By Jim McGee

Growing evidence has linked many reputed anti-Castro terrorists to Mafia-like criminal groups that deal in drugs, extortion and murder, a Herald investigation has found.

Instead of fighting Castro, some terrorists have turned to crime.

Recent court statements and a wiretap transcript indicate members of the Omega 7 terrorist group served as strong-arm debt collectors for Miami-based drug smugglers.

Miami authorities suspect that some violence publicly attributed to terrorism, including the murder of exile leader Rolando Masferrer, was actually the result of drug-related feuds or personal disputes.

"I am unable to see a real meaningful difference in the end result of [Omega 7] and that of the Gambino [Mafia] family or the Genovese family," said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Kenneth Walton. "They spell their names differently."

A year-long Herald inquiry found a continuing pattern of alleged involvement by reputed anti-Castro terrorists in the drug underworld, either through direct participation in the drug business or solicitation of funds from smuggling groups.

The corruption of anti-Castro terrorists has tended to follow a pattern, according to Miami Police Major Emory Putman, who heads the department's criminal investigation section.

"The ones who wanted to pervert the [anti-Castro cause] for their own personal gains, they took to extortion," he said. "Instead of asking people to contribute . . .they demanded it. And they weren't beyond using force.

"That was the first thing and then, as a natural consequence, they began to extort (money from) some people who were very involved in narcotics. The next step was to become involved in narcotics themselves."

In the current investigation into Omega 7, a group blamed for morn than 30 bombings and murders, federal officials say there is evidence that Omega 7 had significant dealings with drug smugglers in Miami.

Court records and sources involved in the Omega 7 case indicate that alleged Omega 7 leader Eduardo Arocena used his heavily-armed terrorist group to collect debts from the associates of drug dealers.

Walton acknowledged that F'131 agents are investigating allegation "that elements of Omega 7 are accused of ripping off drug dealers in South Florida. There is no allegation they actively engaged in narcotics themselves."

Federal officials declined to elaborate, but a Miami defense attorney involved in the case said FBI agents explained their suspicions to him during a recent meeting in New York.

"According to the government's theory, Omega 7, in order to raise money for their anti-Castro activities, was leaning on, putting pressure on drug dealers for other drug dealers, acting as collectors." said attorney Stephen Glass. "That is what they claim to have evidence of."

"...Their theory of it is they (Omega 7) were used solely as a collection arm," Glass said. "They got a portion of the money to continue their anti-Castro activities."

Court records show the FBI used wiretap evidence and grand jury testimony to document one instance in which alleged Omega 7 members confronted an acquaintance with a demand for money.

Some of the drug dealers appear to have talked to the FBI.

"We have received corroboration of that from the other side of these type of transactions," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Tabak said in court recently. "And we're talking very large [dollar] numbers."

Walton said Omega 7 may have taken in as much as $100,000 from the collection of drug money.

"I'm sure Arocena denies it," said his attorney Frank Wohl, ". . .They haven't charged him with it and to assert it through some kind of innuendo is a way of smearing somebody."

The Omega 7 investigation, which led to the indictment this week of Arocena on 47 separate terrorism charges, is continuing.

The current Omega 7 case is not the first time the drug-terrorist connection has surfaced in anti-Castro bombing investigations or been asserted in intelligence reports.

"As the years went by, we found more and more of the [terrorists] ended up being involved in trafficking narcotics," said Metro Dade Police Sgt. Paul Janosky, who heads the agency's terrorist squad.

There have been several anti-Castro militants in Miami who were first publicly linked to terrorism and then were formally accused of drug dealing.

Rolando Otero was arrested after a 1975 series of nine bombings in Miami. Among the targets were the FBI office, Miami police headquarters, a bank, the airport and the Metro-Dade Justice Building.

As the case unfolded, Otero became a prominent figure in Little Havana, embraced by such dignitaries as Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre and hailed as an anti-Castro hero.

In court, Otero was first acquitted of federal bombing charges, then convicted on state charges in one bombing. He remained free on appeal and then disappeared.

On May 7, 1982, Otero was arrested again near Riviera Beach aboard a 24-foot fishing boat that federal drug agents said was loaded with 311 pounds of marijuana.

He was subsequently convicted in federal court in Fort Lauderdale of a drug charge and given a threeyear sentence. That verdict is currently on appeal.

The most elaborate police investigation to touch on these alleged relationships was nicknamed Operation Tick Talks. The ill-fated 1981 drug case was based initially on the testimony of controversial informant Ricardo Morales, himself a terrorist bomber who was accused of drug dealing.

As a criminal prosecution, Tick Talks was an embarrassing failure. An aggressive defense team shredded the government's case during pre-trial hearings. It was dropped after a judge threw out the bulk of the state's evidence.

Among the defendants named in Tick Talks was Frank Castro who, throughout the 1970's, was identified by officials as a leading figure in the terrorist war against Castro's Cuba.

"That label is very unfair to him," said Miami attorney Kirk Munroe, who represents Castro . . . .One man's terrorist is another man's revolutionary."

According to FBI reports, the soft-spoken Miami exile headed the Front for the Liberation of Cuba [FLNC], once alleged by officials to be a significant anti-Castro terrorist group.

The reports said he was also a founding member of the terrorist coalition known as CORU, [Coordinated Union of Revolutionary Organizations], which claimed responsibility for a wave of anti-Castro bombings and murders in other countries.

In the past Castro denied carrying out terrorist actions inside the U. S.

"Experience, has taught me to treat FBI intelligence reports with caution," Munroe said. "If they have evidence that Frank Castro is a terrorist, they should arrest him."

After the Tick Talks prosecution was dropped, Castro's friends insisted the drug allegations were unfair and stemmed from his notoriety.

"There is no question in my mind people are trying to discredit him," Munroe said.

But earlier this year, Castro was indicted a second time, on federal drug charges in Beaumont, Tex. He has entered a plea of not guilty. Munroe says the charges are based on flimsy evidence.

"I've never seen or been presented with any credible evidence that he is a doper," Munroe said

"If he was just Joe Smith, there would be serious questions whether he would have been in Tick Talks and serious questions whether he would have been in the Beaumont case."

The case of Armando Santana, a New Jersey-based exile who police say made frequent visits to Miami, is perhaps the most dramatic example of a high-profile reputed terrorist who turned to drug dealing.

Santana was identified by authorities as an anti-Castro terrorist in 1976 after a bombing in New York at the Academy of Music. The case led to his arrest, a plea of guilty on one charge and a prison term.

After his release from jail, Santana became a leader of the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM), a New Jersey-based anti-Castro group whose members were alleged to have participated in the 1976 bombing murder of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier.

"This nonsense of him being a terrorist is just that," defense attorney Ray Brown, Jr. said in 1981, according to press accounts in New Jersey.

"Mr. Santana has been clearly identified as a man prominent in the Cuban community, who does not act in surreptitious ways. He is a man who stands up and says, 'I believe this.' "

His impassioned public statements earned Santana a reputation in the Cuban exile communities of New Jersey as a dedicated anti-Castro leader. He was the subject of a report on CBS's 60 Minutes and articles in New York publications.

Then, in October 1981, FBI agents served a search warrant on Santana's residence and discovered an estimated $40,000 worth of marijuana. He subsequently pled guilty to a drug charge.

"Armando Santana, who was a hero, turned out to be a dope dealer," said Walton, who directs an FBI-New York Police Department task force on terrorism.

New Jersey and 'New York officials said that some members of the Cuban Nationalist Movement used the group's public' identification with Omega 7 to raise money for the anti-Castro cause.

One CNM fundraising technique, officials said, was to sell Omega 7 decals to merchants for placement on doors or store windows.

In a 1980 affidavit, a New Jersey police lieutenant reported allegations "that the [group's] solicitation techniques used with Cuban merchants include subtle threats to bomb the stores of those who do not contribute to the cause."

There were no arrests for extortion. But FBI officials believe the fundraising was suspiciously heavy handed.

"A lot of businesses in Union City were being extorted, ostensibly for anti-Castro reasons," Walton said. "Subsequently there was evidence that would tend to indicate that some of the money [was invested in] narcotics."

The Cuban Nationalist Movement has since been disbanded. In the past, the group's leaders insisted that donations from exile businesses were voluntary and enthusiastic, noting that $400,000 was raised for the legal defense of the group's members in the Letelier bombing case.

Today in Miami, law enforcement officials say they are convinced that Little Havana residents are still being pressured to give money in the name of the anti-Castro movement.

"I'm sure there is a lot of extortion going on in the community," Miami Police Major Paul Oboz says flatly. But he adds that victims usually do not report the crimes and generally refuse to cooperate with police. "...It's like the old Blackhand Mafia."

Metro-Dade Organized Crime Bureau Chief Chief Arthur Nehrbass calls the fund-raising efforts "polite extortion" by activists who ". . .encourage illegal activities utilizing 'The Cause'."

Little Havana is pressured by "pseudo anti-Castro Cubans," he said, "who utilize a patriotic cover to, in many cases, extort contributions for which there is very little or no accounting."

Said Metro-Dade Sgt. Janosky: "Enough of it has gone on in this city over the years that the fear is implied.".

The drug-terrorist connection makes certain Miami homicide cases especially hard to unravel and leads officials to suspect that some violence attributed to terrorism is actually related to drugs.

"There were a lot of extortions, kidnappings and murders that looked like terrorism," Police Major Putman said. "But when you got involved with it, you found out it's narcotics."

On the night of Jan 7, 1977, Juan Jose Peruyero, former president of the Brigade 2506, was attacked by two gunmen while standing in front of his home. Hit by bullets in the back, he died soon after at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

The Bay of Pigs veteran was a respected figure in the exile community, an elder statesman of the anti-Castro movement, and his death shocked Little Havana.

"Peruyero was a very significant man in the community, a man of great power and prestige," Putman said. "He was the man you went to see if you had a problem."

From the beginning, Peruyero's murder was publicly linked to terrorism or blamed on pro-Castro agents. But after a lengthy investigation, detectives found evidence of other motives.

Police learned that two members of the Pragmatista terrorist cell had sought Peruyero's help over an earlier murder and he had abruptly rejected their entreaties.

"They thought Peruyero was going to betray them and I believe they killed him," Putman said. "I think at the time it was a personal dispute."

There were no indications Peruyero was involved in drugs. But police also learned that shortly before his death he served as a mediator in a dispute between two alleged drug dealers and, in the process, angered one of the factions.

"Among the disputes he was resolving ... there may very well have been narcotics dealers who were disputing over money," Putman acknowledged. "The parties to 'that dispute ... had a very, very strong motive to retaliate against him."

The angered drug dealer had close enough ties to the Pragmatistas, say police, that he could arrange for members of the terrorist group to double as hitmen.

No one was ever charged in the killing.

Another case involved the death of Rolando Masferrer, a flamboyant anti-Castro leader who was killed one morning in 1975 when a powerful dynamite explosion erupted beneath his car.

Initially, his death was publicly blamed on pro-Castro agents or terrorism. There was even a communique issued by an anti-Castro group called Zero that took credit for the bombing.

But Miami authorities subsequently decided that the most likely motive had little to do with anti-Castro politics.

Metro-Dade police concluded that the killing was probably carried out in retaliation for a private extortion campaign that Masferrer allegedly conducted in Little Havana.

"Masferrer's [death] was a murder, not the result of a terrorist act," said Janosky ". . .He had a lot of enemies."

An FBI intelligence summary offers this further insight:

"Some members of Masferrer's family admitted he had been engaged in extortion of the Cuban Mafia and narcotics dealers in Miami and that retaliation was taken against him."

No one was ever arrested in the case.