New Accused Cuban 'Spy' May be Deported Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit The Miami Herald - May 31, 2002 http://www.miami.com Miami man accused of spying for Cuba by Gail Epstein Nieves and Tere Figueras Juan Emilio Aboy, a commercial diver and Miami resident for seven years, lived with his new wife on the fringes of Westchester, where neighbors knew him as a polite and quiet man who sometimes fixed his pickup truck in the street. But the neighbors had quite a different opinion Thursday after a swarm of federal agents arrested Aboy, 41, and accused him of a Cuban exile's unforgiveable sin: spying for Fidel Castro. "How can someone come here and see this country and still take part in this stupidity and nonsense?" said Carolina Alberro, 65, one of Aboy's next-door neighbors. ``They should deport him right now, send him back to Cuba and tell him to forget this country." In an interesting twist, that is exactly what the U.S. government is trying to do. The agency pressing charges against Aboy, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, is seeking not to send him to jail but to deport him to Cuba -- if it will take him. The plan for deportation sets Aboy's case apart from those of 12 Cubans who have been criminally prosecuted in recent years by the U.S. attorney's office in Miami. All those Cubans were convicted or pleaded guilty to spying-related charges for participating in the Wasp Network, a Miami-based Cuban intelligence ring that operated in the 1990s and was dismantled by the FBI in 1998. They were all sent to prison. The FBI linked Aboy to the Wasp Network, too, said Bill West, chief of the national security section of the Miami INS. Agents compiled physical evidence and surveillance, "as well as evidence provided by some of the other defendants in the Wasp Network who implicated him," West said. Nobody with the INS or the FBI would discuss the purported evidence in detail. James Goldman, INS assistant district director for investigations, said evidence will show that like the convicted spies, Aboy was trained by the Cuban intelligence services. And, like several of the convicted spies, Aboy's "primary mission" was to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command headquarters in West Miami-Dade County, the military nerve center for the Caribbean and Latin America, Goldman said. Aboy's intelligence handlers also directed him to try to join the Navy, but he found out he was too old, West said. But whatever else the sum of the evidence might show, it's not enough for prosecutors to win an espionage conviction, agents said. Aboy's case is being handled administratively in Immigration Court. "Immigration law requires a lesser level of evidence," Goldman said. 'You need `X' amount to prosecute somebody but less than 'X' amount to deport somebody. A case may not be strong enough to criminally prosecute you, but it's sufficient to have you ordered deported for espionage." The INS arrested Aboy at his home, 11800 SW 26th Ter., about 6:15 a.m. and charged him with espionage for failing to register as a foreign agent with the U.S. attorney general. He was taken to Krome detention center. Aboy had previously been interviewed by FBI agents, West said. Aboy "was almost on the verge of tears," West said. ``He said he thought these problems he had had with the FBI were over with, and he never expected an immigration issue." Aboy got a Florida driver's license in April 1995. INS records show Aboy entered the United States in May 1996 with a visa issued to people married to U.S. citizens, West said. He divorced in August 1996, and married Aidee E. Rios in December 1996. That marriage ended in divorce in October 2000. On April 5, 2001, Aboy married Alina C. Alvarez, with whom he lived in a well-kept yellow home with a red tile roof. No one answered the door at the home Thursday evening. The welcome mat had been removed from the front door and draped over a side wall. Enrique Saumell, who is also Cuban, said Aboy was always nice. Wednesday night Aboy asked to fix his GMC pickup on the easement in front of Saumell's home. "I even turned the porch light on for him," said Saumell, shaking his head. The INS said they based Aboy's arrest on a 1999 Board of Immigration Appeals ruling that permits deportation of noncitizens who fail to register as foreign agents but who are shown to be working for foreign intelligence -- even if they haven't been convicted. That ruling came in the case of Jorge Luis Rodriguez, a New York-based Cuban intelligence operative arrested in Miami in 1996 and prosecuted in Immigration Court. Goldman said it's too early in Aboy's case to approach Cuba about taking him back. Cuba has taken back deported spies before. [Herald researcher Elisabeth Donovan contributed to this report.] (c) 2001 miamiherald and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. * South Florida Sun-Sentinel - May 30, 2002 FBI: Another Cuban spy caught in Miami By Jody Benjamin MIAMI-- Another spy for Cuba has been arrested in Miami, the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service and FBI said on Thursday. The arrest was part of the continuing Operation Royal Flush, which resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of 10 other Cuban spies who were operating in South Florida. Jailed this time was Juan Emilio Aboy, 41. The joint INS-FBI investigation that led to his arrest concluded Aboy was an agent of the Cuban Intelligence Service, was taught espionage there and had used his skills after entering the United States. Aboy was arrested without incident at his residence at 11800 SW 26th Terrace in Miami. He worked for the past several years at a Miami dive shop. He came to America in 1996. He is charged with being a deportable alien because he allegedly violated Section 851 of U.S. Code Title 50. Said Immigration Court said INS District Counsel Dan Vara: "It is illegal for any alien who has knowledge of, instruction or an assignment in the espionage service or tactics of a foreign government to fail to register with the Attorney General within a specified time after entering the United States." Copyright (c) 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcov-06.01.02-06:42:35-2128