The Justice Department still does not know how many U.S. fugitives Cuba is harboring.
According to The Sun Sentinel, no one in the federal government keeps track or regularly asks the communist nation for the extradition of those wanted on serious criminal charges. Some criminal defense lawyers who have Cuban offenders as clients think thousands of fugitives may have returned there.
The Obama administration’s move to take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terror has led to questions about why the White House is making concessions to a country that is not returning U.S. fugitives.
In fact, law enforcement officials on state and federal levels say paperwork is seldom filed in Washington asking for diplomatic help, because most believe doing so is a useless act, as the U.S. has no extradition treaty with Castro’s government.
“I could request Mars send someone back and we’d probably have better luck,” Ryan Stumphauzer, a former U.S. assistant state attorney in Miami who prosecuted Medicare cheats, most of them Cuban-born, told The Sentinel. “We know Cuba is not sending anybody back.”
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a 2016 presidential candidate, asked the FBI to give him the names of fugitives in Cuba and copies of their indictments back in January. A comprehensive list is not expected. The Justice Department has not yet responded to an inquiry from The Daily Caller about the number of fugitives currently being harbored by Cuba.
The Sentinel points out that millions of U.S. dollars have flowed to Cuba because individuals have stolen money and fled to the communist dictatorship. One fugitive is wanted for a million-dollar Texas credit card fraud case. He took up residence in Santa Clara, Cuba and wrote the judge handling his case in 2013, that he “went to the U.S. to steal.” He even included his return address in Cuba.
Most of the crimes these fugitives are wanted for, The Sentinel found, involve health care, auto insurance or credit card fraud; cargo theft; or marijuana trafficking. The small number of criminals returned to the U.S. from Cuba over the past decade includes kidnappers; child abusers and an insurance scammer.