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U.S. Justice Department prosecutors are considering seeking an indictment against Cuba’s former defense minister Raúl Castro tied to the 1996 shootdown of civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue, according to the Associated Press. The potential case would revive a low point in U.S.-Cuba relations, the AP said.

A person familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press that the possible indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the Feb. 24, 1996, shootdown of two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The AP reported that Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time, was the country’s highest authority after his brother Fidel. Brothers to the Rescue members entered a zone near the 24th parallel, a short distance north of Havana, where the group flew during what the AP described as a prolonged standoff between the exile group and Cuban authorities.

On Feb. 24, 1996, Cuban fighter planes shot down two of the group’s unarmed civilian Cessnas, killing all four men aboard, while a third plane—carrying the organization’s leader—escaped. The AP said the group is also known by its Spanish name, Hermanos al Rescate.

Brothers to the Rescue began operating in 1980 after Cuban émigrés in the United States formed the group to help refugees in the Florida straits. The AP reported that it was founded by emigré José Basulto and that its efforts included dropping supplies from small planes and alerting the U.S. Coast Guard.

The AP said the monthslong crisis began after Cubans protested travel restrictions imposed by President Fidel Castro’s government and that Fidel Castro opened the port of Mariel to people who wanted to leave. The AP reported that U.S. immigration rules changed under the Clinton administration to discourage Cubans from heading north on rickety, makeshift boats, while Brothers to the Rescue continued flying toward Cuban airspace and provoking Havana.

The AP also reported that U.S. counterintelligence previously built cases around Brothers to the Rescue in a way that later became a plot element in the film “The Wasp Network.” According to the AP, counterintelligence caught five Cuban intelligence agents who had infiltrated the organization, with two Cuban agents serving long sentences and three later being released in a prisoner exchange that came before former President Barack Obama’s detente with Raúl Castro.

The AP reported that two Cuban fighter jet pilots and their commanding officer have also been indicted in connection with the shootdown but have remained outside U.S. law enforcement’s reach while living in Cuba. It said Raúl Castro has been the subject of other U.S. criminal investigation before.

In 1993, federal prosecutors in Miami considered charging Raúl Castro and other senior Cuban military officials with cocaine trafficking, the AP reported in a separate account published in 2006, based on testimony from Colombian traffickers that emerged in the drug case involving former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. The AP said the indictment did not follow amid concerns about witness credibility and fears that pursuing the case could risk intelligence operations and derail possible outreach to Cuba then under consideration by President Bill Clinton.

In its original report, the AP said two planes were shot down; later, the AP updated the story on May 19, 2026, to correct that the number of planes shot down was two, not four.