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Cuba returns man who fled in 1960s

Joseph Adjmi was convicted of fraud in Tampa.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 27, 2007

MIAMI - A man who fled to Cuba after he was convicted of mail fraud more than 40 years ago in Tampa was expelled from the island Wednesday and sent to Miami where U.S. Marshals arrested him.

Joseph Adjmi, 70, was sentenced in 1963 to 10 years in prison but disappeared before serving his sentence, according to a statement released by the State Department.

Last year, Cuban officials alerted the U.S. that Adjmi was in their custody for fraud-related crimes he'd committed on the island. They intended to expel him upon his release and asked the U.S. to take him, said State Department special agent in charge Ed Moreno.

Moreno called Cuba's decision to return Adjmi unusual but not unprecedented.

"It's a sporadic thing," he said.

State Department officials say Cuba still harbors more than 60 high-profile criminals wanted in the U.S.

Adjmi arrived at Miami International Airport and was carried from the plane complaining of chest pains. He was taken to a local hospital where he remained Wednesday evening, Moreno said.

Upon his release, Adjmi will be sent to Tampa where he was originally convicted in U.S. District Court, Moreno said.

Among the U.S. fugitives Cuba has refused to hand over is former Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur - also known as Joanne Chesimard - convicted in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper.

Cuba has also refused to turn over fugitive financier Robert Vesco, who evaded U.S. authorities during decades on the run. But in 1996, a Cuban court sentenced Vesco to 13 years in prison for producing and marketing a cancer and arthritis drug without the Cuban government's knowledge.

[Last modified April 27, 2007, 00:48:10]