Florida-based drug smuggler Fernando Pruna is not the kind of customer to whom most Irish banks would happily lend more than $1 million.
The Moriarty tribunal was told yesterday he received the loans from Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust between 1985 and 1988.
At the beginning of that period Pruna had begun expanding his Miami-based marijuana smuggling business, and moving into the more lucrative cocaine trafficking trade. Key Customs officials were part of his elaborate ring which brought millions of dollars worth of drugs from Colombia to Florida through the Bahamas and Belize.
By the end of that period, 1988, he had been indicted on charges of drug trafficking, cocaine conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana. He had fled to Argentina, using forged documents to avoid arraignment, and had begun a four-year battle to avoid extradition back to the US.
He was eventually returned to the US and in 1993 he was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for drug trafficking and attempting to bribe a witness.
Pruna (64) would not be considered a safe customer by most Irish fund or bank managers. He arrived in the US in 1980 after being released from a Cuban prison by Fidel Castro, who had held him as a political prisoner for the previous 17 years.
Pruna initially worked as an investment banker in Miami, before teaming up with his brother, Andres, to begin drug trafficking.
According to FBI agents, Pruna's operation quickly expanded. By the time he was arrested his smuggling scheme included airdrops of marijuana from Cessna aircraft, the use of mother ships and fast boats from the Bahamas, and a refuelling station in Mexico for his drugs vessels.
With the scale of the smuggling came the rewards. His assets included a 140-acre ranch in Texas, aircraft and jewellery. On his arrest, FBI agents seized three freighters, five smaller boats, a plane, $54,000 in cash and property worth $500,000. As part of the international investigation, the Dutch authorities also seized a 120-foot vessel.
Pruna's drugs ring included corrupt Customs officials in key positions. When FBI and Customs Service agents swooped on Pruna in 1987 following a twoyear investigation, they arrested 23 people, including three former customs supervisors. These included a pilot who ran the radar and drug-spotting planes during night patrol flights from Florida, the official who ran the customs unit at Key Largo, and the official in charge of the tactical enforcement division in New Orleans.
Born in 1935, the son of a prominent Havana lawyer, Pruna attended private schools in the US and worked for three Canadian mineral firms before returning to Cuba in 1957. He was elected to Cuba's House of Representatives but following the revolution he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.
Pruna escaped and joined the anti-Castro resistance movement, fighting as a guerrilla in the mountains of Pinar del Rio. At the age of 24 he was captured and sentenced to death by firing squad after being accused of being a CIA agent. However, his death sentence was subsequently replaced with a 35-year sentence. He was released after 17 years and left Cuba.
During a newspaper interview from his jail cell at the Federal Correction Institute, Jessup, Georgia, in 1993, Pruna expressed regret for whatever harm he had caused. "I never took drugs, not even marijuana," he said. "Yes, I got rich and had an opulent lifestyle. It was a dreadful mistake."
Due to a combination of good behaviour and parole, he was released from jail in 1996 and is living out the remainder of his sentence under Probation Service supervision in Miami.