The Miami Herald
May 17, 1999 Monday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: FRONT; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 250 words
HEADLINE: MAFIA HAS EYES ON CUBA, REPORT SAYS
BYLINE: PETER KATEL, El Nuevo Herald
BODY:
Sicilian mobsters are planning to set up shop in Cuba once President Fidel
Castro is gone from the scene, GQ magazine reports in its May issue.
Mafia families want to use hotel, casino and public works projects to launder
money and profiteer, GQ said in an article headlined Big Trouble in Havana,
quoting U.S. and Italian law-enforcement officials.
"I warned [Cuban officials] of this danger," an Italian law-enforcement official
with experience in the Caribbean told El Nuevo Herald. But, he said, given the
government's hunger for foreign investment, "I don't think they are taking much
time to smell the money."
He agreed with the GQ article that the Italian Mafia would oppose any
participation in Cuban projects by U.S. organized-crime groups. If they entered
the picture, U.S. law enforcement would be close behind.
GQ names St. Martin, in the Dutch Antilles, as a key organized-crime staging
area for Cuba, and Rosario Spadaro, an Italian businessman with two hotels and
two casinos there, as a financier with Mafia ties who is likely to be a key
figure in future organized-crime ventures in Cuba.
Asked by El Nuevo Herald if he has any Mafia ties, Spadaro laughed and said,
"Unfortunately not, or I wouldn't have any financial problem." He was arrested
in 1993 for allegedly diverting $13 million from airport and seaport expansion
projects on St. Martin, but was acquitted.
"I have never been in Cuba in my life and have no business interests there,"
Spadaro added.
NOTES: THE AMERICAS