FBI Correlation Summary on Santo Trafficante, Jr. (searched 4 March 1971): the January 1959 exodus, the Sans Souci's closing, and detention at Tiscornia

Viewer pages 439 to 445 of Part 04 carry the 1959 entries of the correlation summary described in the companion record. The stored image is page 440.

An informant said on 5 January 1959 that “following the fall of the Batista regime in Cuba, Trafficante had fled Cuba inasmuch as a group of July 26 revolutionaries were looking for him,” while Jacksonville police and INS reported that a plane said to carry him and other gamblers on 3 January never arrived (page 439). The same page records, from a 1958-59 file, “a plan proposed by members of the syndicate to offer Fidel Castro” one million dollars to protect the Havana gambling concessions if he took power; that is a report of a proposal. Page 440: “Legat, Havana advised on 1/15/59, that as a result of the over-throw of the Batista Government in Cuba there had been an exodus of gamblers and top hoodlums from Havana. However, some top hoodlums remained, including Santo Trafficante, Miami, for the purpose of determining if they could ‘deal’ with the new Government concerning resumption of gambling operations in Havana.” An informant said on 29 January that people with gambling interests planned to open casinos at the Tropicana, the Riviera and the Havana Hilton. Then: “Legat, Havana, advised on 5/21/59, that the Sans Souci casino, Havana, Cuba, formerly operated by Santo Trafficante of Miami, Fla., had been closed because of financial problems,” and that Trafficante “had gone into hiding in Cuba.”

Later entries summarize other files. One says he “was arrested by Cuban authorities reportedly as a result of a telegram from the US Narcotics Commissioner which indicated that Trafficante was a major narcotics suspect” (page 441). Another refers to “Trafficante who was confined in the Cuban Immigration detention house ‘Tiscornia’” (page 442). A report of 9 September 1959 says a Cuban Secret Police contact said he “was out of prison” (page 444), and the Apalachin file summary says he “was detained by the Cuban police for possible deportation but was released” (page 445). A New York Daily News story of 1961 summarized on page 441 is press, not FBI reporting.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations gives the detention dates as 6 June to 18 August 1959 (filed separately). The same immigration camp held Luciano in 1947. The serials cited in this summary are not in the Vault release.