DOJ Investigates Potential Charges Against Cuban Leadership as Calls for Raul Castro Indictment Intensify: ‘Justice Must Prevail

A high-ranking prosecutor from the Justice Department has initiated an investigation into Cuban government officials, potentially leading to charges against the leaders of the Communist regime, as reported by several sources.

Jason Reding Quiñones, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has formed a “working group” comprising federal prosecutors alongside representatives from the Treasury Department, State Department, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and other agencies, according to various reports released on Friday.

Quiñones is focused on developing criminal cases against members of the Cuban government. This could enable the Trump administration to remove key figures from the island’s leadership, mirroring the strategy that led to the removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

Currently, it remains uncertain which specific Cuban leaders or regime affiliates are being targeted by Quiñones’ office.

“Federal prosecutors from across the country work every day to pursue justice, which includes efforts to combat transnational crime,” stated the Department of Justice, as reported by the Associated Press.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has not yet responded to The Post’s request for further comment.

The move comes as President Trump has suggested Cuba’s Communist dictatorship is in its death throes. 

“Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon, by the way, unrelated, but Cuba is gonna fall too,” Trump told CNN host Dana Bash in a phone interview. 

“They want to make a deal so badly. They want to make a deal, and so I’m going to put [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] over there and we’ll see how that works out. We’re really focused on this one [Iran] right now. We’ve got plenty of time, but Cuba’s ready — after 50 years,” the president added.  “I’ve been watching it for 50 years, and it’s fallen right into my lap — because of me, it’s fallen — but it’s nevertheless fallen right into the lap. And we’re doing very well.”

Meanwhile, Cuban-American lawmakers have pushed Trump to seek an indictment against Raul Castro – the 94-year-old Cuban general, ex-president and brother of dead dictator Fidel Castro.

Florida GOP Reps. María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez, alongside Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), wrote to Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi last month to outline Raul Castro’s alleged role in the deadly 1996 shootdown of two planes belonging to the humanitarian group, Brothers to the Rescue.

“We respectfully request the Department of Justice consider indicting Raul Castro who is responsible for the cold-blooded murders of three Americans and a U.S. permanent resident in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown of two civilian aircraft by Cuban Mig fighter jets, and consider whether Interpol ‘red notices’ should be issued against him,” the lawmakers wrote.

“It is our understanding, based on public information, that on February 24, 1996, Raul Castro ordered a Cuban Mig fighter jet to engage and obliterate two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft over international waters,” they added. 

Castro turned the presidency of Cuba over to Miguel Díaz-Canel in 2021, but he and his family are believed to still wield immense power on the island. 

Salazar was encouraged by the reports of the new DOJ working group. 

“Promising news that [DOJ] is gathering evidence to potentially indict Cuban Communist officials,” the congresswoman wrote on X. “The message to Havana is clear: the era of impunity is ending.” 

Salazar warned that “the regime’s crimes do not stop at the island.” 

“Its networks reach our shores and are enabled by businesses operating here in South Florida. That is why the Southern District of Florida is exactly where these charges belong. The men who have brutalized the Cuban people for decades must finally face justice,” she asserted.