Florida has issued a no-bond arrest warrant for Raúl Castro in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes, a new state legal move tied to one of the most painful cases in Miami’s Cuban exile history.
The warrant matters now because it turns a long-running federal case into a state action with immediate legal consequences if Castro is ever found outside Florida. A Miami-Dade County judge signed the warrant, and state authorities say they would seek full extradition if he is arrested beyond Florida’s reach.
The order centers on the deaths of Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, Pablo Morales and Carlos Costa, who were killed in international waters during a humanitarian mission 30 years ago. Castro is 95 years old, but Florida’s move shows the case is still active in the eyes of state officials and the families who have waited decades for accountability. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Castro was being charged with murder at Miami’s Freedom Tower, with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alongside federal officials.
The warrant goes further than a symbolic accusation. It says the spies were transmitting flight data and surveilling the Naval Air Station in Key West, and officials say there is enough probable cause to believe a conspiracy took place in the state and that Castro gave the orders. That detail is what pushes the case beyond a wartime memory and into a present-day legal filing: Florida is not treating the shootdown as history, but as a chargeable crime with a live arrest order attached.
That makes the next step clear. Uthmeier is expected to announce the warrant at Florida International University on Monday morning alongside Governor Ron DeSantis, putting the state’s position on the record in public and raising the practical question that now hangs over the case: whether Florida can ever get custody of Castro if he is detained outside the state.
