October 20, 1971

The captain of a 35-foot fishing boat, his first mate and three companions originally accused of illegally running guns to Cuba, pleaded guilty to "failing to have an export license" Tuesday and were given three years probation.

The five, along with a professed magazine photographer, were taken into custody by the Coast Guard September 6 off Cay Sal, some 70 miles south of Miami.

Aboard the vessel, the Coast Guard said it found more than 5,000 rounds of .30 and .50 caliber ammunition, parts for a .50 caliber machine gun, and food and medicine supplies to serve four to eight men for a week.

At the sentencing before U.S. District Judge Peter Fay, Cmdr. David F. McIntosh, a Coast Guard legal officer, testified that the boarding party from the cutter Steadfast was told a second vessel, which also had departed for Cuba from Islamorada, had reached the island with a substantial cargo of arms and ammunition destined for anti-Castro guerrilla forces there.

The photographer who accompanied the party, Deane E. Bostick of Pensacola, has not been charged with any complicity in the transport of arms or supplies.

Those receiving the three year probationary period after their guilty pleas Tuesday were the boat's captain, Pastor Guzman Cruz; his first mate, Constantino Fernandez Casal, and three passengers, Jesus Sandalio La Rosa-Sabina, Emelio Hierrezuelo y Loa, and Antonio W. Fernandez.

A spokesman for those sentenced said at least three of the men had made "between 10 and 15 trips into Cuba, taking supplies to a guerrilla force already established there."

Customs officials said the fishing boat, the Brother, would be returned to Guzman.