal is a man with no credibility.''

POSADA TO TESTIFY

Lawyers for both Alvarez and Mitat have already obtained a judge's approval to let Posada testify at the upcoming trial so he can challenge the U.S. Attorney's allegation -- supported by Abascal -- that the militant exile sneaked into the country on the Santrina. That could raise doubts about Abascal's credibility.

Posada maintains he traveled across the Mexican border in a vehicle driven by a smuggler, who took him to the Greyhound station in Houston, where he boarded a bus to Miami.

Posada, who is wanted by both the Cuban and Venezuelan governments for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner and a string of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997-98, was detained in Miami by federal authorities last May. Venezuela, which acquitted Posada in the jetliner bombing 25 years ago, wants Posada extradited to once again face charges in the tragedy. U.S. officials have yet to respond to that request.

TORTURE AT ISSUE

Last year, an immigration judge ruled that the U.S. government cannot hand over Posada to either Cuba or Venezuela because he could be tortured. That leaves ICE with the option of finding a third country that's willing to take in Posada.

Intrigue about Posada escalated last fall when his benefactor, Alvarez, and friend, Mitat, were arrested on weapons charges. According to the indictment, Alvarez and Mitat transported, unloaded and stashed machine guns, rifles, a silencer and a grenade launcher in a Broward County storage facility -- leading to their arrests on Nov. 18 after Abascal informed on them.

That day, Alvarez allegedly unlocked the facility's inner room -- located in his apartment complex in Lauderhill -- and removed a large, white cooler containing the firearms. In turn, Alvarez told Abascal to haul the weapons-filled cooler to Mitat in Miami-Dade, prosecutors say.

The next day, federal agents found more firearms in a gun safe kept inside Alvarez's alarm-equipped storage facility, built next to the apartment complex's rental office.

Alvarez is something of an icon in Miami's exile community for his alleged plots to kill Castro.

Havana has long accused Alvarez of financing a botched terrorist mission to Cuba in 2001. The alleged plot failed after Cuban authorities arrested three Miami-Dade County men who were trying to land on the island with four AK-47 assault rifles, one M-3 rifle with a silencer and three Makarov pistols.

In a bizarre twist, one of the arrested men, Ihosvani Surís de la Torre, called Alvarez from prison while Cuban agents recorded the conversation. Surís said he was well and asked for instructions from Alvarez. He mentioned the popular Tropicana nightclub in Havana, implying that it might be a possible target. The Cuban government has since publicized the tape.

Alvarez told The Herald last year that he knew Surís was in the custody of Cuban agents at the time.

MISSION CITED

A federal prosecutor cited the 2001 mission in his letter to Alvarez's defense lawyers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Hummel wrote that the informant, Abascal, was contacted at least six times by a Cuban official identified as ''Daniel,'' who wanted to talk with him about the arrest of Surís and the two other men.

''The informant reported these contacts to the FBI several months after the incursion,'' Hummel wrote.

The prosecutor further wrote that the Cuban official ``tried to enlist the aid of the informant [Abascal] in obtaining more information about the incursion, as well as to provide information about other individuals in the United States involved as conspirators for purposes of assisting the Cuban government.''

Hummel added: 'The informant was not happy about being contacted by `Daniel' and ... in fact reported the contacts to the FBI.''

But, in another apparent contradiction, Abascal said he never gave any information to the FBI until after Posada arrived in Miami.

When asked Friday about his contacts with Cuban government officials, Abascal said he had received several calls from ''Daniel,'' but that he never provided any information to him.

''I'd hang up on him,'' Abascal said.

A BLOW TO CREDIBILITY?

Ernesto ''Ernie'' Abreu, a friend of Alvarez and the president of Caribe Dive and Research Corporation, which owns the Santrina, said the new information on Abascal should once and for all show he is not credible.

''That will be devastating for them [the FBI],'' Abreu said. ``He [Abascal] has been in contact with high officials in the Cuban government. We had to extract it drop by drop from the government in court because they didn't want to admit any of it. ... Every time he [Abascal] says something, they keep giving him money, and he keeps playing the game.''

Court records show the FBI paid Abascal -- who made three trips to Cuba in 2004-05 -- $8,800 for services, $4,970 for expenses and $11,768.90, for protection and relocation -- all in the months before agents arrested Alvarez and Mitat last November.

Staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.