A young Cuban accused of currency trafficking has been transferred to prison 1580, from whom a car and 12,200 USD were seized.

Roberto Nodarse Rodríguez, the 33-year-old Cuban, from whom the DTI took away (what they call retaining) a car that was not his and confiscated 12,200 USD and 3,000 euros after accusing him of currency trafficking, has been transferred to prison 1580, in San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana. He had spent nearly two weeks in the criminal ward of the La Covadonga hospital in the capital.

Nodarse entered the hospital with cramps in his limbs, and during all this time they have only done blood and urine tests, and although the doctors talked about performing a CT scan, they never did it. Even so, they have decided to send him back to prison, despite the lack of a clear diagnosis of his health condition. His family fears that he will get worse "or die" since the doctors themselves suspect that it was there that he contracted a bacteria, which would be responsible for the numbness in his arms and legs.

The Nodarse family is distraught because despite having a copy of a check that shows that most of the money that was seized from him in Cuba was sent by relatives living abroad, he is being accused of selling and buying foreign currency. However, the young man was awaiting parole, which was initiated by Manuel Santiesteban, a Cuban resident in the U.S. who reacted angrily to the imprisonment and highlighted on Facebook that his friend is a great person. "This kid, who is the best in the world, look at what is happening to him."

The Prosecutor's Office is requesting five years in prison for Roberto Nodarse, who is currently in provisional detention without bail, and four years for his nephew, Cristhofer Milán Lorenzo, to whom an undercover agent from the Technical Research Department (DTI) asked to exchange one thousand euros on the same day that the operation took place at his home. However, judicial sources consulted in Havana assure CiberCuba that they are certain Nodarse will serve time in prison, but it will depend on a good lawyer to reduce the sentence from five years to two, in a camp setting, meaning with passes on weekends, because in Cuba, they add, sentences of less than five years are served in this manner.

Roberto Nodarse's family hopes to find a good defense and this Tuesday they have an appointment to meet with a prestigious law firm in Havana. They have decided to dismiss the lawyer who had been defending them up to this point, considering that he could have done more to achieve a change in the precautionary measure and has not done so. Nodarse has been imprisoned for almost a year in 1580, where he has been transferred after doctors could not determine the cause of the illness that causes him cramps in his limbs.

The young man was arrested on November 8, 2023, in a spectacular police operation that took place simultaneously in 10 de Octubre and Los Pinos, in Arroyo Naranjo. It is noteworthy that the availability of agents in this police operation comes at a time when they are scarce for clarifying violent crimes like the death of the young Maykel Sablón, who was murdered three years ago when he went fishing alone in a river near San Agustín, in La Lisa, and never returned home. He was found strangled. In this case, there have been no arrests, nor has there been a trial, and therefore, his two orphans, underage, cannot receive any assistance from the State. The aid they were given was withdrawn six months after the crime.

Roberto Nodarse had a car (a new Peugeot) taken from him that isn’t even his. According to his circle, a friend left it with Cristhofer Milán while he is traveling outside of Cuba and asked him to take care of it until his return. Roberto Nodarse was stopped while driving the car by DTI agent Ulguis Herrero Navarro as part of a police operation, who is allegedly “a corrupt” individual with previous convictions for “fraud in Playa.” He diverted the car to Nodarse’s house and conducted a search there, during which they also confiscated 12,230 USD, 2,995 euros, 200 Swiss francs, and 210 Canadian dollars that were found in his home. All this material was seized without a court order and with witnesses who are not from the neighborhood and have emigrated to the United States. The family reports that the agents did not document the amount of money confiscated.

Roberto Nodarse's entourage appealed the precautionary measure of provisional imprisonment (claim 85/24) after the young man was charged with an economic crime (preparatory phase file 273/23) for allegedly engaging in the illegal trafficking of national currency, foreign currency, and precious stones. The Attorney General's Office of the Republic assured him in April of this year, in a document accessed by CiberCuba, that there are already provisional conclusions of the process and that five months ago, it was only pending to send the proceedings to the People's Municipal Court to arrange for the opening of the oral trial.

According to the environment of the young man, the money that was seized from him was intended to renovate a state café that had been awarded to him and to supply it in order to live off it until his parole arrived.