“A series of bombings rock cities from New York to Miami. Embassies are attacked, businesses are destroyed. Cuban names are gunned down by assassins.”
“Deep within the US Cuban exile community, a mysterious group emerges to take credit for the violence, a terrorist group known as Omega 7.”
“In the late 1970s, the FBI had a working knowledge of anti-Castro terrorists operating in the United States, but then a new group appeared, more violent and aggressive than their predecessors.”
“I’m Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI’s New York office. All agents had to go on was a series of chilling phone calls, a mysterious voice, and the threat of more violence. FBI field officers from New York to Miami coordinated their efforts, determined to catch the vicious killers.”
“New York City, the morning of June 6th, 1976, uptown Manhattan. A massive bomb detonates at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations.”
“New York police and the FBI rushed to investigate the explosion. I could actually hear the bombs go off from my apartment.”
“Special Agent Larry Wack lives three blocks from the mission. He’s on the scene in minutes. The devastation was unbelievable. My first reaction was there’s no way anybody walked away from this thing, and it turned out nobody got injured or hurt.”
“Special Agent Wack examines the entrance of the mission. From the blast pattern, it looks like the bomb exploded directly in front of the door. He notices a security camera mounted overhead. Assuming that the guy walks up and sets a panel at the door, he had to be on video.”
“Agent Wack asks a Cuban diplomat for permission to look at the videotape from your camera. [They] told us that, uh, we couldn’t view it right away and that, uh, they would take a look at it and, uh, get back to me.”
“Got a call the next day from one of the diplomatic personnel up there who said that there’s, uh, nothing on the tape, and I said, ‘Oh, okay. This is the game we’re going to play.'”
“It appears that the Cuban officials are keeping the videotaped evidence for their own intelligence, even if it cripples an FBI investigation. It would be nice in a perfect world if they said, ‘Look, here’s a copy of the tape, and you do what you need to do with it, and you know, we’re going to keep the original.’ But, um, doesn’t happen.”
“A news station provides the FBI with a tape-recorded phone call from a man who claims he belongs to an anti-Castro organization that bombed the Cuban mission. Omega 7. We are Omega.”
“Thank you. The FBI has never heard of Omega 7.”
“For Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s brutal regime, northern New Jersey has become a safe haven. It is home to nearly 100,000 Cuban immigrants. We’re trying to get information.”
“FBI agents talk with people in the community in an effort to identify members of Omega 7. Getting information from the Cuban, uh, exile community was one of the most difficult things we ever ran across. Even if they knew who the guys were, to them, they’re heroes.”
“Appreciate it. For the FBI, it’s another dead end.”
“Over the next 2 years, Omega 7 strikes targets in New York City again and again. They bomb the Cuban mission twice. Another bomb detonates at Lincoln Center where an orchestra from Cuba had been performing. In each instance, a representative of Omega 7 calls local news stations to claim responsibility.”
“The terrorist group is on a rampage, but the FBI has few leads. We were coming up with no witnesses. We were coming up with, uh, pieces of, uh, battery and whatever that wasn’t going to pin down anybody.”
“For now, investigators’ only solid lead is a mysterious voice claiming responsibility for the violence. To FBI special agent Tom Menipace, all the tapes sound like the same person.”
“There were slight variations in tone, but if you listen to them all at the same time, you really picked up kind of a common thread. The caller would identify himself always as a member of, uh, Omega 7, uh, most people pronounced it ‘Omega’—um, there was a distinct ‘Omega’ with this guy. It was calm, collected. ‘Here’s what we did, here’s why we did it.'”
“FBI agents in New York and Miami have interviewed dozens of suspected anti-Castro terrorists, but none of the agents recognize this particular voice.”
“The voice was driving us crazy. Nobody’s got this voice. We were taking copies of the tapes and playing them with prominent members of the community, and we were basically trying to get a name for that caller.”
“But even those deeply involved in the Cuban community are unable to ID the caller.”
“If there’s not that immediate recognition, then a lot of times you get into an area where people are speculating, and it’s like, ‘Gee, it sounds like so-and-so,’ and you kind of know right there that, you know, they’re—they’re stretching.”
“Yeah, they’re a little—thanks very much for your help. All right, take care. Thank you.”
“Investigators also play the voice for informants they know have connections to various anti-Castro organizations to improve relation with the USA. No one has any idea who the voice belongs to.”
“Don’t recognize anyone.”
“And still the bombings continue. Northern New Jersey, March 1979.”
“Omega 7 bombs the offices of a Cuban businessman in northern New Jersey. His name is Eulalio Negrin, an activist who helps reunite Cuban refugees with their families in the United States. At the scene, the FBI finds no witnesses and little evidence.”
“Investigators believe the bomb is only a warning. If they meant to kill Negrin with a bomb, I would think that they would have used a more powerful device and known that he was there and put it on his car or something like that.”
“That fall, more than 3 years after the original Omega 7 attack, another bomb explodes at the Cuban mission to the UN. The same mysterious voice calls news stations and takes credit on behalf of Omega 7.”
“A month later, the terrorist group abruptly changes its pattern. Eulalio Negrin and his 12-year-old son leave their home in New Jersey. Two masked men attack a businessman for trying to free political prisoners in Cuba. The victim is Eulalio Negrin, a Cuban activist.”
“Paramedics try to save his life, but he’s lost a lot of blood. In the end, Negrin pays the ultimate price. Tragically, Negrin’s 12-year-old son witnessed his father’s horrible killing.”
“FBI special agent Tom Menipace must interview the grief-stricken boy.”
“He was in shock, basically saw his father get killed, and, um, that’s pretty horrible.”
“Special Agent Larry Wack is stunned by the brutality of the murder.”
“There’s a lot of unwritten rules out there in the game of, uh, cops and robbers and bad guys. Shooting a man in front of his son is not part of the—the rules, and I found that to be, uh, tremendously cold and calculating and began to realize that we were dealing with some pretty callous fellas.”
“Union City Police recover empty brass cartridges believed to be from the shooter’s weapon.”
“The FBI and police question area residents. ‘Could you tell how many people were inside?’ You do a real intense neighborhood investigation, essentially tracing the path in which the car was seen fleeing. Investigators finally find a witness who can describe the color, make, model of the gunman’s vehicle.”
“At the Newark FBI office, Special Agent Menipace listens to a news tape in which a voice proudly claims credit.”
“A warning. Put your hands up.”
“I got on the radio and I said, ‘Be careful.’ He always carries an Uzi.”
“Ignoring agents’ instructions, Allejo makes a move like he’s going for a gun. An NIE agent fires a warning shot. It went so close to his—his face that it actually popped his eardrum, and his ear started bleeding. You people are under—”
“Agents find no ransom in the car and no sign of Mario.”
“A search of Allejo’s house turns up no other evidence.”
“Then the surveillance plane loses contact with the other car. It seems a total loss.”
“Well, we have a colonel from the police of Puerto Rico being arrested for kidnapping charges. We don’t have a victim, and we don’t have a ransom… or any sign Mario is still out there somewhere.”
“Agents try to get Allejo to crack and tell them where the victim is held.”
“None of that happened. It was simply, ‘You got the wrong guy. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a Lieutenant Colonel of the police of Puerto Rico. You’ve made a big mistake.'”
“Agents scramble to find any of the other suspects. We went up and down streets in San Juan and the suburbs, looking for the cars we had identified with—with these, uh, criminals.”
“Hours pass. Hope begins to fade. And then, Mario was left on the side of the road, uh, near San Juan, uh, called his house from a public telephone booth and said, ‘I’ve been released.’ And we picked him up and—and brought him back in.”
“It seems that once Allejo was arrested, the other kidnappers got nervous and released Mario. Finally, he is home.”
“I had never seen grown FBI agents cry. That’s how emotional I got. And at that point, no one really cared whether we had recovered that ransom or not. It was important that we got him back.”
“Thank you.”
“With Allejo in custody, it’s time to take everyone else down. A federal judge returns indictments on 32 people, mostly corrupt officers. Agents quickly take them into custody.”
“Homicide Chief Emeterio Benitez cooperates and finally tells investigators the details of Jessica Trujillo’s murder, the crime that started it all. The drug lord she was to testify against paid $20,000 for the hit.”
“According to Emeterio, he and Hill Vera picked her up that night and decided to kill her on the way to her grandmother’s house. As they were driving through the cane fields out there in that rural part of the island, without any warning…”
“Bam! Gunshot is fired. Heels shot her from the back seat, and a moment later, bam! Another gunshot goes off.”
“They stopped, took her out, threw [her] in the sugarcane field, and drove off. Later, Emeterio realized Jessica had playfully pinned his own police ID on her shirt.”
“He went back and retrieved his ID, though he missed his Panama hat.”
“Such an audacious murder. Shooting a young girl wearing the chief’s hat and ID in a police car shows how untouchable the death squad thought they were.”
“This was done without any planning on—on who was going to pull the trigger, where it was going to take place, what were they going to do with the body. He just shot her driving in—in the head of homicides’ police vehicle.”
“The 2-year investigation is the biggest police corruption case in Puerto Rico’s history. Most of the officers plead guilty and all receive sentences ranging from 8 years to life.”
“It’s reprehensible. What could be worse than somebody with a charge, an affirmative duty to protect citizenry, and they’re out blowing their brains out for money?”
“Today, the Police of Puerto Rico is a different institution. The Rebel CIC division has been disbanded, and the citizens of Puerto Rico can once again trust the men and women sworn to protect them.”
