Florida boat in Cuban high-seas shootout stolen, US citizens aboard
- Two U.S. citizens were involved in a shootout with the Cuban coast guard, resulting in one's death and the other's injury.
- The incident involved ten men on a speedboat reported stolen from Florida, which Cuban authorities say was carrying weapons and tactical gear.
- Cuba has accused the men of participating in a terrorist plot, an allegation U.S. officials have not confirmed.
This is a developing story and will be updated as details emerge.
Two U.S. citizens were among the ten men in a high-seas shootout with Cuban coast guard agents, U.S. officials confirmed, and the boat they were in had been reported stolen.
The revelation that two people aboard the boat were U.S. citizens raises the stakes in the Feb. 25 incident that has triggered investigations in Washington and Havana.
One of the U.S. citizens was killed and the other injured, U.S. officials said. A third person was on a K-1 visa to enter the U.S. to marry a U.S. citizen. Others may be legal permanent residents. Some on the boat have criminal records, the officials said. The immigration statuses of those involved was first reported by Axios.
The boat, a 24-foot open watercraft registered in Florida, had been docked at a pier in Big Pine Key, about 30 miles east of Key West, according to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office incident report. The owner of the boat, whose registration matches the one provided by Cuban authorities, noticed it missing at around 9:30 a.m. that day.
When he saw news reports of the shooting near Cuba's coast, he realized his boat had been used and called police, the report said.
Cuban authorities said that when the boat was intercepted in its territorial waters on Feb. 25 those aboard were carrying assault rifles, handguns, improvised explosive devices, bulletproof vests and other tactical military gear. Four were killed. Six were arrested. Another man was detained in Cuba accused of aiding the men on the boat.
Cuba's Interior Ministry has accused all of the people involved of taking part in a terrorist plot, though officials in Washington have not corroborated that accusation.
What do we know about the ten men involved in the latest escalation between two Cold war-era foes?
Who were the people involved in the Cuba speedboat shooting?
Among those detained, according to Cuban authorities, were:
- Amijail Sánchez González
- Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez
- Conrado Galindo Sariol
- José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló
- Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara
- Roberto Álvarez Ávila
Those killed were identified by Cuban authorities as:
- Pavel Alling Peña
- Michael Ortega Casanova
- Ledián Padrón Guevara
- Hector Duani Cruz Correa
Cuba has said that the majority of the participants in the incident have a history of criminal and violent activity. There does appear to be some accuracy to that assertion.
A Cuban official on Feb. 26 also corrected an initial report by his government that misstated the name of one of the suspects captured in Cuba and alleged to be assisting the men in the boat. That person, Rolando Roberto Azcorra Consuegra, says he was in Miami at the time of the shooting.
Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, an exile group that opposes the Cuban regime, warned not to put too much credence into details of the incident emerging from the Cuban government.
His name appears on the same Cuban terrorist list as Sánchez González for allegedly starting an anti-Castro guerilla group − that was actually created six years before he was born.
"They have a history of lying and committing crimes," Gutierrez-Boronat said. "Why should we believe anything they say, especially at a moment like now when there's real pressure on them?"
Amijail Sánchez González
Sanchez Gonzalez, 47, was arrested in Miami-Dade County in 2020 and charged with aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, fleeing the scene of a crime, reckless driving and property damage, according to public records. He spent over a year in jail. Two years later, he was back in jail on charges of tampering with an electronic monitor, a felony offense. He was also one the two men detained this week who Cuba's Ministry of Justice previously added to its "international most wanted" list, which also includes members of Miami’s exile community dating back to 1999, according to a justice ministry "gazette" sent to USA TODAY by a Cuban official.
Sanchez Gonzalez lives in a suburb of Miami-Dade County just south of Miami.
In the justice ministry gazette, Sánchez González was accused of inciting an act of sabotage against the Municipal People's Court of Central Havana in 2022. And in 2023, Cuban authorities said he smuggled firearms, ammunition and other supplies across the northern coast of Cuba's Matanzas Province "with the purpose of carrying out terrorist acts against military units.” He was allegedly financed by supporters residing in the U.S.
Separately, in a 2023 news bulletin from Cuban officials identifying alleged wanted terrorists, Sanchez González was among those named. A translated report by government media at the time showed a photo of Sanchez González that matches social media photos and videos promoting Cuban liberation found by USA TODAY.
In one of those video posts, the man who appears to be Sanchez González calls out President Donald Trump for speaking about taking over Cuba as president but doing nothing to make liberation happen. The man uses Spanish curse words to punctuate frustration and urgency for change.
"We are going to fight for Cuba,” he said multiple times in the post. Later, he said, "I have the balls to do what needs to be done now.” He thanks America for welcoming him as a refugee and giving him a life back, including the opportunity to start a family. "But I want to die how real men die."
Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez
Cruz Gómez, also 47, was the other man added to Cuba's "international most wanted list."
Authorities opened up an investigation into him in 2025 for "sabotage activities" carried out in Villa Clara, Cuba, for which another Cuban citizen was arrested and prosecuted. A person with the same name as Cruz Gómez appears to have last resided at an address in Tampa, Fla., according to public records, which also associated that name with criminal activity, several arrests and the ownership of hunting and fishing licenses.
It was not immediately clear if they were one and the same person.
Neither Sánchez González nor Cruz Gómez were available to comment on the allegations. Attempts to reach potential family members or representatives in Cuba and the U.S. were not immediately successful.
Conrado Galindo Sariol
Posts on an Instagram account that appears to belong to Galindo Sorial alternate between videos of him offering deals on cars in a Miami used car lot and photos and interviews with prominent Cuban exiles advocating for a free Cuba.
In a March 2025 interview on the Radio Martí podcast, a hardline Cuban exile advocacy show, Galindo Sorial described how his mother was a teacher and his father fought alongside Castro’s troops in the Sierra Maestra but later became disillusioned with the regime.
Beginning around 1991, Galindo Sorial became involved with the opposition in Cuba, distributing anti-Castro pamphlets and writing underground articles against the regime, before landing in a prison in Camaguey. He later left for Miami.
In the interview, Galindo Sorial said he dreams of a free Cuba, where all Cubans have equal rights and the ability to defend their homeland.
“Cuba is a jewel of the Americas,” he said. “Before I die, I would like to see her free.”
Roberto Azcorra Consuegra
Cuban authorities retracted their accusation that Azcorra Consuegra aided the men in the boat on Feb. 26.
In a television interview on Feb. 26 with a local NBC affiliate in Florida, a man who identified himself as Azcorra Consuegra said he was surprised to learn his name was on the list originally issued by Cuba's Interior Ministry because he was at that moment in South Florida and not on the island. He also denied knowledge of any plans to go to Cuba.
Asked why he believed the Cuban government would put his name on the list and accuse him of terrorism, Azcorra Consuegra said: "They know me. They know me well, they know it all."
U.S. and Cuba: What now?
Cuba's government has accused the 10 people aboard the speedboat it intercepted off its coast of planning "an armed infiltration with terrorist aims." The U.S. has said little about the incident, though its top diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has said that Washington was investigating the "highly unusual" incident.
Rubio said on Feb. 25 it was not a U.S. government operation and that he wasn’t "going to speculate about whose boat it was, what they were doing, why they were there, what actually happened."
The episode comes at a time of increased tension between the U.S. and Cuba, longtime adversaries. It also comes less than two months after American forces seized Cuba's close ally, Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, in a raid that has had severe economic and humanitarian consequences for Cuba.
Venezuela has supplied Cuba's oil for more than two decades. In the wake of the U.S. operation, Washington imposed an oil embargo on Cuba. However, in recent days it has moved to ease those restrictions as Cuba's Caribbean-nation neighbors have warned that the embargo could destabilize the entire region.
Kim Hjelmgaard, Rick Jervis and Jayme Fraser are all reporters on the USA TODAY Investigations team. Francesca Chambers is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY covering foreign policy.