Cuban authorities are investigating illegal cash trafficking through a transnational company that, according to the Ministry of the Interior, operates outside the national banking system and puts pressure on the country’s already fragile monetary stability.
The most recent case, identified as file 121/2025, involves the Cuban citizen Humberto Julio Mora Caballero, who from the US would have organized a network of front men and operators in Cuba to move foreign currency abroad and large volumes of cash in national currency within the island.
Lieutenant Colonel Yisnel Rivero Crespo explained to Cubadebate that these structures function by capturing remittances, but without channeling them into the Cuban financial system.
Families receive the equivalent in pesos, while the dollars remain abroad to pay for private imports or support illicit operations.
Between February and September 2025, This network would have mobilized more than one billion pesos and close to 250 thousand dollars.
The authorities maintain that these schemes aggravate the country’s foreign currency shortage, limit the ability to pay for essential imports and contribute to the rise of the informal exchange rate, which conditions the general rise in prices. According to the Minint official, it is about “cutting off illegal flows that affect the national economy.”
The phenomenon, they add, thrives in a context of economic crisis, high inflation and severe restrictions on international transactions due to the United States embargo against Cuba.
In parallel, Panama reported this week two consecutive cases of undeclared money income coming from flights from Havana, which raise suspicions about a increase in irregular cash movement on routes linked to Cuba.
Panama retains more than 151 thousand dollars from travelers from Havana “for not declaring them”
The Minint assures that it is preparing new financial control actions and confrontation with these networks, which combine actors inside and outside the country.
