Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:10pm EDT
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba handed over an American wanted for fraud and
theft in Utah to U.S. authorities on Thursday, the third fugitive it has
returned to the United States in one year, U.S. officials said.
John Bradley Egan was detained by Cuba at the end of June when his
30-foot (9-metre) yacht developed engine trouble off Havana's Marina
Hemingway.
Egan had no documents and the Cubans contacted the U.S. diplomatic
mission, which determined there was a warrant for his arrest in Utah for
bank fraud and ID theft.
"The U.S. Coast Guard, our mission and the Cuban Foreign Ministry
managed get him into U.S. custody and he was taken back to the United
States this morning," a U.S. diplomat said.
He was the third fugitive to be returned to the United States in one year.
The hand over of the three has come since acting President Raul Castro
took over running Cuba from his ailing brother Fidel Castro 14 months
ago and appears to indicate increased cooperation in law enforcement
between the two countries, which have not had diplomatic relations since
1961.
"We seem to have had good cooperation from the Cubans on these law
enforcement and drug issues. It is not given much publicity," the
diplomat said.
Earlier this year, Cuba returned an American wanted for fraud in the
United States, a U.S. official said.
In October last year, Havana handed over David Ray Franklin, who stole a
plane and flew to Cuba with his son. Franklin, who did not have custody
of the boy, was indicted for international parental kidnapping in Florida.
The U.S. State Department says Cuba's communist government harbors more
than 60 criminals wanted in the United States.
The highest profile fugitive that Cuba has refused to hand over is
former Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur -- also known as
Joanne Chesimard -- who was convicted in the 1973 killing of a New
Jersey state trooper.
Cuba has also refused to turn over fugitive financier Robert Vesco, who
evaded U.S. authorities during decades on the run from charges he
defrauded mutual fund investors of more than $200 million.
But Havana has cooperated with Washington in the war on drugs by
intercepting traffickers using its territory to smuggle marijuana and
cocaine into the United States.
In February, Cuba deported top Colombian drug lord Luis Hernando Gomez
to Bogota where he was wanted for extradition by the United States to
face trafficking charges.
Gomez, known as "Scratch" and one of the heads of the powerful Norte del
Valle drug gang, was arrested at Havana airport in 2004 for entering
Cuba on a forged Venezuelan passport.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1030694420071011?sp=true
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