By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer
One of the seven Cuban exiles charged in Puerto Rico with plotting to kill
Fidel
Castro has been arrested in Miami in a major cocaine-smuggling case, Drug
Enforcement Administration officials said Monday.
The two cases are not linked, although DEA wiretaps that led to the drug
charges
against Juan Bautista Marquez also intercepted his talks with Castro-plot
defendants, other officials said.
Marquez, 61, and six other exiles were charged with plotting to kill the
Cuban
president after the U.S. Coast Guard in Puerto Rico found two sniper rifles
hidden
in a Miami-registered yacht in October 1997.
365 kilos of cocaine
He was arrested again last week on a seven-count indictment accusing him
of
importing 365 kilos of cocaine, conspiracy to import up to 2,000 kilos
and money
laundering, said DEA spokeswoman Pam Brown.
Also arrested by the DEA-led Southeast Florida Regional Task Force, based
in
Fort Lauderdale, were: Marquez's son, Juan Alberto, 26; Robert A. Alfaro,
27;
Sergio R. Sigler; and Arturo L. Abascal, all from Miami-Dade County. Six
others
are to be indicted in the same case later this week.
DEA officials said the 365-kilo shipment was intercepted on the high seas
in
December. Undercover agents arrested Marquez and the others last week as
they
delivered what the suspects believed were parts of the load.
Marquez owns a boat rental business in the Mexican resort of Cancun and
a small
farm in Panama, according to court records in the Puerto Rico case.
DEA officials confirmed that wiretaps were used in the drug case beginning
in June
1997 -- four months before Marquez's arrest in Puerto Rico -- but declined
further comment, saying the tapes were sealed under court order.
But a knowledgeable law enforcement official not with the DEA said the
wiretaps
had captured Marquez talking to another exile about the yacht Esperanza
both
before and after his arrest in Puerto Rico.
Those portions of the tape relating to the boat trip have been turned over
to the
FBI, which has jurisdiction over anti-terrorism cases, the official said.
FBI officials
in Puerto Rico could not be reached for comment.
DEA officials said that after Marquez was arrested in Puerto Rico, they
notified
federal prosecutors on the island that he was under investigation in the
Florida drug
case.
That set off a brief investigation to determine whether the alleged Castro
plot was
in fact a cover for a drug-smuggling operation, but that proved wrong,
law
enforcement sources said.
DEA officials said the case dates back to a money laundering investigation
of a
Broward person begun in spring 1997, which quickly led them to focus on
Marquez.
Wiretaps put in place that June expanded the circle of suspects, said DEA
officials, and later showed the group was coordinating and transporting
loads of
cocaine being smuggled into South Florida.
The decision by the Coast Guard to search the Esperanza as it sailed near
Puerto
Rico in October 1997 was ``purely coincidental'' and not related to the
DEA's
watch on Marquez, officials said.
Arrested with Marquez aboard the Esperanza were Angel Alfonso Aleman, 57,
of
Union City, N.J.; Francisco Secundino Cordova, 50, of Marathon; and Angel
Hernandez Rojo, 64, of Miami.
Alfonso blurted out during the arrests that the guns were his and that
he had been
on a mission to kill Castro during a summit of government chiefs a few
days later
on the Venezuelan island of Margarita.
Charges expanded
A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico later expanded the charges to include
the
attempted murder of Castro and three new defendants: Jose Antonio Rodriguez,
61, a Miami lumber dealer; Jose Antonio Llama, who owned the yacht Esperanza
and is a director of the Cuban American National Foundation; and Alfredo
Otero,
62, another Miami lumber dealer.
Court records in Puerto Rico show that Marquez, who was free on bail, received
permission to visit his business in Cancun in December. A woman who identified
herself as the maid in his house there said he had returned to Miami about
Dec.
30.
Marquez's arrest Jan. 14 came just two days after the seven Puerto Rico
defendants won a motion to move their trial to Miami, where attorneys believe
jurors may be more sympathetic to the anti-Castro cause.
Prosecutors last week filed an appeal against that ruling by Judge Hector
M.
Laffitte.
Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald