Case File:
Ricardo Morales Navarrete
CIA Code Name: AMDESK-1
Street Moniker: "EL MONO" or "THE MONKEY"
Brigade 2506 ID: #2449
Exile
Ricardo Morales Navarrete, a dissenting young officer in Castro’s new G-2 secret police, engineered his defection to the United States. The new Castro regime was sniffing out operatives and supporters of the previous Batista administration and Morales feared his days were numbered. Both Morales’s father and grandfather were justices in the courts under Batista rule, and that might’ve carried more weight than a couple of arrests Morales endured for anti-Batista activities. When Morales's own G2 officers closed in, Morales killed his partner and went underground.
One day after a rushed wedding to his young love, Magda, Morales entered the Brazilian embassy where he’s kept for eighty-two days. He arrives on US soil in 1960, reunited with his bride, and sets up in Miami among a community of recent Cuban emigres, eager to spread the anti-communism sentiment by all means at their disposal.
Assassin
Fellow Op 40 veteran and friend Luis Posada reached out to Morales for assistance with a bombing. Curiously, this was not an anti-Castro mission, rather a job for hire from a gringo. After doing the job, Morales was introduced to the benefactor—Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. An organization other than the government was now interested in contracting the services of Miami’s most coveted espionage agent.
Lefty had not yet made his famous foray into Las Vegas, as depicted by Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese’s film Casino, and was entrenched in what the Miami news media began calling the “Bookie Wars.” Lefty and the Monkey hit it off, and in each other found a partnership.
CIA Operative
The inspired young Cuban men of Miami organized clandestine groups throughout the city and hatched plans to mobilize against any perceived supporters of Castro. The CIA took special interest in the activities in Miami as the US government’s tensions with Cuba became more palpable. They began recruiting the exiles for what would become Brigade 2506, the team sent on the doomed “Bay of Pigs” mission.
Morales was recruited for a more elite team called Operation 40—assembled, trained, and paid by the CIA to exact more targeted missions. Morales became one of eighty men who comprised Op 40 eventually serving in the Belgian Congo conflict and as a commisar in Venezuela's intelligence agency.
FBI Informant
The FBI realized the value of having Morales on the payroll, as the CIA had in making him a contract agent, as the bombings by militant rebel groups in Miami became more epidemic.
Morales’s notoriety in the anti-Cuba circles had grown and made him a primary connection for anyone looking to blow something up. Morales used his CIA, FBI, and Italian organized crime credentials to position himself as such, and in doing so both shielded and exposed himself, depending on the hunter.
Smuggler
In the four years Morales spent as a commander in DISIP, a sizable number of the restless and enterprising CIA-trained mercenaries spearheaded a burgeoning industry in Miami. The importation and distribution of marijuana and cocaine was beginning its boom and Morales landed in the middle of it, officially discarded by the FBI and CIA and off their payrolls.
Morales, though late to the party, found rapid entry into the marketplace via his connections to other operatives and exiles. While cavorting with drug kingpins was certainly a step down for the former US intelligence operative, acquiring his services was certainly a step up for traffickers for whom he’d work. Morales’s credentials with the US government gave him instant credibility and his knowledge of their inner workings made him a coveted asset to the smugglers.
Dad
Morales fathered four children in his tumultuous life. Rick, Jr's firsthand account of growing up in the shadow of Miami's most notorious exile is on full display in the riveting biography, Monkey Morales. Though a remarkable triple agent and clandestine operative, Monkey's challenges as a father had damaging lasting effects on the innocents closest to him.
Painstakingly built from six years of exacting research, thousands of documents, and countless hours of interviews, authors Sean Oliver and Rick Morales, Jr unveil a life lived in the shadows—his partners in crime which will leave readers stunned and spellbound.
