SoFla Guide Editors
A Miami judge has signed a state arrest warrant for Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, charging him with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that killed four people. It is the second warrant against him over the attack, following a federal indictment unsealed in May. Castro, now 95, lives in Cuba and has not appeared in any U.S. court.
What happened
The warrant was signed on Friday, October 16, 2026, the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reported. It names Castro by his full name, Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, and charges him in connection with the February 24, 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft.
Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the 11th Judicial Circuit Court approved the warrant after an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, according to the Herald and the Times. Fox News Digital reported that it is a no-bond warrant issued in Miami-Dade County that directs law enforcement to immediately arrest Castro.
“(There is) probable cause to believe the defendant, Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, agreed with others to commit first-degree murder of … persons aboard (the Brothers to the Rescue) aircraft,” the warrant affidavit states, as quoted by the Herald and the Times.
The warrant also names the four men who died. “The deaths of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña, and Armando Alejandre Jr. were the object of that conspiracy,” it reads, according to Fox News Digital.
Castro has not entered a plea in this case. A warrant is an accusation, not a finding of guilt.
Why Florida says it has jurisdiction
The shootdown happened over the water, so a natural question is how a Miami-Dade court can claim the case. The affidavit answers that by pointing to Florida soil.
According to the Herald and the Times, the affidavit asserts that two Cuban spies allegedly infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue in Miami and Key West and transmitted flight information to Cuban authorities ahead of the shootdown.
Court documents cited by the Saudi Gazette state that the spy network instructed its informants not to fly with Brothers to the Rescue between February 24 and 27, 1996. One informant left Florida and returned to Cuba on February 23, the day before the planes were shot down, according to those documents.
The 1996 shootdown and the long road to charges
Brothers to the Rescue was a Miami-based Cuban exile nonprofit that searched for rafters fleeing Cuba and also dropped anti-Castro leaflets over the Cuban mainland.
On February 24, 1996, a Cuban Air Force MiG-29UB, supported by a MiG-23ML, shot down two of the group’s unarmed Cessna 337C Super Skymaster planes over international waters north of Cuba. All four men aboard were killed: Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. Three were U.S. citizens and one was a legal permanent resident. Cuba claimed the planes were violating its airspace. The United States and a United Nations investigation concluded the shootdown occurred over international waters.
At the time, Raúl Castro was Cuba’s defense minister and head of its armed forces, WLRN reported.
The case has moved through U.S. courts in pieces over three decades. In 2001, Cuban spy Gerardo Hernández was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for providing Brothers to the Rescue flight plans to Cuba. He was released in December 2014 as part of a prisoner swap tied to the U.S.-Cuba diplomatic thaw. In 2003, a federal grand jury indicted two Cuban fighter pilots and their commanding general on murder charges. Neither Castro brother was charged then.
That changed this year. In February, around the 30th anniversary of the shootdown, Florida lawmakers and Sen. Ashley Moody held an event formally calling for Castro’s indictment. In March, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a state-level criminal investigation into Castro’s role, the Herald and the Times reported.
On April 23, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a superseding indictment against Castro and five co-defendants, CBS News reported. The charges include four counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and two counts of aircraft destruction.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that indictment on May 20 at Miami’s Freedom Tower, WLRN reported. “Today we are announcing an indictment of Raúl Castro and others with conspiracy to kill US nationals,” Blanche said.
Marlene Alejandre, daughter of Armando Alejandre Jr., spoke at that announcement. “We have waited 30 years to the day,” she said, according to NBC News.
What’s next
The state warrant now sits alongside the federal warrant tied to the May indictment, the Herald and the Times reported. Castro is considered a fugitive from both federal and state justice.
Whether either case ever reaches a courtroom depends on Castro being taken into custody, and he remains in Cuba. For now, the warrant is a formal legal step that puts Florida’s own charge on the record next to the federal one.
Uthmeier and Gov. Ron DeSantis have scheduled a press conference at FIU on Monday, October 19, to formally announce the state warrant.
