Cuba helped convey arms to African rebels, US says

January 26, 1982

The Castro government in Cuba helped a Miami drug trafficker smuggle weapons to leftist guerrillas in South America, federal agents and Dade County police said.

Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, met secretly with the drug trafficker last year and granted access to Cuban ports for refueling, repairing, and evading the US Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Administration sources said in the Miami Herald.

In exchange, the smuggler, identified as Jaime Guillot Lara, would run weapons and munitions to the leftist guerrilla M-19 Movement in Colombia.