The story of the “Cuban Mafia” has all the elements of a cinema thriller: an aging kingpin transfers the power of his criminal empire to his son and a loyal follower, only to watch his dynasty fall when federal agents arrest him and his soldiers and seize millions of dollars in assets.
But this tale of a 40-year-old crime syndicate built on illegal gambling and numbers running that turned into a murderous outfit with a penchant for arson is real, and a hit man and two leading members were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, including murder, gambling, arson and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
Jose Miguel Battle Jr., 53 — son of the so-called godfather, or padrino — and Manuel Marquez, 61, were top-tier members of “the Corporation” or “Cuban Mafia,” acting as its head when the padrino was out of the country or in jail, federal prosecutors said. Julio Acuna, 66, was a hit man who enforced the Corporation’s rules, prosecutors said.
A Miami jury convicted them Friday and they are scheduled to be sentenced in September. Acuna faces life in prison; Marquez and Battle Jr. face up to 20 years behind bars.
On Tuesday, the jury ordered the three men and 22 others associated with the criminal enterprise to forfeit $1.4 billion, of which more than $20 million has already been seized, prosecutors said.
“Justice has been done in this case,” U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta said Wednesday in a news release.
The Corporation started in 1964, several years after Jose Miguel Battle Sr. — the padrino — left Cuba. Authorities have likened the Bay of Pigs veteran to Al Capone, saying he fought criminal competitors with contract killings and firebombings.
Battle Jr., Marquez and Acuna were born in Cuba, eventually coming to the United States and settling in the New York/New Jersey area before moving to Miami in the 1980s, prosecutors said.
The organization, made up of lieutenants, soldiers, bosses, bankers and enforcers, was crippled in March 2004 when agents froze millions in assets and arrested nearly two dozen Corporation members, including the padrino, who raised fruit trees on his $1.5 million south Miami-Dade estate.
Battle Sr., 76, who suffers from kidney and liver failure, diabetes and cardiac problems, pleaded guilty during his racketeering trial in May.
The Corporation operated globally, conducting illegal activities in South Florida, the New York/New Jersey area, the Caribbean, Europe and Central and South America, according to court documents.
From the start, the documents say the Corporation ran various gambling outfits. Then in 1970, the organization got into the drug game, moving marijuana and cocaine into the United States until about 1992, officials say.
The Corporation started laundering its money through puppet companies or sham businesses in 1988, according to court documents. One such venture, authorities say, was the Crillon, a casino and hotel complex in Lima, Peru.
“The Corporation preserved and protected its power, territory, operations and profits through the use of violence and destruction,” the federal indictment said.
Battle Jr., Marquez and Acuna were found guilty of eight murders and seven arsons that resulted in deaths. One murder — the death of Ernesto Torres — occurred in Opa-Locka during the 1970s, prosecutors said. The man who killed Torres turned on the Corporation and was gunned down, prosecutors said. In another murder outside Florida, a hit man took out a Corporation rival in a hospital by dressing up as a nurse. The arsons took place in New York, including one that killed a 3-year-old.
Akilah Johnson can be reached at or 954-356-4527
