Florida Issues Arrest Warrant for Raul Castro Over 1996 Plane Shootdown

Florida issued a state arrest warrant on Monday, October 19, 2026, for former Cuban leader Raul Castro, charging him with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder over the 1996 shootdown of two unarmed civilian planes flown by the Miami based exile group Brothers to the Rescue.

The warrant was signed by Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. It charges Castro, 95, with one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. According to the affidavit, Castro was Cuba's Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and its First Vice President at the time, and he was a final decision maker in the chain of command that authorized the shootdown.

Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the warrant at a news conference at the Florida International University College of Law, in a courtroom dedicated to the men who were killed. "Raul Castro ordered the murder of four Floridians in cold blood, and Florida will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy," Uthmeier said.

What happened in 1996

On February 24, 1996, three unarmed Cessna aircraft left Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade County. Cuban MiGs destroyed two of them with air-to-air missiles. Florida officials said both planes were outside Cuba's territorial waters, were traveling away from Cuba, and received no warning, even though they were in contact with Havana air traffic control.

Four men were killed: Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Pena and Armando Alejandre Jr. Brothers to the Rescue flew search missions over the Florida Straits looking for Cubans trying to reach the United States on rafts, and reported the people it found to the United States Coast Guard.

The state complaint says Cuban intelligence agents in the Wasp Network infiltrated the group in Miami and the Florida Keys, reported its flight plans to Havana, and that parts of the conspiracy took place in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

A state case on top of a federal case

Castro already faces federal charges in the same shootdown. A federal indictment announced in May 2026 included charges of murder and destruction of an airplane. Uthmeier said a state case matters because a future president cannot pardon, commute or block a state prosecution.

He also said the warrant limits Castro's ability to travel. If Castro entered a country with an extradition agreement with the United States, Florida would seek to bring him to court. Uthmeier accepted that Castro is unlikely to come to Miami on his own. "I'm not ignorant of the fact that Raul Castro is an older man who's probably not looking to march himself into Miami," he said, according to the Associated Press.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Michael Stein said the passage of time does not reduce the pursuit of justice, and that his agency taking the lead role in the investigation shows that point. It remains unclear whether Castro will ever appear in a United States courtroom.