The Department of State of the United States warned this Friday that the Trump administration is determined to permanently dismantle the Cuban networks and those from other adversarial countries operating on U.S. soil, in direct response to a federal accusation involving two Cuban citizens in a murder plot orchestrated from Russia.
In a message posted on its official X account, the U.S. State Department described the case as evidence of the ongoing threat posed by these subversive networks: "The assassination plot outlined in this accusation is another testament to the persistent threat from Cuban subversive networks and other foreign entities operating on behalf of our adversaries on U.S. soil. The Trump administration is working to dismantle these networks once and for all."
The statement came two days after the Department of Justice filed formal charges with the Southern District of New York against five individuals linked to Russian intelligence services, including two Cubans accused of participating in a Russian network to finance terrorism and plan assassinations.
The identified Cubans are Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, 35 years old, born in Camagüey and residing in Petrozavodsk, Russia, where he runs a Latin dance academy called "Made in Cuba," and Yaidel Delgado Suárez, also 35 years old and known by the alias "Viking," described in the accusation as a "prolific recruiter" who recruited or attempted to recruit multiple individuals within the United States.
According to the accusation, Romagoza coordinated sabotage attacks linked to Russia in Prague in June 2024 and in Lithuania in September of the same year, and in November 2025 obtained images of the home of a prominent Russian dissident in the United States to facilitate surveillance.
Delgado Suárez, along with the Venezuelan Ángel Eduardo Castro, 22 years old, offered a U.S. resident between $1,000 and $1,500 for preoperational surveillance work and $40,000 to "eliminate" the dissident identified in the file as Victim-1.
The former Russian intelligence colonel Yuri Khrameev, 63, also known as "Colonel Yuri", and his son Kirill Khrameev, 27, an FSB officer, are also accused. Khrameev Sr. separately offered $25,000 to have a dissident killed in Lithuania, whom he described as someone who "spreads filth about my country." All are still fugitives.
John A. Eisenberg, Deputy Attorney General for National Security, stated that the defendants "allegedly operated as part of a global assassination network that reached the United States, attempting to recruit American and foreign citizens to commit crimes on behalf of the Kremlin."
All the defendants face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to finance terrorism; Khrameev Sr., Delgado Suárez, and Castro also face up to an additional ten years for conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
The State Department accompanied its publication with a thread in which it shared its report detailing six decades of Cuban espionage, titled "Cuba: the Capital of 21st Century Communism," originally published in July 2026, which documents nearly seven decades of Cuban subversion against the United States and warns that the island hosts 18 signal intelligence facilities, three operated by China and two by Russia.
The case arises a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new sanctions against the Cuban regime, as part of a campaign that has accumulated more than 240 restrictive measures against Havana since Trump declared a national emergency in January 2026, citing Cuba as an unusual threat to national security.
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