Miami News
Nov. 7, 1968
By Terry Johnson King
Miami News Reporter
A one-time Cuban exile freedom fighter turned government informer told in federal court here today how he kept supplying alleged Cuban Power leader Orlando Bosch with phony explosives.
The six “bombs,” delivered over the last six months had been supplied by FBI agent Joseph ball.
Ricardo Morales Navarete, 29, testified that after a time the 41-year-old Bosch started complaining because none of his bombs would go off.
Bosch, he said, had told him he wanted to reveal himself as the Cuban Power delegate, but he needed to score a few hits first.
Morales – who once fought as a soldier of fortune in the Congo – said that after the last phony delivery last Sept. 4, Bosch told him: “Listen, the people in Puerto Rico are complaining, everybody is complaining.”
Morales said he told Bosch, “Maybe the timing device is faulty under water,” but Bosch replied the timing was foolproof.
Bosch and eight other Cuban exiles are accused of plotting to bomb foreign ships.
They are being defended by attorney Melvyn Greenspahn, who kept objecting unsuccessfully as dummy dynamite boxes and sticks of dynamite were produced by the government as exhibits.
Morales said he came to the United States from Havana in 1960, and first met Bosch two years later. He renewed his acquaintance with Bosch last April.
At that time, said Morales, he was working with FBI agent Ball.
He said Bosch told him a number of exiles had come out of Cuba with a suitcase of money they were going to use to establish Cuban Power.
The discussed Morales’ recent arrest on a charge of bombing a store that sends packages to Cuba and Morales said, “I will work with you. I’m a demolition expert.”
“Bosch asked me if I could get explosives for him, and I said I could. Bosch then told me about a couple of ships he’d bombed and wanted a few more before he could reveal himself as the Cuban Power delegate.”
Morales said he told Bosch: “I believe you are Ernesto” – the name that invariably appeared at the foot of Cuban Power documents claiming credit for bombings.
“Bosch said ‘You know how these things work out. . . the FBI thinks the same thing.’
At the mention of the name Ernesto, attorney Greenspahn objected, but was overruled by U.S. Judge William O. Mehrtens.
Greenspahn was finding the trail an ordeal physically. He had lost a tooth filling and was in obvious discomfort.
He noted wryly exactly the same thing had happened to him at a trial two years ago – when he defended Bosch on a charge of extortion.
The government expects to produce about 40 witnesses.