Havana Nocturne by T. J. English

Author:T. J. English
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Politics, Non-fiction, History
ISBN: 9780061795589
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Published: 2007-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

chapter 10

CARNIVAL OF FLESH

SANTO TRAFFICANTE KNEW A GOOD THING WHEN HE SAW one. Although he was not the top man in Havana, as he was back in Tampa, he was sitting pretty in the spring of 1957. His new hotel—the Deauville—had opened along the Malecón. Built at a cost of $2.3 million, with a 140-room capacity, the 14-story hotel was nowhere near as lavish as Lansky’s highly anticipated Riviera, but it was nonetheless a solid moneymaker for Santo. Along with bolita banker Evaristo Garcia Jr., he was a major investor in the hotel, and he owned the gambling concession outright. Havana Mob veteran Joe Rivers managed the casino for Trafficante.

Overall, business was going so well for the Mafia don from Tampa that on March 12 he applied for permanent residency in Cuba, the better to oversee his various assets. Included among those assets was not only the Deauville but also the Comodoro hotel and casino, the Sans Souci nightclub and casino, International Amusements, Inc., and a piece of the gambling concession at the Tropicana. He also had another major hotel-nightclub-casino—the Capri—scheduled to open within the next six months.

To run his many business enterprises in Cuba, Trafficante assembled a crew within the Havana Mob that was primarily loyal to him, not Lansky. His most visible partner was Jimmy Longo, his longtime bodyguard and driver from the Tampa Mob. A key associate at the Deauville was John Martino, a Miami-based former loanshark and nightclub operator. Martino was also a specialist in electronic gaming machines, designed to increase the profits of casino owners. Another favored member of the crew was Ralph Reina, a former bolita partner of Trafficante’s father who ran the Hotel Comodoro. Later, Reina would become Trafficante’s bagman, with the all-important job of transporting suitcases filled with cash from the Havana casinos directly into Santo’s private bank accounts in Florida.

In Cuba, Trafficante was legendary for not only taking good care of his crew but also extending that hospitality to their family and friends. He would sometimes set them up in suites, take them out to dinner, or get them prized seats for floor shows at the Sans Souci or Tropicana. Tampa born and raised Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, who would later acquire fame as boxing champion Mohammad Ali’s cornerman, knew of Santo from his days in Ybor City. As a thirty-year-old doctor, Pacheco visited Havana, where Trafficante presided over his domain like a Sicilian prince. Remembered Pacheco: “If he knew you were from Tampa, everything you wanted in Cuba was on Santo.”

With Santo’s obsequious following and seemingly autonomous financial base, speculation circulated within the Havana Mob about his potential side deals. The most heated topic of discussion within criminal circles—and also within the halls of U.S. law enforcement—was whether or not the Tampa Mob boss was using Cuba as a transshipment point for the smuggling of narcotics into the United States.

Ever since Lucky Luciano’s time in Havana in 1946–47, the U.S. Narcotics Bureau had been obsessed with Cuba as a potential conduit for heroin and cocaine smuggling financed by the Mafia.

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