Drug smuggling

Drug smuggling a risk if US relations with Cuba shift, officials say

For Cuban officials on the front lines of the fight against drug trafficking, the Trump administration's threat to roll back improved relations between the United States and the communist-run island comes at a dangerous moment.

In rare interviews, two officials in charge of Cuban drug enforcement efforts told CNN they have seen an increase in smuggling just as US cooperation seems to be wavering.

The officials, both with Cuba's Interior Ministry, said that since President Barack Obama ended the "wet foot, dry foot" provision in 2016 that gave Cubans preferential immigration treatment, smugglers who once brought Cuban migrants into the United States aboard high-speed boats are now increasingly bringing drugs across the Straits of Florida.

"There's been a readjustment," said Lt. Col. Héctor González Hernández, head of Cuba's Counterdrug Directorate, "We have evidence that the criminal networks are changing from human trafficking to drug trafficking or both at the same time."