MEMO: TRACES ON SANTOS TRAFFICANTE
Originator: CIA
From: LAD/JFK TASK FORCE
To: THE RECORD
Document date: 03/01/1977
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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1104-10506-10032

2022 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

SECRET

March 1977

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT:

Traces on Santos TRAFFICANTE

1. There is no official 201 file on TRAFFICANTE.

Following are extracts from references in Agency files:

a. Memo for the Record dated 6 March 1964 on

Moises SANTI y Marcheli

sourced to AMNIP-1

(Miguel ROCHE - former &-2 defector)

(20i-354406)

1.

This memo concerns the involvement of

AMNIP-1 (A-1) with a group in Cuba headed by SANTI, in

exchanging dollars for Cuban pesos. A-l's involvement

was by invitation of SANTI who turned out to be G-2. SANTI

told A-l that they would have to be on the alert because

of other important group, also involved in money changing,

directed by Evaristo GARCIA, then in Miami and a friend of

Cuban gambler fnu SANTOS Trafficante (sic) ;;Roberto SUSI;

and

fnu LEAL, with whom they would sooner or later have

trouble.

Money was sent to Miami by diplomats accredited to

Cuba in the false bottom of a cardboard suitcase made by

Havana "younger brother in the latter's office in "old

The suitcase was received in Miami by a person

of confidence who had a passport and a visa.

Travel by

plane and permission to leave the country was obtained by

SANTI through the Chief of the Department of Technical

Investigations (DTI) of the Department of Investigation of

the Rebel Army (DIER) at the International Airport at

Rancho Boyeros.

Suitcases with false bottoms for the other

groups were also made by SANTI's brother as he was the only

one who could make them with perfection. A crisis did

develop between SANTI and the other groups, because they

diverted money exchanges to themselves.

2.

SANTI reportedly left Cuba on a Greek ship

(date

unknown). In October 1962 SANTI had reportedly just

opened a store in New Orleans, Louisiana.

A-1 learned fron

a person in Miami in 1963 that SANTI had said he was prepar-

ing a false bankruptsy for his store in New Orleans.

SANTI

also reportedly declared a false bankruptsy for a store he

owned in Caracas, Venezuela, when he returned to Cuba

following the downfall of Batista.

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3.

Members of SANTI's group were Danilo

PARADELA, fnu GASTON, Alberto MONTOTO, Leonel GOMEZ, fnu

ROSELL (police official and Cuban smuggler), Rebel Army

Capt. Boris, commander of the troops assigned at the

Hippodrome of Marianao,

another Rebel Army Capt., name

unknown, and a Lt. named "Robertico" lnu.

4. SANTI is said to have arranged for the

arrest of Roberto SUSI, a member of an opposition group,

who was

accused of being a contact for the counterrevolut-

ionary group and the CIA, allegedly because SUSI had been

a boy friend of SANTI's wife before her marriage to SANTI.

5.

A-l said tha SANTI was very closely

connected with the Cuban gambler, fnu SANTOS Trafficante (sic).

Also, that SANTI was an unscrupulous character who would

do almost anything for a dollar, and was fearful for his

life.

A-I said SANTI could be made to talk by being

threatened with the thought of going to prison. In 1964

SANTI's brothers and parents lived in the U.S.

Sal MORGAN

MORGAN had been to the U.S. on previous

occasions.

He applied for and received a permanent

residence

visa to the U.S. and returned to take up residence

in New York City in 1953.

He became a naturalized U.S.

citizen in late 1958. He returned to Cuba in January 1959.

He was ordered to organize and head a ministry police force

responsible for security of grounds and property of the

ministry, (Ministry for Recovery of Stolen Property.) In

late 1959 he joined the G-2. In December 1959 he became

acquainted with Santos TRAFFICANTE. extensive info. see

copy of dispatch attached./ TRAFFICANTE reportedly wanted

to remain in Cuba and was prepared to cooperate with the

Castro Government in order to continue business as usual.

One person in the G-2 most willing to become involved with

TRAFFICANTE waS Manuel PINEIRO, a high intelligence official.

PINEIRO's reasoning was that TRAFFICANTE and the Mafia had

collaborators in the U.S. Government and the FBI which could

be useful to support G-2 operations in the Miami area.

c. UFAA 4507, 31 October 1972, Subject: Raul

Orlando LEAL Garcia.

LEAL,

a Cuban national, was a dealer in a

Cuban casino

TRAFFICANTE.

from 1952 to 1956, working for Santos

He was arrested in 1953 (sic) in Cleveland

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for passing himself off as a U.S. citizen, and was subject

to deportation.

LEAL arrived in the U.S. on 8 December

1960.

He was a

' member of Brigade 2506 from 1960-62.

In

1963 he was a dealer at the Silver Slipper Casino in Las

Vegas;

he resided in Las Vegas. During 1966 he resided

in Puerto Rico.

In 1969 he was a casino manager in Santo

Domingo. In September 1969 he was employed by the

Cer abbean a to on annest mento lease an osta, In 1970

Colombia along with three other persons, among them Santo

TRAFFICANTE.

(The info. in this dispatch, UFAA 4507, is

from the FBi and was slugged RYBAT PIMHABYSS. O

05

d. From Debriefing of (SLEREE-| (Irving Richard

FOYLE) 201(733547) by CIA:

15 POYLE returned to the U.S. in July 1973 follow-

ing 14 years residence

in Cuba, the last nine of which were

spent in prison 5(POYLE said that a Frank PIGNATORI came

to Cuba (date unknown) without a dime and tried to connect

up with Santos TRAFFICANTE.

TRAFFICANTE waS POYLE' S5

neighbor in an apartment building in Havana; lived up

stairs.

For that reason, (POYLE) said he knew a lot of

things that were going on. (POYLE) is an FBI contact.

2. Following are third agency references:

a. DBE 4199, 9 June 1958, 100-9-12:

Concerns Santos TRAFFICANTE's connection

with gambling in Havana, Cuba.

b. DBC 42160, 28 Jan 1969, 19-300-21:

Concerns Santo TRAFFICANTE, Miami, Florida,

re recent activities of the Cuban Nationalist Movement.

c. DND 00294, 14 May 1971, 200-11-9/10:

Concerns Santo TRAFFICANTE, Spain,

organized crime figure involved in narcotics with LEAL-POZO,

201-890270.

d. DND 00344, 7 July 1971, 200-9-11/10:

Concerns Santos TRAFFICANTE Jr., member

of Luis El Pavos Organization, dealing in heroin traffice.

Chris Hopkins

LAD/JFK Task Force

Attachment: UFGA 16941

Others available on request

(cc to IG Staff 10 May 77)

QINV

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