headline: Miami federal prosecutor builds working group to pursue cases against Cuban officials slug: 2026-03-06-miami-federal-prosec…

  • The inquiry represents an escalation in the Trump administration’s posture toward Havana, which Washington recently redesignated a state …
  • The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida has assembled a multiagency working group to build criminal cases against Cuban go…
  • Jason Reding Quiñones, the Miami-based federal prosecutor, formed the group to include federal prosecutors alongside officials from the D…
  • The Justice Department, in a statement Friday, said “federal prosecutors from across the country work every day to pursue justice, which …

The inquiry represents an escalation in the Trump administration’s posture toward Havana, which Washington recently redesignated a state sponsor of terrorism and accused of harboring U.S. fugitives and refusing to extradite Colombian rebel leaders.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida has assembled a multiagency working group to build criminal cases against Cuban government officials, people familiar with the effort told the Associated Press. The development comes as President Donald Trump has publicly floated a “friendly takeover” of Cuba following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Jason Reding Quiñones, the Miami-based federal prosecutor, formed the group to include federal prosecutors alongside officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the effort publicly. Which Cuban officials the office is targeting and what charges prosecutors may seek were not immediately clear.

The Justice Department, in a statement Friday, said “federal prosecutors from across the country work every day to pursue justice, which includes efforts to combat transnational crime.”

Trump’s Cuba posture

Trump has focused increasing public attention on Cuba, emboldened by what he has described as the American capture of Maduro, a close Cuban ally. Last month, Trump said his administration was in high-level talks with Havana officials to pursue “a friendly takeover” of the country. This week he said Cuba would receive renewed attention once the war with Iran winds down.

“They want to make a deal so bad,” Trump said of Cuba’s leadership.

Calls to revisit the 1996 shootdown

Florida Republicans have pressed the administration to go further, calling on Trump to reopen a criminal investigation into the 1996 shootdown of four civilian planes flown by anti-communist exile group Brothers to the Rescue. In a Feb. 13 letter to Trump, Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez wrote that they believed “unequivocally that Raúl Castro is responsible for this heinous crime” and called for him to be “brought to justice.” Florida Sen. Rick Scott has also pushed for reinvestigating the incident.

No indictment against the former Cuban president has been announced. Florida’s attorney general said this week he would open a state-level investigation into the shootdown.

Miami’s long-running Cuba focus

The Miami federal prosecutor’s office has long maintained a Cuba focus, operating in a city whose political, economic, and cultural life is shaped heavily by Cuban-American exiles. The FBI’s Miami field office has a dedicated Cuba unit that in 2024 was instrumental in the arrest of Victor Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador, on charges that he had served as a secret agent of Cuba dating to the 1970s.

The Trump administration has designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism — placing it alongside North Korea and Iran — citing Havana’s harboring of U.S. fugitives and its refusal to extradite several Colombian rebel leaders who were engaged in peace talks with Colombia.