The Cuban Adermis Wilson González, who served nearly 20 years in prison in the United States for hijacking a plane from the Isle of Youth in 2003, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is facing deportation proceedings, reported the news portal CaféFuerte.
Wilson, 56, was arrested during an ICE operation on Sunday morning at his apartment in Houston, Texas, according to his sister Yolaine Wilson who spoke to the press.
The woman revealed that she received a call from her brother moments after his detention, while he was being processed by an ICE officer.
According to statements from the sister to CaféFuerte, Wilson turned himself in to the authorities “peacefully, in the midst of a large operation to capture him,” and explained the details of his case to the agent and the reason why he could not be returned to Cuba.
Yolaine told journalist Wilfredo Cancio Isla that during the video call with her brother, she heard the officer talking about the possibility of sending him to Mexico. Specifically, ICE transferred a dozen Cubans with deportation orders to that country last Friday, the digital site revealed.
“We are desperate and do not understand anything that has happened. Adermis cannot return to Cuba, and the authorities in the United States know it,” Yolaine said.
Since the arrest, the family has not had any further communication with Wilson, who may be in a detention center in Montgomery, Texas.
The Cuban was the main actor in the astonishing hijacking of a Cubana de Aviación commercial aircraft on the New Gerona-Havana route on March 31, 2003. Upon arriving in Key West, Florida, on April 1, he surrendered to U.S. authorities.
Months later, a federal court declared him guilty of the crime of air piracy and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
In April 2021, after serving his sentence in a federal prison in South Carolina, Wilson was transferred to an ICE detention center to initiate his deportation process to Cuba, which was ultimately dismissed for humanitarian reasons.
The Cuban was in custody of the agency for nearly five months and was released on September 23 of that year due to his delicate health condition. Since 2017, he has suffered from paralysis in his legs, a condition that has forced him to remain in a wheelchair, as well as hypertension and heart issues.
Details of a kidnapping
On the night of March 31, 2003, Adermis Wilson González, who was then working as a civil construction technician in the Isle of Youth, diverted a commercial flight that was headed from that municipality to the Cuban capital.
The man held two grenades in his hands when he ordered the pilot of an Antonov-24, with 46 people on board, to head to Miami. However, the aircraft did not have enough fuel for the journey to the United States and had to make an emergency landing at José Martí International Airport in Havana.
While the plane was refueling, Wilson took part in a negotiation that lasted 14 hours, in which the leader Fidel Castro was directly involved, along with the mediation of the then head of the U.S. Interests Section, James Cason.
As a result of the conversations, 22 people were released, including children and women, before the aircraft departed for Florida at noon on April first.
During the 50 minutes it took to cover the route from Havana to Key West, the Antonov-24 was escorted by two F-15 aircraft from the United States Air Force and a Black Hawk helicopter.
Upon landing in the U.S., Wilson surrendered to authorities with his hands raised. The Cuban carried out the kidnapping accompanied by his then-wife and her three-year-old son.
Later, it was confirmed that the two grenades he used to achieve his objective were fake; they had been made with the help of a local potter. However, he had left authentic grenades in his home and even scattered gunpowder on the floor to convince the Cuban authorities that the devices in his possession were real.
The detention of Wilson, which could lead to his expulsion from the U.S., occurs in a context where the administration of President Donald Trump has intensified his offensive against illegal immigration, with systematic raids and arrests across the country and mass deportations of undocumented migrants with criminal records.
Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States gave a boost to Trump's immigration agenda by authorizing the resumption of deportations of immigrants to countries other than their countries of origin. The Supreme Court thus overturned a previous injunction that required the government to provide migrants with a "meaningful opportunity" to explain to authorities the risks they would face if deported to a third country.
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