Cuba: A Safe Haven for Organized Crime

Phil Williams, PhD, Professor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote in 1999 an article titled: “Cuba: The Next Safe Haven for Organized Crime,” which was published by Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin.

Dr. Williams points out in his analysis:

Communist states have several characteristics that facilitate the incubation of organized crime and corruption:

• One-party rule.
• Lack of oversight of the ruling elite.
• Absence of checks and balances.
• Weakness of civil society.
• Prevalence of patron-client relations.

And his viewpoint after Castro:

Many criminal organizations are likely to seek a foothold in Cuba. These groups include the Sicilian Mafia, Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers, the traditional Cosa Nostra in the United States, Cuban émigré groups seeking to reclaim parts of their former homeland, and Russian criminal organizations.

The Sicilian Mafia is reportedly intent on establishing itself in Cuba, using its position in Saint Maarten as the springboard. Italian authorities have identified Rosario Spadora, a major casino operator in the Caribbean, as a leading candidate to be “one of the main financial conduits” for the Sicilians.

Many Russian criminals with a background in intelligence or the military had experience in Cuba establishing connections that they could easily revitalize. Indeed, local knowledge, as well as accumulated experience and expertise in exploiting transitional states, could make Russian organized crime groups particularly powerful participants in the post-Castro carve-up of the Cuban economy.

For their part, Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers are likely to have more limited aspirations, seeking merely to exploit Cuba’s potential for transshipment. Mexican drug trafficking organizations have the advantage of proximity to Cuba, and considerable interest in the diversification of trafficking routes beyond the southwest border of the United States. The Colombians, working closely with Dominican criminal organizations, are using the Caribbean already, but the full integration of Cuba into their drug trafficking routes would expand their repertoire of options and complicate interdiction efforts.

For the Cosa Nostra, Cuba has appeal partly for nostalgic reasons but even more for hard-headed commercial reasons: opening up casinos in Cuba and using casinos, banks, and free-trade zones for money laundering would hark back to the days when Meyer Lansky and the Batista family had a highly collusive and profitable relation- ship. Exploiting Cuba as a base from which to manage Internet gambling and through which to commit a variety of financial frauds would put the “mob” well into the 21st century.

The other players are likely to be Cuban criminal organizations based in Miami. Indeed, the transnational linkages between Cubans in Cuba and Cubans in the United States provides an important resource that could very easily be exploited by various criminal and drug trafficking organizations.

There is a possibility of turf wars as the various candidates vie for control of Cuba and its assets. Yet this is not pre-ordained. Increasingly, transnational criminal organizations are displaying a significant capacity to work together. Cooperative relationships run the gamut from strategic alliances to one-time cooperative ventures and encompass service, contract, or supplier relations. They are based on the realization that organized crime is more effective when there is cooperation among major organizations. If this philosophy prevails in Cuba, then the country is likely to become host to a highly effective form of criminal cosmopolitanism.

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