PLUNDERING AMERICA: THE CUBAN CRIMINAL PIPELINE (Sun-Sentinel 3 part expose of Cuban migration)

[Mika]

PLUNDERING AMERICA: THE CUBAN CRIMINAL PIPELINE

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A yearlong Sun Sentinel investigation found money stolen in the United States streaming back to Cuba, and a revolving door that allows thieves to come here, make a quick buck and return.

Cuba has become a bedroom community for criminals who exploit America’s good will.

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Livan Moya Tagle, charged in a million-dollar Texas credit-card fraud ring, told the Sun Sentinel that he stole to feed his family, and that Cubans go to the U.S. for economic opportunity. “No one leaves {Cuba} because of politics,” he said.
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American authorities naively think “Cubans who leave Cuba hate the Cuban government,” he wrote. “I went to the U.S. to steal, to damage the U.S. Government.”

Much much more. Full story here --> http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/plundering-america/

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. So Ted ...

About that immigration thing. How's about starting right here.

[Judi Lynn]

2. So GLAD to see this article. This information should have been released long, long ago!

From the O.P.:

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The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, a remarkable act of Congress passed at the height of the Cold War, gives Cubans advantages over every other immigrant group.

Cubans are allowed to enter the United States without visas or background checks of their criminal histories in Cuba. Unlike other immigrants seeking political asylum, Cubans can return home without jeopardizing their status, aiding crime rings that recruit accomplices and hide stolen money in Cuba.

The law has remained largely unchanged while financial and travel restrictions between the two countries have loosened, priming the system for abuse.

Strained relations between the countries make it nearly impossible to capture criminals who flee to the island. They also make it nearly impossible to deport criminals to Cuba after they serve their sentences in the U.S., as would be the case with criminals from most other countries. The crooks can stay here, free to steal again.

Cuban crime rings are staging car accidents for insurance fraud, hijacking trucks, and selling their Medicare numbers to provide for their families in Cuba. They’re smuggling money from these illegal enterprises on charter flights to Cuba, paying mules to take cash back and wiring dollars through Western Union.

“Some of these folks are basically funding life in Cuba for their families,” said Miami-Dade Police Lt. Jose Gonzalez, whose detectives dismantle marijuana grow houses run mostly by Cuban nationals. “These people are going to Cuba weekly or monthly. These are citizens of Cuba commuting here to work.”

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Cubans need only touch U.S. soil to be admitted to the country. They’re automatically considered political refugees and are immediately eligible for welfare, food stamps and other assistance. After a year and a day, they can obtain permanent residency, known as a green card.

Immigrants from other countries can wait years for visas just to be admitted to the U.S., and then wait years more for government benefits. Those fleeing persecution risk losing their asylum if they return to their home countries before becoming U.S. citizens.

More than 1 million Cubans have come to the U.S. since the 1959 Communist revolution, creating one of America’s most prosperous immigrant communities. While the overwhelming majority are law-abiding, a small faction has come to specialize in certain, mostly economic, crimes.

The federal government has long pointed to the prevalence of Cuban immigrants in Medicare fraud, as first reported in the Miami Herald, but authorities never quantified it. The Sun Sentinel analyzed court bookings data and found that Cuba natives, operating primarily in South Florida, account for less than one percent of the U.S. population but 41 percent of arrests nationwide for health care fraud.

The reach of Cuban crime rings extends far beyond ripping off the U.S. government health program for the elderly and disabled.

In Miami-Dade County, where 24 percent of the population was born in Cuba, immigrants from the island account for 73 percent of arrests for health care fraud; 72 percent of arrests for cargo theft; 59 percent of arrests for marijuana trafficking; and half the arrests for credit-card and insurance fraud.

Just think of how many right-wing posters pretending to be Democrats posting here have claimed Cubans have all been prisoners on their island, even when we provided information to the contrary.

They would be assisted by putting this information in the place which would do the most good.

As a reminder, Cuban "exile" Miguel Recarey, BFF of Jeb Bush, made off with the largest Medicaid haul in U.S. history. Apparently anyone who could do anything about it in the US government was strictly reminded to "fuggedaboudit" or ELSE.

It took the Sun Sentinel long enough to feel it was safe to do this article, but it's tremendous they broke down and did it! Thank you.

[Mika]

3. Inside the Sun Sentinel’s investigation on Cuban criminals

Inside the Sun Sentinel’s investigation on Cuban criminals

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But the real coup in this investigation is the database work that shows that for certain categories of arrest, Cubans vastly outnumber all other foreign nationals. In Florida, for two types of crime, they even far outnumber native-born Americans: Though Cuban-born people make up 4 percent of the state’s population, they represent 72 percent of all federal cargo theft arrests, and 72 percent of all federal healthcare fraud arrests, according to the Sun Sentinel’s analysis.

The Sun Sentinel rightly noted that the Miami Herald had investigated health care fraud committed by Cuban nationals several years ago. But the Miami paper was never able to nail down the full extent of the problem. (I worked at the Herald at the time, though not on that project.)

The scope surprised the Sun Sentinel reporters, even after they had spent months conducting interviews and combing through state and federal records.

“We couldn’t believe it,” Maines told me. “The cops had told us and the prosecutors had told us, but the numbers surprised us.”

Rest of article here.

[Judi Lynn]

4. This information should not be missed by anyone who sees it.

So many people have known, for so many years, that "exiles" have controlled the medical fraud drain on the US taxpayers and clearly the local, state, and federal governments knew, as well. Certain scum in charge of public information had to do a lot of fast dancing to stamp out any threats of the information really getting out to their victims, the entire US population.

Also from your posted article:

The numbers come from two sets of records: booking data of all arrests maintained by the Department of Justice—which, according to the Sun Sentinel, had never before been made public in that form—and federal court information maintained by National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, housed at the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The former showed place of birth for individuals arrested on federal charges. The latter included restitution information, allowing the paper to estimate that Cuban criminals have stolen more than $2 billion from taxpayers and businesses.

The Sun Sentinel also explained how the unique status of Cubans in the United States facilitates organized criminal activity. The Cuban Adjustment Act, passed 50 years ago, allows Cubans to enter the United States without background checks and even allows them to periodically return to Cuba—something that would compromise political asylum claims for people of other nationalities.

The vast majority of Cubans who immigrate to the United States never commit crimes, of course. But a dedicated group of criminals have used the freedom of the Cuban American Adjustment Act to jump bond when they are caught.

“The ease with which a lot of these folks were going back and forth, it’s almost like going from Miami to Palm Beach County,” Kestin said. “The back and forth was really surprising.”

The paper started out just looking at health care fraud, but the investigation quickly spread to other types of crime.

“First we were looking at Medicare, but then people would tell us, ‘well, you know, the Cubans also dominate cargo theft,’ or ‘You know, the Cubans also dominate marijuana growing,’” O’Matz told me. “They were focused on lucrative crimes that get little jail time if they’re caught.”

The team’s original hope, that they’d be able to tie all this crime to the Cuban regime, did not pan out.

It is hilarious they originally hoped to blame this on the Cuban revolutionary government, especially after decades of watching the behavior of a certain sector of the immigrants, starting with the original wave of Batistianos who fled from their histories regarding the Cuban people before, during, and after the Revolution.

(I also wanted to say, after having forgotten to say it for all these years, it's a shock to know the original "exile" reactionaries in Miami ever dared to try to claim Jose Marti spoke for them, too. Apparently they don't believe non-Cubans ever would know how outrageous, and dishonest that is.)

Thank you for breaking this true break-through series to us, Mika. It's nearly impossible we would know about it now, otherwise. As you can see, that news is probably going to stay in Florida! (As always!) You can count upon us to share what we've learned from you!

[Mika]

5. Flashy fugitive detained in Cuba after flaunting (stolen) riches

Flashy fugitive detained in Cuba after flaunting riches

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Cuban police earlier this month raided the gated home of a U.S. fugitive in the town of Guanabacoa, outside Havana, causing authorities in Florida to hope for extradition. Gilberto Martinez Suarez is wanted on major credit card fraud charges.
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Martinez was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in September, along with two others, on counterfeit credit-card charges and identity theft.
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By the time prosecutors filed charges in that case, Martinez was already gone. Charged in May 2013 with a similar offense in Martin County, he bonded out of jail and took off to Cuba.

He wasn't the first. The Sun Sentinel found a pipeline, facilitated by U.S. policy, that enables Cuban-born criminals escape to the island with their riches, well out of reach of American authorities.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/fl-gilberto-martinez-cuba-fugitive-20150123-story.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. It's a system which has worked perfectly for the South Florida criminal rings, so far!

This guy seems to have a prison wish, like so many of the others who've done this, too. They get so greedy they become unable to turn back after stealing everything in sight. (Without even getting elected, first!)

It's kinda silly, however, for the journalist to make implications the Cuban government is connected to this weirdness. How does he explain the ones who do the same thing and stay in Florida, or move to other places in the Americas? Pretty short-sighted.

The photos are priceless! I can't imagine what the neighbors must think of this loudly dressed thief!

[center]Click: http://www.trbimg.com/img-54c2d80b/turbine/sfl-gilberto-martinez-suarez-facebook-pictures-006/750/750x422

Click: http://www.trbimg.com/img-54c2d842/turbine/sfl-gilberto-martinez-suarez-facebook-pictures-012/750/750x422

(He wants to take a photo of his cologne collection? Too much time on his hands!)[/center]
Bring our guy back from Cuba!