Rafael Villaverde
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Rafael Villaverde | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 8, 1942 |
| Died | March 31, 1982 (aged 40) |
| Relatives | Jorge Villaverde (brother) |
| Military career | |
| Nickname | Ricardo/George Gris |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch | |
| Conflicts | |
| Other work | Drug smuggling and gun running |
| Notes | |
Death date is presumed. His body was never recovered and many suspect that he used the explosion to avoid appearing in federal court.[1] | |
Rafael Villaverde (March 8, 1942 - March 31, 1982) was a Cuban-born exile living in the United States and a veteran of the Bay of Pigs (Playa Giron). He was a soldier and spy, who worked for the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency.[2] Villaverde was a staunch anticommunist, a vocal opponent of the Castro regime, and anti-Castro activist (activista anticastra).[3] Villaverde had been deployed to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and elsewhere.[4][5]
Villaverde was a member of Brigade 2506, which was a brigade of Cuban exiles who took part in the invasion of Cuba during the Bay of Pigs.[6] Villaverde's unit was captured, and he was held in detention by the Castro regime.[6] After Villaverde was released from Cuban prison, his vocal opposition to Castro increased, and he became a well known figure in the Cuban community in Miami.[6]
After the failed invasion, the CIA settled Villaverde into a job with the United Fund, where he learned the operating methods of social services and charities.[7]
In 1972, Villaverde and his brothers opened the first cafe for the elderly on Calle Ocho.[7] Villaverde's main two donors for this cafe were Claude Pepper and Maurice Ferré.[7] It was around this time that he recruited Josefina Carbonell to help him run the cafe.[7] This cafe eventually transformed into the Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Center in Little Havana, Miami, which was both a charity, and an alleged extremist anti-Castro terrorist group front.[3][8][7]
Later in life, Villaverde and his two brothers were accused by a federal narcotics strike force sting operation called Operation Tick Talk of having been a member of a vast Cuban-American drug smuggling ring.[9][10][11] 43 members were captured and arrested after officers from the Miami Police Department and federal agents from the Strike Force planted listening devices in the houses of the Tick Talk targets.[9] It was further discovered that the Villaverde Brothers were using the name of the "Gris Brothers" to smuggle drugs.[12]
He was also accused of having interactions with Edwin P. Wilson, a former CIA officer who smuggled arms to Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan government.[1][13] It was further alleged that he had been recruited by former officers of the CIA to assassinate Gaddafi.[1] Shortly after he had agreed to testify against Wilson, his fishing boat mysteriously exploded in the Gulf of Mexico with him still on board.[14] His body was never recovered.
Others connected with Edwin Wilson later died in suspicious circumstances, including Waldo H. Dubberstein and Kevin Mulcahy.[15][16] Dubberstein was found after failing to appear in court; he'd died of an apparent suicide.[15][16] Mulcahy was found to have died from natural causes.[15][16] However, some federal investigators in both cases suspected they might have been murdered.[15][16]
Villaverde was cleared posthumously when the judge in the trial of Operation Tick Talk threw out the case on the grounds that the listening devices were placed illegally.[17]
In 2002, Villaverde's brother Jorge Villaverde was murdered in a drive-by shooting while he was taking out the trash.[18][19]