Democrats Return Drug Smuggler’s Check

WASHINGTON —  The Democratic National Committee has returned a $20,000 political contribution from a man later convicted of smuggling cocaine, committee spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said Saturday.

The contributor, Jorge Cabrera, made the contribution in November 1995, almost a year before his conviction.

The contribution, disclosed by the Miami Herald, came during a week in which Republicans have charged that the Democrats have accepted illegal donations from Asian businessmen.

Democrats have countered that the Republicans were forced to return a contribution from a Canadian company.

Although donations from foreigners are illegal under U.S. election law, there is no such prohibition against contributions from convicted felons.

Accepting money from someone like Cabrera, however, is an embarrassment that politicians try to avoid.

“It’s very difficult to check these things,” said Tobe. “Obviously, when we accepted his donation, we couldn’t foreshadow that he was going to break the law a year later.”

After making the contribution, Cabrera was invited to a political reception attended by Vice President Al Gore in Miami and to a reception at the White House during the Christmas season.

Although Cabrera’s record showed two drug arrests before he made the contribution, he had never been convicted on drug charges. In both cases, he pleaded guilty to non-drug charges.

Last January, however, Cabrera and several associates were arrested in a police raid that uncovered 6,000 pounds of cocaine. Cabrera was convicted of cocaine smuggling a few weeks ago and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

After the sentencing, the newspaper identified the convicted drug smuggler as a donor of $20,000 to the DNC. Until the story appeared earlier last week, Tobe said, the committee did not know Cabrera had been convicted on drug charges. “We returned the check immediately,” she said.