A Miami judge has issued an arrest warrant for former Cuban President Raúl Castro, finding probable cause that he conspired to commit first-degree murder in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft that killed four men.
The warrant, signed Friday by 11th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, marks a separate state-level effort to prosecute Castro, 95, months after federal authorities indicted him over the same incident, the Miami Herald reports.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement helped secure the warrant, which alleges that Cuban intelligence operatives working in Miami and Key West participated in the conspiracy.
According to an affidavit, two Cuban spies infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization that searched for refugees fleeing Cuba. The operatives allegedly monitored a naval airbase in Key West and transmitted information about the organization's flights to Cuban authorities.
The affidavit states that members of the spy network were instructed not to board Brothers to the Rescue aircraft between February 24 and 27, 1996. One operative returned to Cuba the day before Cuban fighter jets shot down two of the group's planes.
Florida prosecutors argue that the intelligence activities establish jurisdiction because elements of the alleged conspiracy occurred within the state.
"Raul Castro ordered the murder of four Floridians in cold blood, and Florida will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy," Uthmeier said in a statement.
Three U.S. citizens and one legal permanent resident died in the February 24 attack. U.S. authorities and an international investigation concluded that the aircraft were shot down over international waters, contradicting Cuba's position.
In May, federal prosecutors charged Castro and five others with offenses including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, aircraft destruction and murder. The indictment described a coordinated intelligence and military operation involving Cuban spies and fighter pilots.
Castro was Cuba's defense minister and head of its armed forces at the time. His brother Fidel Castro led the country. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel defended the 1996 operation following the federal indictment, describing it as an act of legitimate defense.
Florida's latest warrant follows a state investigation announced by Uthmeier in March. Neither the state warrant nor the federal indictment constitutes a finding of guilt.
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