Miami judge signs warrant for Raul Castro on state charges in Brothers to Rescue case

Liv Caputo, Miami Herald on Oct 18, 2026

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A Miami judge has signed an arrest warrant for Raul Castro, finding probable cause that the former Cuban president in 1996 conspired with spies within the state to commit first-degree murder.

The warrant, signed Friday, was approved by the chief judge on the 11th Judicial Circuit Court following an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, according to the arrest warrant and affidavit obtained by the Herald/Times.

The move comes months after Attorney General James Uthmeier in March announced a state-level criminal investigation into Castro’s role in the deaths of four U.S. nationals in the 1996 shoot down of two civilian planes operated by the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue group.

It’s Castro’s second warrant for the incident. He was Cuba’s head of armed forces during the attack.

The Justice Department already charged the now-95-year-old in May with murder and conspiracy to kill.

For decades, Florida lawmakers have demanded investigations, indictments and imprisonment for the Cuban leadership involved. Florida is home to the largest Cuban diaspora in the nation.

The closest America came was a 2003 federal indictment of a Cuban general and two fighter pilots — until this year, the 30th anniversary of the shootdown.

In May, Uthmeier joined Justice Department officials at the Miami Freedom Tower when the federal government announced its arrest warrant and charges.

Now, Florida has issued a warrant of its own in the 11th Judicial Circuit, signed off on by Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan. She is the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term.

The case centers on the Cuban government shooting down two Brothers to the Rescue flights, a civilian rescue group dedicated to saving refugees fleeing the authoritarian Castro regime — then run by Raul Castro’s older brother Fidel.

The Castros claimed the flights were over Cuban waters. Both the United States and a United Nations investigation concluded that the shootdown happened over international waters.

According to the affidavit submitted Friday, Florida has jurisdiction to charge Castro because of the actions of two Cuban spies in Miami and Key West who “infiltrated” Brothers to the Rescue.

Weeks before the shootdown, the spies allegedly reported on the naval airbase in Key West and were told to transmit Brothers to the Rescue flight data back to the Cuban authorities.

The affidavit says the spy network told the moles not to fly with Brothers to the Rescue between Feb. 24 and 27. On the 23rd, one of them left Florida and returned to Cuba.

The next day, the Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force destroyed two Brothers to the Rescue planes. Three Americans and one legal permanent resident were killed.

“(There is) probable cause to believe the defendant, Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, agreed with others to commit first-degree murder of ... persons aboard (the Brothers to the Rescue) aircraft,” the affidavit reads. It said that the spies transmitting flight data and surveilling the naval air station is enough probable cause to believe that a “conspiracy” took place in Florida.

Uthmeier is expected to host a news conference Monday in Miami to announce the arrest warrant.