Feds find weapons cache, charge associate of militant Cuban exile

Feds find weapons cache, charge associate of militant Cuban exile
By Madeline Bar� Diaz
Miami Bureau

November 22, 2005

Federal officials have charged Santiago Alvarez, a friend and spokesman for Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, with possessing high-powered weapons, firearms with serial numbers removed, a silencer not registered to him and attempting to use a false passport.

U.S. Magistrate Andrea M. Simonton on Monday ordered that Alvarez, 64, and a co-defendant, Osvaldo Mitat, 63, be detained without bail, citing potential danger to the community.

Federal agents searched a Lauderhill apartment complex owned by Alvarez, his Hialeah office and a cooler on Mitat's truck and say they found machine guns, automatic and semiautomatic weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and blasting caps. They also found what appeared to be a grenade launcher and grenades, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Hummel.

Although prosecutors did not detail why the pair would have weapons, Mitat told a police officer they were not to be used against the United States, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

The affidavit states the investigation began when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted a Federal Express package addressed to Alvarez's Hialeah office. The package held a book containing an altered Guatemalan passport and a counterfeit Guatemalan identification card, both with Alvarez's name, birth date and picture, the affidavit said.

On Friday, federal agents executed a search warrant for Alvarez's office.

That same day, an unidentified informant told agents that Alvarez went to the Lauderhill complex and told the informant to take a large white cooler from a room in the complex to Mitat in Miami-Dade County.

Federal agents arrested Mitat as he and the informant were trying to put the cooler onto Mitat's pickup truck. In total, there were 14 weapons and a silencer inside the cooler, the agents said. Some had their serial numbers erased.

According to Hummel, agents also found weapons, ammunition, detonators and gas masks when they searched the Lauderhill complex on Saturday. The weapons were in a building on the property, which had a gun safe.

Alvarez, a developer with properties in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, is a longtime friend of Posada Carriles, whom the Cuban and Venezuelan governments accuse of terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976. Posada Carriles snuck into the United States earlier this year and is in custody in Texas. An immigration judge determined he could not be deported to either Venezuela or Cuba, but authorities have not determined where he will go.

Kendall Coffey, one of Alvarez's attorneys, said Alvarez thought the U.S. government might target him because of his close association with Posada Carriles. During Monday's hearing, Coffey argued that the fact Alvarez did not flee, knowing he was under scrutiny, showed he was not a flight risk.

Attorneys for Alvarez and Mitat also cited the men's ties to the community, shown by the more than 100 supporters who flooded the courthouse for the hearing.

Simonton agreed the men were not strong flight risks but denied them bail because of the seriousness of the charges.

"I have a grave concern about the danger to the community," she said.

Madeline Bar� Diaz can be reached at mbaro@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.