The Miami News
October 11, 1968

FBI Gets Bosch, 8 Others: Exiles Nabbed in Ship Shelling

By DENIS SNEIGR
And BOB WILCOX
Miami News Reporters

    FBI agents here today arrested nine Cuban exiles on charges that they conspired to damage foreign vessels, including the shilling of a Polish ship docked at the Port of Miami.
    Dr. Orlando Bosch Avila, 41, was among those charged.  He is accused of threatening to destroy the ships and planes of Great Britain, Mexico and Spain.
    The federal grand jury indictment under which the nine were arrested said Bosch made the threats in cablegrams sent June 6 to the heads of state of the three countries.
    He allegedly threatened to damage ships and aircraft of the three countries unless those countries stopped trading with Castro's Cuba.
    None of those indicted was charged in connection with the 53 bombings and attempted bombings in Dade County since 1959.  Those bombings are outside federal jurisdiction.
    But the indictment linked Bosch and two other of those arrested today with a man who was charged with bombing a Cuban store here.
    The indictment did not go into details of the connection between Bosch and Ricardo Morales Navarrere.
    Bosch and two others arrested today--Jose Diaz Morejon and Barbaro Balan Garcia--were charged with shelling the Polish freighter Polancia on Sept. 16 while the ship was docked here.
    The indictment was the vessel was hit by shells from a 57-millimeter recoilless rifle.  No one was injured in the shelling.
    The shelling of the Polish vessel led to apologies by the United States government after protests were registered.
    An FBI spokesman said 36 agents hit the homes of the nine Cuban exiles at about 7 a.m. today.  None of the exiles offered resistance.
    Those arrested and held under bonds set by Federal Judge William O. Mehrtans were:
    Bosch, of 297 NW 48th Pl., $50,000 bond.
    Andres Jorge Gonzalez Gonzalez, 37, of 51 NW 76th Ave., $50,000 bond.
    Barbaro Balan Garcia, 42, of 735 SW 1st St., $50,000 bond.
    Marco Rodriguez Ramos, 24, also 735 SW 1st St. $10,000 bond.
    Jose Diaz Morejon, 26, of 621 SW 5th St., Apt. 2, $50,000 bond.
    Jorge Luis Gutierrez Ulla, 20, of 1029 SW 1st Ave., $2,500 bond.
    His father, Paulino Mario Gutierrez Vidal, 45, same address, $5,000 bond.
    Aimee Miranda Cruz, 38, of 218 SW 16th Ave., $2,500 bond.
    Jesus Dominguez Benitez, 27, of 2480 SW 6th Ct., $5,000 bond.
    In Washington, FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover said the threats with which Bosch was charged were signed Ernesto, general delegate of Cuban Power.
    Recently, in a dramatic midnight news conference, the man who said he was Ernesto appeared wearing a hood and said Bosch would be spokesman for the organization.  Bosch later accepted.
    Of the cables Bosch allegedly sent, Hoover said:
    'These communications threatened that ships and aircraft of those nations would be subjected to acts of destruction unless those countries discontinued trade with Cuba."
    Hoover added:
    "The Miami-based organization known as Cuban Power is a militant anti-Castro organization which has publicly claimed responsibility for various acts of violence against property of those nations which have continued to carry on trading with Cuba.