Nearly 900 pounds of cocaine was found Thursday on a Cuban ship in Panama that was headed for Belgium. A U.S. Representative from Florida says the Castro regime has been caught drug trafficking red-handed.
Cuban-American Mario Diaz-Balart is directly blaming the Cuban government for being involved in the drug shipment, according to Fox News Latino. The claim comes despite any concrete evidence from Panamanian government.
“The Castro regime has once again been caught red-handed violating international law and norms,” Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American, said. “This time, it reportedly was caught red-handed sending hundreds of kilos of cocaine to Belgium. This is only the latest in the Castro regime’s long history of links to narcotrafficking.”
The cocaine was allegedly found mixed in with barrels of can-sugar syrup, Panama’s National Police (PN) said. The raid was carried out as part of operation Caña Brava. No further details about the drug seizure were made available.
Fox News Latina reported that Diaz-Balart has been opposed to President Barack Obama’s outreach to the Castro government in Cuba. He claimed the normalization of relationships between the U.S. and Cuba would only embolden the communist regime. In a statement, the Florida congressman said the President’s initiative would serve to “embolden” the regime and “escalate its illicit activities.”
To back up his claim, Diaz-Balart pointed to an incident in 2015 where Columbian authorities discovered a shipment of weapons being transported from Cuba to their country on a Chinese ship. He also raised the point of a 2013 case there 240 tons of military weaponry, including Mig-21 fighters jets were intercepted in Panama on a shipment bound for North Korea.
The reported emboldening of the Castor regime is not the only side effect of the new relations between Cuban and the United States.
Breitbart Texas reported in February about thousands of Cuban refugees who were suddenly flooding into Central America to make their way into Mexico in order to cross into Texas and seek asylum. It appears these refugees are afraid the Cuban Adjustment Act that provides automatic legal status to Cubans who arrive on American soil may be in danger of coming to an end.
Thousands of Cubans who began their journey to America by flying to Ecuador and then moving northward are now stranded in Costa Rica, Breitbart Texas’ Lana Shadwick reported. They are stranded because Nicaragua closed its border with Costa Rica and refused passage to the Cuban refugees.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.