Senate narcotics hearings, 10 October 1963: Detroit's Vincent Piersante on deported men in Cuba 'during the tail end of the Batista regime' (p. 449)

Detroit police inspector Vincent W. Piersante testified that Joseph Catalanotti, deported in September 1957, 'later turned up in Cuba during the tail end of the Batista regime' with two other deported men, that no Batista connection could be established, and that 'Cuba was a haven for these deported criminals.'

Date

1963-10-10

Kind

hearing

Source

National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)

Retrieved

2026-10-12

Rights

A work of the United States Senate, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105.

Printed page 449 of Part 2 (NCJRS PDF page 488), from the Detroit testimony of Thursday, 10 October 1963, given by Commissioner George C. Edwards and Inspector Vincent W. Piersante of the Detroit Police Department. Piersante was going through the narcotics conspiracies shown on the Detroit chart (Exhibit 18).

He said Joseph Catalanotti was ordered deported on 11 August 1953, released on bond, and “not actually deported until September 6, 1957, when he voluntarily left the United States 5 days ahead of the official deportation date.” He continued: “Catalanotti later turned up in Cuba during the tail end of the Battista regime along with Frank Cammarata and ‘Nono’ Minaudo.” (The print spells “Battista.”) He said Catalanotti tried to re-enter the United States in November 1958, was caught in New York and sent back to Mexico, and was admitted to Canada in May 1958 on a temporary visa.

Senator Carl T. Curtis asked whether there was any connection with Batista. Piersante answered: “No, sir; we were never able to establish a connection between Battista or anyone in the Battista regime.” He explained that the three “were all deported as Mafia suspects from the Detroit and Ohio area,” and that “It appears at that time that Cuba was a haven for these deported criminals.”

“Mafia suspects” is the police’s label, and the dates in this passage are the witness’s. A Bureau of Narcotics background sheet printed in 1964 spells the name Catalanotto and says he was deported to Italy again in 1959 from Cuba.