Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu testified Wednesday in Miami federal court that he ate part of his fake passport to cover up the fact that he was traveling illegally to the United States in a Cuban smuggling operation.
Abreu returns to the stand Thursday in the trial of Florida sports agent Bartolo Hernandez and baseball trainer Julio Estrada, who are accused of arranging smuggling ventures involving Cuban players using false documents. They have pleaded not guilty to illegally smuggling Cuban baseball players, their family members and loved ones to the United States, where they received lucrative contracts. Their attorneys said (via the Sun-Sentinel) that they merely represented and helped 20-some Cuban players.
Abreu described how he sought to destroy his Haitian passport when he boarded a flight to Miami after being smuggled from Cuba to Haiti. As soon as the plane took off, he headed for the restroom, but flight attendants knocked on the door. He ripped out the first page, which bore his photo and false name, and dumped the rest of the passport in the trash.
“I went back to my seat, I ordered a beer – a Heineken beer – and then, little by little, I swallowed that first page of the passport,” Abreu, who had a six-year, $68-million contract at stake, testified in Spanish. In return for his testimony, Abreu was given limited immunity.
Abreu arrived in Haiti in August 2013 after leaving Cuba on a boat. There, he testified that Amin Latouff, who has not been arrested, helped him establish residency. He crossed into the Dominican Republic, where Estrada and Hernandez arranged for him to show off his talents, he said. He reached a verbal agreement with the White Sox, the Associated Press reported, with Estrada’s Total Baseball company getting 20 percent and Hernandez five percent. Abreu went on to testify that he has paid Estrada’s company more than $7 million and sent him $25,000 a month when his assets were frozen after his 2016 indictment. He said he also paid $500,000 for a house for Estrada in the Florida Keys that remains in Abreu’s name.
Abreu added that the fake passport was his idea and that he asked Latouff for help in acquiring it. Latouff warned him that he would need to dispose of it before the plane landed in Miami; Abreu did what he had to do.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Cindy Boren
