CASTRO and the MOB

By: Ignacio J. Esteban

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In the 1920s, during prohibition, the Italian-American Mafia started using Cuba as a base for rum and other alcohol smuggling to the United States. Until 1959, mobsters had control of famous casinos and gambling operations in Cuba. That all came to an end in January 01,1959 when Fidel Castro and his rebels defeated Batista’s army and took control of the country. Batista fled Cuba leaving Castro the island. This was the beginning of the end for the Mafia that ran Cuba’s hotels and casinos for years. Castro shut the casinos and nationalized the mob owned properties and became himself the Mob boss of the island taking everything for himself and his communist party. Organized crime left Cuba leaving Castro with the island. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans left the communist island to the United States escaping Castro’s suffocating grip and control. This is the history of Castro and the Mob.