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Havana buy cocaine
But tonight's stormy weather has dampened Havana's best-known open-air drug bazaar. There's not a rum bootlegger in sight, much less a jibaro with prewrapped packets of cocaine and marijuana. Even the prescription pills, popped mostly by younger kids seeking a quick and cheap high, are in short supply among the handful of soggy teenagers hanging out across the street, in front of the disco at the Hotel Riviera. Sitting in a borrowed car, Tigre considers the prospects. The eighteen-year-old had been hoping to find some black-market drugs to fuel the celebration of his friend Andres's 22nd birthday, begun earlier that afternoon on a sooty avenue in Vedado, a formerly upper-class residential neighborhood. A group of six young men had gathered outside a boarded-up storefront and passed around a clear glass bottle of bathtub-brewed aguardiente, congratulating Andres amid stifled grimaces. By midnight half the group has drifted off in search of other entertainment. The three remaining revelers A Tigre, Andres, and Rodolfo, are joined by a female friend named Tatiana. She cuddles with Andres in the back seat while Tigre plots his strategy. The roadway shimmers obsidian in the car's headlights. Tigre's head bobs with the combined weight of drug-procurement responsibilities and alcohol saturation. Officially renamed the Rio Club after it was briefly shut down in an unsuccessful effort to deter drug trafficking, Johnny's is a favorite nightspot among a growing group of Cubans who can afford the five-dollar entrance fee roughly equivalent to a month's salary for a recent college graduate and still have money left over to buy drinks and drugs. This assures that the clientele is fairly homogenous, consisting predominantly of employees of the tourism industry and black-market entrepreneurs. Tigre falls into the latter group. Until a few months ago A by his own account at least A he was one of the most popular drug dealers in Nuevo Vedado, a middle-class neighborhood of multilevel, concrete apartment buildings and Fifties-style single-family homes that follow the meandering path of the Almendares River. He had started using pills when he was thirteen years old at the urging of an older cousin, and soon began trafficking in pharmaceuticals. Then he graduated to harder drugs, buying cocaine, known on the island as merca, from a contact in Santos Suarez, a blighted neighborhood a few miles from the port. In order to protect the identity of individuals interviewed for this article, last names have not been used. Most first names have been changed and some identifying details have been altered. Tigre laughingly describes himself as 'king of the farmacia. All the kids do drugs. If they don't, they're fools. While alienated young people known variously as rockeros, frikis, or pepillos make no attempt to hide their enthusiasm for getting high, it is the more discreet users A factory workers who smoke pot in the evening, artists who snort cocaine for a burst of energy A who make up local drug dealers' principal customer base. Although the Cuban drug business is minuscule by American standards, its very existence on an island where virtually every facet of life has been controlled by the government raises intriguing questions: How do drugs get to the island in the first place? Who controls their distribution? Is the government involved? Answers are difficult to ascertain. Tigre claims to never have probed the source of his own supply. No one ever knows exactly where the drugs originate. While marijuana is believed to be grown in remote areas of the Oriente and Pinar del Rio provinces, cocoa is neither cultivated nor processed in Cuba. Three dominant theories are offered to explain the source of Cuban cocaine: Tourists are assumed to smuggle in small quantities through the airport; a certain amount of cocaine is fished from the sea, leftovers of sloppy transfers between Colombian planes and speedboats bound for Florida; and over the years, persistent rumors, mostly originating in South Florida, have held that the Castro government itself has been involved in narcotrafficking. Those rumors came to a head in April , when the Miami Herald reported that the U. Attorney's Office had prepared a draft indictment alleging that Raul Castro, the Cuban president's younger brother, and fourteen other high-ranking Cuban military and intelligence officers conspired with Colombia's Medellin Cartel to ship at least 7. According to the Herald, the seventeen-page document stated, 'In return for substantial sums of money, Raul Castro exploited his official position by offering narcotics traffickers the safe use of Cuba, including Cuban airspace, as a location for the transshipment of multihundred-kilogram loads of cocaine destined for the United States. Arnaldo Ochoa, Col. Antonio 'Tony' de la Guardia, Brig. Patricio de la Guardia, and eleven others of drug trafficking and corruption. All pleaded guilty. Ochoa, Tony de la Guardia, and two other senior officials were executed. The rest received lengthy prison sentences. During the trial, parts of which were broadcast on Cuban television, government prosecutors denounced Tony de la Guardia and Ochoa for having contacted the Medellin Cartel, and in the case of de la Guardia, for having agreed to let the traffickers transship cocaine through the island. Ochoa and the de la Guardia brothers specifically denied that Fidel and Raul Castro had any knowledge of their activities, though many observers found that difficult to believe. Still, all efforts to definitively link Fidel Castro or his brother to drug trafficking have failed thus far. According to Thomas Cash, former DEA special agent in charge in Miami, the case against Raul Castro never achieved the level of proof necessary for a formal indictment. Even if the case could be made, it would be one thing to establish that the Castro brothers had agreed to allow drug traffickers to operate in their national territory and quite another to prove that the Cuban government is overseeing cocaine distribution in Havana. Yet the case of Carlos, a year-old actor who became a cocaine addict, reveals that human weaknesses are actually more powerful than an Orwellian environment. In Carlos was being trained by state security to be an informant. His friend Sergio knew it, but said nothing, just as Carlos knew that Sergio smoked dope. Their mutual silence lasted more than a year, then one day Sergio invited Carlos to smoke. Later I found out that inside the house was another friend of ours, and his brother made a living by selling pot. Sergio came out a few minutes later with two marijuana cigarettes and I remember we started walking back to my house and I decided to start smoking in the middle of the street. I don't know why. I was just in the mood. We even passed by a police car and smoked in front of the car. That was the joke of the night. It wasn't until three years later, when he was working on a film produced by some students at the International Film School in Miramar, that he had found the drug he still refers to as 'un amor,' a love. The students, who included cinematographers from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia, had finished filming and retired to a house to celebrate. He was cutting up cocaine. Really, I felt like I was in a movie. At that moment, whether for reasons of ego, immaturity, or a million other things, you don't admit that you don't know what you're doing. Even today I live with these feelings of love for cocaine. What has happened is that I realize it's a love that kills. Fearing increased police activity, skittish dealers dumped huge amounts of cocaine on the market. Then Carlos discovered it was even more economical to buy cocoa paste, pasta basica, and transform it into powder himself. After he cooked it and ground it down, the paste yielded about four film canisters' worth of powder. He also acquired the habit of stashing the film canisters, a small tube, a mirror, and a knife in the fanny pack he had been issued during his military service. Originally intended to store a gas mask and filters, Carlos says the pack was ideally suited for drug paraphernalia. Long a taboo subject among officials touting the purity and innocence of the revolution, drug use in Cuba had been vehemently denied until this past June, when Cuban Justice Minister Carlos Amat, in an interview with the magazine Bohemia, admitted that narcotraffickers had been attempting to 'infiltrate Cuba and organize here from within. State Department report on international narcotics control. According to the report, the Cuban government has been cooperating with U. Not only has the economic crisis robbed Cuban youth of their hopes for the future, it also has prompted many to embark on lives of crime, including drug dealing. Depending on his mood and how much alcohol he's consumed, Tigre likes to refer to the situation on the island as un fen centsmeno a phenomenon , a phrase he rolls around in his mouth with ironic delight, or una mierda so much shit , which he spits out with disgust. The only son of a single mother, he learned to look out for himself at a young age. Today he lives with his grandmother, aunt, uncle, and two cousins in a windowless one-room apartment off a noisy thoroughfare. His father, whom he dismisses as a 'closed communist,' lives in another province and hasn't been in touch with his son for seven years. Makeshift partitions A a bookshelf, a piece of cloth A provide an illusion of privacy. Not long ago the only lamp in the apartment burned out, intensifying the gloom. As the car approaches Johnny's, Tigre reveals that he is currently too broke to purchase drugs for resale. But the reasons for this are fuzzy. On the one hand, Tigre maintains that his supplier got him in trouble with his customers by diluting his cocaine with white bicarbonate powder. On the other, he says he was just too nice a guy A treating everyone to rum, giving his friends a break on drug prices. They own their own house, their own car. And for being a guy who gives everything away, I'm left with nothing. I have these jeans because I stole so much from my work. He and Tigre currently are employed as construction workers, though they readily admit their desire for a steady job has nothing to do with the paltry salary they're paid in Cuban pesos. It's the other perks they want A the opportunity to swipe paint and coveted building materials. Rodolfo affects the style of a high school jock -- black high-top sneakers, black sweat pants, and a T-shirt -- which translates to chic in Cuban fashion because the clothing, purchased at dollar stores, comes from the United States. Whether he's stealing from the Cuban state or from his own family, Rodolfo excuses the thievery known in Havana slang as tumbar dinero as a necessary element of survival. During high school, he explains, he took money from his mother and grandmother in order to buy marijuana. He finally was kicked out of the house and only recently allowed to return. After being arrested for burglary this past December, he insists he's going to stay clean. Rodolfo is the first among his group of friends to have gone to jail, and although he was locked up for only three days and then given one year probation after pleading guilty, the incident is clearly troubling. Theft has become commonplace; to be arrested and actually punished for it seems to have shocked Rodolfo and the others. Both claim to have given up cocaine because of the risk and expense. The Cuban government tightened its drug laws in June of last year. Under the penal code, simple possession of marijuana carries a jail term of six months to two years, while possession of cocaine can lead to sentences of up to three years. Anyone trafficking in drugs or growing marijuana can be jailed for four to ten years. Those who fail to report knowledge of drug dealing can receive a sentence of six months to two years. However, some sentences have been known to exceed official guidelines. All Cubans are familiar with the year sentence given to Brig. Patricio de la Guardia, who was found guilty during the Ochoa trials of failing to denounce his brother for drug trafficking. Last summer, soon after the new drug laws were announced, police began to crack down on both dealers and users along the Malec centsn. According to Tigre and others, the authorities brought along drug-sniffing dogs to assist in searches. After that, Tigre says, many people grew wary; they stopped hanging out at the coastal wall and began retiring to the steamy street corners of their inland neighborhoods. Although the drug dealers and black marketeers have returned to the seaside avenue, blatant consumption has been replaced by caution. On rainy nights like tonight, scoring drugs seems about as likely as stumbling across an all-night 7-Eleven. Parking briefly outside Johnny's, a squarish building set among pine trees near the Almendares River, Tigre and his friends have no better luck. The disco is virtually empty, and the residential neighborhood surrounding it A home to diplomats, foreign correspondents, and government think tanks A holds little promise in the way of illicit substances. Tigre and Rodolfo consult. They decide to settle for a bottle of black-market rum, obtained from a nearby gas station. Drug use is hardly new to Cuban culture. The revered Cuban patriot Jose Marti, whose framed likeness adorns homes from Hialeah to Havana, published an ode to hashish in in a Mexican magazine: Y el buen haschish lo sabe Y no entona jamas cantico grave. Fiesta hace el cerebro, Despierta en el imagenes galanas. Marti praised hashish for unleashing a fiesta in the brain, for knowing the song of the morning, for revealing the mystery of the blue sky and the murmurings of a restless river. In the poem, his enthusiasm for hashish is unequivocal. Despite Castro's fondness for larding his speeches with references to Marti, this particular poem is prudently avoided by the revolutionary government. We might have exceptional cases of drug consumption because marijuana, for instance, can be harvested in a room the size of this one. Our country has no experience with cocaine consumption. It does not exist. I believe that if all countries would do what Cuba did with respect to drugs, the drug problem would not exist in the world. Arrests of major traffickers do eventually become known through chisme, Cuba's highly efficient gossip network, but it is virtually impossible to confirm details. For example, the breakup of the Milanes drug ring in acquired near mythic status in the drug lore of contemporary Havana, though no information appeared in the Cuban media. The Milanes brothers -- Conrad, Ernesto, and Marco -- were said to be the sons of a high-ranking intelligence officer, and reportedly controlled a far-flung cocaine-distribution system, concentrated in the area known as Playa, which includes some of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods: Miramar, Atabey, Cubanacan. Marco Antonio Abad, a Cuban filmmaker now living in Miami, got to know the Milanes brothers in prison. Arrested in for filming the public beating of dissident poet Maria Elena Cruz Varela, Abad was transferred to Cuba's biggest prison, the Combinado del Este, in April At the time, all three Milanes brothers were there, as well. When they learned that Abad also hailed from Miramar, they arranged to protect him. Although he was only about 25 years old, Ernesto Milanes was widely respected both within the prison and outside its walls. Says Abad: 'In Cuba economic power converts itself to social power. They were very famous and closely linked to the cultural and social scene in Miramar. Ernesto, handsome and reckless, was accused of masterminding a narcotrafficking network that stretched from the slums of Central Havana to the luxury hotels of Varadero, the seaside tourist resort east of the city. Ernesto and his brothers were arrested in early after police raided their Miramar apartment and allegedly found cocaine on the roof. Abad's wife Ana, who began car-pooling to the prison with the mother of the Milanes brothers several months after the arrests, recalls visiting their apartment, located across the street from the Mexican embassy. All the mirrors were broken. The mattresses had been ripped open. While the image of a Miami-style drug lord operating in Cuba might seem incongruous high-living and drug running under the noses of suspicious neighborhood watch committees? According to a number of Havana drug users interviewed recently, the city's drug supply has mirrored that of Miami A becoming more plentiful in the mid-Eighties as some of the cocaine headed for South Florida ended up in Cuba, falling off as interdiction efforts intensified, and rising again in recent years, due in part to the growing number of foreign tourists. Purchasing drugs in Havana is unexpectedly easy. All it takes is a basic knowledge of the system of puntos, places where contact is made with the representative of a drug dealer. These puntos can be a luxurious apartment in Miramar as in the case of the Milanes brothers ; a shack in El Fanguito, a squatters' community along the Almendares River; a contact at Parque Trillo in Central Havana; or a tenement called a solar along the pockmarked streets of Santos Suarez. My first visit to a punto took place in A Cuban friend, eager for a few lines of cocaine, borrowed a motorcycle on a drowsy August afternoon and we headed off for Santos Suarez, dodging the occasional overloaded Hungarian bus and the couples riding double on bicycles built for one. From downtown Havana the trip took only about twenty minutes. We cruised past the chocolate factory on Via Blanca and turned into a neighborhood of crumbling houses. After rounding a few corners, we came to a halt in front of a large two-story building. A group of men was lounging near the entrance. They wore T-shirts, shorts, and plastic sandals. A large man with a potbelly ambled over and greeted us. He agreed to watch the motorcycle as we went inside, where a short hallway opened onto an interior patio. A radio blared, pots clanged, a woman carried on a shrill, one-sided argument. Circling the patio was a passageway lined with doors. We walked past the common bathroom and sink shared by the residents of this solar and entered a door at the far end of the building. What's up, man? Y esta, quien es? After a few minutes, he emerged with the cocaine wrapped in a folded piece of paper A twenty U. Scales are in short supply in Cuba, so the drug is measured by leveling off the aluminum caps used to seal domestic beer and bottled water. A bottle cap yields about ten to fifteen lines. Just a few weeks earlier Castro had attempted to address various social problems exacerbated by tourism A including drug use A in an address to the National Assembly. The July 11 speech began in vintage Castro style as he launched into a favorite theme: Social ills did not exist in socialist Cuba. My friend Ricardo, a young writer, agrees to show me the network of puntos with which he is familiar. We begin by circling Trillo Park in Central Havana. A flat square of land with only a few trees, Trillo has long been favored by marijuana dealers and smokers. Its popularity predates Castro, and by all accounts is likely to outlast him. Still, the revolutionary government has driven most of the drug dealing out of the park and into the roach-infested apartment buildings nearby. He insists he's never had the cash to actually pay for drugs himself, but he's certainly willing to forage for pot or cocaine if someone else foots the bill. Proceeding from the east side of the city to the west, he proposes that we visit a punto near Miramar. It's well past midnight, but Ricardo assures me the hour doesn't matter. We pick up one of Ricardo's drug-savvy friends and end up at a three-story building with a boarded-up shop on the ground floor and apartments above. A clean-cut year-old answers the door. He's cool and businesslike, pocketing my five dollars and producing a package of chocolate-colored marijuana. I poke at the weed. Soft and limp, redolent of damp cardboard, it doesn't look promising. Reading my thoughts, the dealer interjects, 'It's Colombian. The reason it smells musty is that my contact brought it to me in a package. I inhale suspiciously. Outside the apartment, Ricardo displays a dismaying eagerness to smoke. He takes out a sheet of paper A not the delicate rolling paper commonly used in the U. Sitting on his balcony overlooking the sea, Pedro observes that Cuban society has become 'surrealistic' in the last few years. An openly gay year-old who is comfortable with life on the fringe but who yearns to emigrate to the U. His first experience with cocaine came as an unexpected shock. He was having dinner with some friends in El Turquino, the cabaret atop of the Havana Libre formerly the Havana Hilton. One of his companions, who was also a prostitute, took out a compact case full of cocaine. Pills more than anything else. I know people who take pills every day. According to an article in Acento, the journal of the University of Havana, the pills most used by Cuban youth include Parkisonil, a medication for Parkinson's disease, and the barbiturates pentobarbital, phenobarbital, and secobarbital. The article, published in January and titled 'Children of Slime,' concludes that 'the ingestion of medicine, because of its lack of magnitude, does not constitute a health problem for adolescents in Cuba. Nevertheless, addiction is an extremely harmful phenomenon and studies should be done to determine the principal characteristics of dependency on pharmaceuticals. For example, Rodolfo's aunt happens to be a doctor, and he tries to make sure he has a few prescriptions prestamped with her authorized signature in case of emergencies. The drugs, whose effects range from hyperactivity to hallucinations, represent an easy source of cash for teens who resell them. Though it only costs one or two pesos to purchase a package of twenty pills at a state pharmacy, the retail value on the street soars to five to ten times that amount. Recent shortages have made pills harder to come by, but Rodolfo maintains that those who know the system can still get them. Waiting outside Tigre's house a few nights after the birthday celebration, Rodolfo elaborates on his latest pharmacological discovery: swallowing eye drops used by optometrists to dilate the pupils of their patients. The drops have another advantage. Like prescription pills, they are available in Cuban pesos, while cocaine and marijuana are sold in U. Even so, the cost adds up. Wouldn't he and Tigre prefer to save their money for something else A the clothes they say they can't afford, a motorbike? Rodolfo stares blankly in response. I'm not a sign you put on the wall or a piece of propaganda. Fernandez has spent the last several years studying Cuban society, concentrating on social misfits such as the frikis and the rockeros. He currently is writing a book about informal resistance, and he views drug use as one of several methods young people employ to passively oppose the government. Socialism was supposed to erase that. He points to Castro's speech before the National Assembly, during which the comandante en jefe scolded both young people and the Union of Young Communists UJC for blandengueria weakness or softness and chapuceria sloppiness. Even communist militants were skipping classes and revealing a troubling aversion to party discipline, the Cuban leader griped. After much handwringing and public exhortation, a solution was finally reached. Robaina was charged with spiffing up the organization's stodgy image. He contracted artists to redo the union logo, invested in discos and concerts, and held personal meetings with alienated youth, eventually helping one group of rockers move to a farm in the country where they could listen to the Doors and grow their hair in peace. Robaina's efforts generated an initial burst of enthusiasm, but amid the rolling blackouts and severe food shortages of recent years, attempts to rally Cuban youth to sacrifice for their country have fallen increasingly flat. Young people continued to drift away from official organizations. He disputes the theory that rising drug use in Cuba is a way of passively opposing the government. Either everything is only available in dollars, or the clubs in pesos aren't worth going to. So they take a guitar, a bottle of rum, a package of pills, and they go to the Malec centsn. There's also an intense level of repression that has converted drugs into a mystery. His evidence is the publication of a mystery novel called Vientos de Cuaresma, by Leonardo Padura. Winner of the Cirilo Villaverde Award for best Cuban novel in , Padura's book opens with the murder of a year-old high school teacher, an ideologically faultless member of the Union of Young Communists. Moreover, the student is involved in a marijuana-trafficking ring at the high school where Delgado taught tenth-grade chemistry. A former reporter at the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, Padura writes novels that usually are praised for their social realism. In the case of this recent novel, however, he deemed it necessary to insert an opening page declaring that 'the facts and characters of this book only exist in fiction. According to Amat, people were arrested for drug trafficking and drug possession that year. There are reported cases of parties in which youths mix drinks with pills. We cannot behave like an ostrich and believe the world is a marvel. So once again I find myself wandering through Havana on yet another rainy night. Paulito and su Elite, a popular salsa band led by Pablo Fernandez Gallo, is playing at the Palacio, and the lobby of the Riviera is full of young Cubans dressed to the hilt. Rodolfo and Tigre check to see if one of their friends is working the door and can let them in for free. The cover charge is ten dollars. He isn't, so they go outside to smoke a cigarette and wait for him to show up. Jineteras predominate in the mostly Cuban crowd, but the privileged sons and daughters of high-ranking officials are also known to patronize the club. A tall man with a receding hairline is pointed out to me as Castro's youngest son, Alfredo. He walks around the room once, chats with a few women, and leaves. Any drug use is well concealed. In fact, the only mention of cocaine I hear the entire evening comes as part of a catchy dance tune written by Fernandez: 'Yo no tengo nada que ver con la coka, Ina. Fernandez says he wrote the song after a story spread through Havana last year that members of his group had been arrested for cocaine possession, a rumor he vehemently denies. Outside, Rodolfo and Tigre have disappeared. They had been picked up by the police and questioned about their relationship with an American tourist A me. The police took them to the station, searched them for drugs, and when they found nothing, sent them home. They ended up walking back to Nuevo Vedado in the early morning, trudging uphill through broken streets from the Malec centsn. Stone sober, without rum, without merca or pills, without any of the pharmacological aids Tigre says make his life bearable. We can't go anywhere. Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Miami New Times has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. Things To Do. Best of Miami. Support Us. Arcs of water crash over the sea wall protecting the Cuban coast and splash onto the asphalt roadway, endangering cyclists and the stray Soviet-built Lada. On any other Thursday night, the nocturnal denizens of Havana's Malec centsn would have already staked their claims. Lovers, hustlers, adolescent rockers, hippies, penniless professionals, By Elise Ackerman. Share this:. Audio By Carbonatix. Lovers, hustlers, adolescent rockers, hippies, penniless professionals, poets, and guitar strummers would have found their place along the cool concrete esplanade. The air would be full of soft notes and whispers. Become A Member. Elise Ackerman. Join Today. Newsletter Sign Up Enter your name, zip code, and email. I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. 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No,drugs are not legal in Cuba and laws are very drástico about it. You can go to jail for several years.
Havana buy cocaine
Activities by an organized crime group involving the illegal entry, transit or residence of migrants for a financial or material benefit. The illicit trade and possession of species covered by CITES convention, and other species protected under national law. The poaching, illicit trade in and possession of species covered by CITES and other species protected by national law. Includes IUU fishing. The illicit extraction, smuggling, mingling, bunkering or mining of natural resources and the illicit trade of such commodities. The production, distribution and sale of heroin. Consumption of the drug is considered in determining the reach of the criminal market. The production, distribution and sale of cocaine and its derivatives. Consumption is considered in determining the reach of the market. The illicit cultivation, distribution and sale of cannabis oil, resin, herb or leaves. Consumption is used to determine the market's reach. The production, distribution and sale of synthetic drugs. Clearly defined organized crime groups that usually have a known name, defined leadership, territorial control and identifiable membership. Loose networks of criminal associates engaging in criminal activities who fail to meet the defining characteristics of mafia-style groups. Includes foreign nationals and diaspora groups. The State's role in responding to organized crime and its effectiveness. The degree to which states have put oversight mechanisms in place to ensure against state collusion in illicit activities. A country's supranational structures and processes of interaction, policy making and concrete implementation to respond to organized crime. The degree to which states are able to control their physical and cyber territory and infrastructure against organized criminal activities. Assistance provided to victims of various forms of organized crime, including initiatives such as witness protection programs. Refers to the existence of strategies, measures, resource allocation, programmes and processes that are aimed to inhibit organized crime. Cuba is a source country for victims of sexual exploitation trafficked into the US and, to some extent, a transit country for African and Asian migrants en route to the US. Additionally, sex tourism is common in the country and Cuba, along with Jamaica, Barbados and the Dominican Republic, is a popular Caribbean destination for sex tourism. While prostitution is legal and widespread, there are reports of workers experiencing trafficking-like situations. Like human trafficking, human smuggling is an important criminal market in Cuba, as it is a source country for people trying to reach the US using two main routes — the Straits of Florida or overland through Central America. Local organizations aid the crossing via the Straits of Florida, supplying irregular migrants with homemade rafts. Irregular migrants can also fly from Cuba to a Latin American country before crossing into the US, in which case the land journey is facilitated by international smuggling rings. While the illicit arms market in Cuba is small, there is evidence of internal demand fuelled by street gangs. Moreover, the Cuban state has helped stimulate global and regional illicit arms trade through its efforts in support of Bolivarian colectivos in Venezuela. Cuban arms shipments destined for North Korea have also been detained in Panama. Cuba is not a major hub for environmental criminal markets, but environmental crimes are known to occur. Non-renewable resource crime is perhaps the largest domestically generated criminal market in the country. The island suffers a significant deficit in oil supply and has a tight fuel-rationing regime. This has given rise to a local black market in diverted gasoline and fuel. State workers or thieves often divert fuel from facilities or tanker trucks, while law enforcement officers allegedly collaborate with robbers by allowing them entrance into state facilities in exchange for bribes. Members of the Cuban military have been implicated in fuel theft and the selling of diverted gasoline on the black market as well. There is also evidence of artisanal mining and illegal trade in gold and mercury, but little is known about the nature of these criminal markets. The market appears to be driven mainly by independent actors rather than criminal networks. However, there is an organized trafficking network responsible in part for the illegal trafficking of Cuban painted snails. Some of the demand that drives the fauna market in Cuba is domestic, but there are reports that wildlife is trafficked to the US and Europe too. The criminal market for flora, meanwhile, seems relatively small and mostly relates to illegal logging. Cuba is predominantly a destination market for cannabis and cocaine as well as, to a limited extent, a transit country for cannabis. The criminal markets for heroin and synthetic drugs are negligible in size. Cannabis is the most consumed and trafficked drug in Cuba, with demand coming primarily from visiting tourists and to a lesser extent from Cuban nationals. Cuba is also a transit country for cannabis trafficked through the Caribbean, though it is not central to the regional trade in any way. Cannabis is predominantly supplied from abroad, but domestic production exists. Actors involved in the cannabis trade include local farmers, international cartels and state embedded actors who deal in seized cannabis. Cocaine is the second most-consumed drug in Cuba. As with cannabis, tourists generate most of the demand, as the drug is generally too expensive for Cubans. Cocaine enters Cuba through maritime routes and is often transported by speedboats. Most shipments are organized and financed by Cubans living abroad. The criminal market for heroin in Cuba is small and, again, demand is generated by tourists. Reports indicate that heroin is more expensive in Cuba than in most other countries, which puts it out of the price range for locals. The synthetic drug trade in Cuba is minimal, but there is a critical lack of knowledge of the nature and extent of consumption of this type of drug. There is, however, some evidence of consumption of stolen medicines, which, in many cases, are psychotropic drugs such as methylphenidate. Inefficiencies and supply shortages have created the foundation for several black markets in the country, which in turn have led to endemic illegality underpinning large parts of the economy. Military, intelligence, and law-enforcement personnel are heavily involved in these markets and control substantial parts of them. Additionally, state-embedded actors participate in currency manipulation, operate or control businesses, participate in grey-market activities, and use their enterprises for illicit enrichment or money laundering. While many more organized mafia-style groups may be quick to disintegrate, there is evidence that some gangs operate on a somewhat sustained basis. These are particularly involved in sexual exploitation and prostitution, especially of men. The most famous is Sangre por Dolor, a group that operates mainly in parts of Havana where male prostitution is visible, and in Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is not an attractive market for foreign criminal groups due to its poor economic situation and the strict economic control exercised by the state. There have been cases in which Cuban citizens living abroad have taken part in drug trafficking with the complicity of locals, but the low number of cases shows that interaction is minimal. Cuba is an authoritarian one-party state with severely restricted space for independent political organization. And the government's stance on organized crime has not been clear. Despite Cuba fares better than many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of perceived levels of corruption, both petty and grand corruption are major issues. Governance in Cuba does not meet basic standards of transparency and accountability, and the institutional framework to combat corruption does not operate independently of executive influence. Consequently, officials can engage in corruption with high levels of impunity. Cuba is party to most international treaties and conventions pertaining to organized crime. The country has also signed extradition treaties with eleven countries. Cuba does not appear to be obstructive to international cooperation against organized crime and has successfully cooperated with the US against drug trafficking in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the government has been strongly criticized for its foreign policy, which has contributed to arms proliferation in Latin America and for being obstructive in letting independent NGOs evaluate its human rights situation. Cuba has a number of laws aimed at tackling the various criminal markets in the country, which are largely fit for purpose. Implementation, however, is not always guaranteed, and the judicial system suffers a number of systemic issues that weaken the rule of law. The Cuban legal system does not guarantee due process and adherence to human rights principles. While the right to a fair trial is codified in the Constitution, it is often undermined by the judiciary's lack of independence. The political opposition is often unfairly prosecuted, and citizens are not protected against arbitrary arrests. Cuban prisons are among the most overcrowded in Latin America and reports of torture and ill-treatment are widespread. The committees for the defence of the revolution — a network of neighbourhood associations for surveillance — have long been a key instrument in tackling groups of criminals before they mature into gangs. Nevertheless, critics often argue that this efficiency has come at the expense of basic rights and that low levels of crime in Cuba have little to do with the actual efficiency of law enforcement. Although smuggling activities persist in the country, the territorial integrity is very well established. The Cuban economy is centrally planned by the state. This economic system allows for little private sector development or entrepreneurship and limits legitimate economic opportunities. The centrally planned economy and the tight rationing regime have failed to provide necessary goods and income to many Cuban households. This, in turn, has produced a significant black market economy. Participation in this economy is widespread and considered a socially acceptable coping mechanism. Cuba has legislation regulating all aspects of money laundering but has failed to control financial institutions that service transactions related to proceeds from international drug trafficking. State-sponsored currency manipulation and money laundering have been core components of getting around financial sanctions, and as a result, Cuba has numerous strategic deficiencies in its legal anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism framework. Few mechanisms for victim protection can be identified, and Cuba generally lacks comprehensive support mechanisms for witnesses and victims of crimes such as human trafficking. On the other hand, a medical programme for the rehabilitation on people struggling with drug abuse is available. There is a strong drug prevention system in place, which was assessed to comply with international norms, along with a national healthcare system that increasingly focuses on harm reduction. Awareness of anti-social conduct is raised in children from an early age in the primary-school system. At the same time, however, the harsh nature of punishment for even minor offences has served as a deterrence mechanism. Moreover, the committees for the defence of the revolution have long been key instruments in tackling groups of criminals before they become gangs. Independent organizations that engage in controversial topics such as human rights, are often subject to persecution. The Cuban constitution guarantees freedom of expression but the state has little tolerance of criticism. State security persecutes journalists to such an extent that, in terms of media freedom, Cuba is considered one of the most restrictive countries in the world. The criminal markets score is represented by the pyramid base size and the criminal actors score is represented by the pyramid height, on a scale ranging from 1 to The resilience score is represented by the panel height, which can be identified by the side of the panel. A series of 13 discussion papers, one for each illicit market considered during the development of the Index. We're constantly working to improve the Index. By participating in this survey, you will be providing us with insights and suggestions that will help us make the Index an even better resource. This report was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State. Capital Havana. Income group Upper middle income. Population 11,, Geography type Island. Criminal markets 4. An assessment of the value, prevalence and non-monetary impacts of a specific crime type. Human trafficking 6. Human smuggling 6. Arms trafficking 1. Flora crimes 4. Fauna crimes 3. Non-renewable resource crimes 4. Heroin trade 2. Cocaine trade 4. Cannabis trade 5. Synthetic drug trade 4. Criminal actors 2. An assessment of the impact and influence of a specific criminal actor type on society. Mafia-style groups 4. Criminal networks 2. State-embedded actors 4. Foreign actors 1. Political leadership and governance 6. Government transparency and accountability 2. International cooperation 6. National policies and laws 6. A state's legal action and structures put in place to respond to organized crime. Judicial system and detention 3. Law enforcement 7. Territorial integrity 8. Anti-money laundering 5. Economic regulatory capacity 5. Victim and witness support 4. Prevention 7. Non-state actors 3. Analysis Download full profile english spanish. People Cuba is a source country for victims of sexual exploitation trafficked into the US and, to some extent, a transit country for African and Asian migrants en route to the US. Trade While the illicit arms market in Cuba is small, there is evidence of internal demand fuelled by street gangs. Environment Cuba is not a major hub for environmental criminal markets, but environmental crimes are known to occur. Drugs Cuba is predominantly a destination market for cannabis and cocaine as well as, to a limited extent, a transit country for cannabis. Leadership and governance Cuba is an authoritarian one-party state with severely restricted space for independent political organization. Criminal justice and security The Cuban legal system does not guarantee due process and adherence to human rights principles. Economic and financial environment The Cuban economy is centrally planned by the state. Civil society and social protection Few mechanisms for victim protection can be identified, and Cuba generally lacks comprehensive support mechanisms for witnesses and victims of crimes such as human trafficking. Read the analysis Listen the podcasts View all events. Next Skip. How to measure organized crime? Read more on globalinitiative. Give us feedback We're constantly working to improve the Index.
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Drugs. Cuba is predominantly a destination market for cannabis and cocaine as well as, to a limited extent, a transit country for cannabis. The criminal markets.
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Drugs in Cuba are not just a thing of the marginal slums or incurable drug addicts. In the intellectual world also a joint or a gram of cocaine.
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