OPERACION FANTASMA
(Operation Phantom)
REFERENCES:
-Dade County Florida Circuit court case 63L-511, Melbourne Airways vs National Insurance, transcript and depositions.
-Interview with a managerial official of Operacion Fantasma.
-Interview with an operational participant of Operacion Fantasma.
-CIA Memorandum for Stanley J. Crogan/Grogan, assistant to the Director, n.d., approved for release February 1967.
-Miscellaneous news articles and FBI reports which, for the most part, were factually erroneous.
Dr. Sergio Rojas Santamaria was a well educated and connected with the
old Cuban sugar business in Cuba. A formidable revolutionary who
had fought against Batista and rewarded with the ambassador post to
London in 1959. With the end of the Urrutia presidency under
Castro, Rojas resigned his post in June 1960 and turned once again to
crush another dictator ruling his homeland. At the Bay of Pigs
invasion, he was assigned to a ship which was engaged in a diversionary
action and never landed. With the failure of the entire venture,
Dr. Rojas set off on his own to fight Castro using his powerful
connections.
Sergio Rojas devised a plan to prepare the Cuban people for the next
invasion by sending planes over his homeland to drop leaflets.
Deep inside he knew this would not bring Castro to his knees, yet this
is the plan which he presented the CIA. They liked the idea and
agreed to finance the plan with $240,000 to be paid in three equal
parts of $80,000. Even as he left the CIA operated hotel in
Washington, he and a few low ranking operatives of the Company had
already planned how they were going to divert some of the leaflet
dropping funds to more aggressive commando operations.
By the Fall of 1961 OPERACION FANTASMA (Operation Phantom) was nearing the first phase of the operation by having two types of
leaflets
printed and American mercenaries recruited for the delivery over
Cuba. Sergio Rojas' second in command of the overall operation
was Frank Gutierrez a former radio station administrator in Cuba.
Commando operations to hit certain Castro and Russian targets both on
the coast of Cuba and at sea was also taking shape with the appointment
of Pedro Diaz Lanz as head of the Air Group and Alfred de Berly as
Chief of Intelligence. De Berly immediately utilized his Israeli
contacts. Diaz Lanz' half brother, Sergio Bruwell, went to
Norfolk, bought a used USCG patrol boat, and loaded it with ordinance
from the local Navy supply. It was sheltered in the Cape
Canaveral area on the Indian River near Vero Beach. The mother
ship was kept on the Miami River since it was less noticeable.
Another launch able to do 40 knots was purchased by an exile benefactor
for $25,000 and belonged to Diaz Lanz. The Somoza contact in
Miami was Nicaraguan Consul Aleret.
Commando operations were to start in January 1962 with a raid on a port
city in Camaguey Province from the Cayman Islands returning to
Nicaragua. But first there were the leaflet raids. The
first action came in on October 21, 1961 with a successful leaflet raid
over Matanzas Province with
Frank Fiorini
(Sturgis) and either Robert Thompson or Robert Swanner aboard.
Each received $500 for the mission. The second raid over Santiago
in December 1961 changed the course of OPERACION FANTASMA.
On December 10, 1961 William Johnson, Robert Swanner, and Hazen Jones
met in a restaurant on Brickell Avenue in Miami to go over their orders
for taking the leaflets to Norman's Cay where they would meet the
rented plane and drop the cargo, by making several runs, over
Santiago. There were few alternatives on missions like these, so
there wasn't much to discuss except the rendezvous in the Bahamas.
On the 12th Johnson called Melbourne Airways from Miami for a charter
and specifically asked that Thompson, who he had flown with before, be
the pilot. He stated that he wanted to show real estate to some
customers. The next evening Hazen Jones rents a 35 foot
Chris-Craftfrom Miami Yacht Rentals on which 20 bundles of leaflets
were loaded by Frank Fiorini and
Alex Rorke. Around midnight Fiorini watched as the boat passed into the darkness with Jones, Johnson, and Rorke aboard
From Miami the boat went by way of Gun Cay which they were at by
daybreak on the 13th, running the "flats", over the top end of Andros
Island and cut through the Northwest Channel arriving at the Norman Cay
channel after dark, anchored the boat a few miles off, and turned in
until daybreak. The leaflet cargo was off-loaded around
06:30 into a truck which Arlen Watts, the island's caretaker, had
left for them. As soon as the leaflets were stored in a service
shack near the airstrip, they headed to Nassau to clear customs as
required when entering the Bahamas.
Meanwhile Thompson flies the Piper from Melbourne Airways to North Fort
Lauderdale to get Fiorini and Swanner and they also head for
Bahamian Customs clearance, filing a flight plan with West Palm Beach
by radio, destination:"...Andros Island from Fort Lauderdale...".
The Piper arrived around noon at Fresh Creek, Andros with "three crew
and no cargo". After about an hour the plane left for Nassau
for fuel and headed for Norman's Cay while the Chris-Craft made
its way back. Upon landing the seat and door were removed from
the Piper and about seven bundles of leaflets loaded onto the
plane. Swanner and Thompson boarded the red and white Piper and
headed South for Cuba at 18:00 passing over the Chris-Craft as it
returned from Nassau.
After docking the boat, they went to Watts' house and talked with
Fiorini who met them after walking about a mile from the
airstrip. The plane was making its first and fateful run. They
talked until around 22:30 or 23:00 when it was time to return to the
airstrip to meet the plane, which would not return. A squall line
had built up about 21:30 so they waited until the plane's fuel would
have run out, which would have been around 00:30 or 01:00.
On Friday December 15, after loading the plane's door and seat, as well
as the remaining pamphlets onto the boat, Fiorini, Johnson, and Rorke
left Norman Cay on the Chris-Craft, bound for Staniel Cay, an
uninhabited island, where they stashed the door, seat and
pamphlets. Jones, however, kept some pamphlets as souvenirs.
On Saturday they returned to Norman Cay in the morning to receive any
possible radio telephone calls and then headed back to Miami. The
Piper was to have been returned to Melbourne today. On Sunday the
17th a call was made to the FAA and the USCG to start a search for the
missing plane. The Border Patrol was notified on the 20th.
Sometime after the loss of the plane
Julio Lobo
called a meeting at the Miami Springs Motel. The conference
attendees consisted of Osvaldo Padron, Sergio Rojas, Mario Llerena,
Armando Castellanos, and two aviators, one being
Eduardo Ferrer.
Due to the loss of the plane, and higher-ups in both the Agency and
other branches of the Government getting wind of the incident, all
operations were suspended for a time. Sergio Rojas relocated to
Spain, others just disappeared, most were left "swinging in the wind"
by the Phantom CIA.
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