The sister of a high-ranking Cuban official is now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after she was arrested in Miami on Thursday, the latest move in an escalating pressure campaign against Cuba’s ruling party and its leaders.

A photo released by ICE Homeland Security Investigations shows Adys Lastres Morera being taken away in Miami, with HSI calling her “a deportable lawful permanent resident whose presence poses a threat to the United States and undermines American foreign policy interests.”

Her sister, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, is the executive president of GAESA, a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.

“They have a private military company named Gaesa who’s sitting on $18 billion of assets, and not a penny of that transfers over to the state budget. Not a penny of that goes over to help the people of Cuba. Not one cent,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Gaesa is a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, and it’s even more powerful than the island’s communist party.

GAESA controls hotels, gas stations, supermarkets, currency exchange, marinas, real estate and many more entities on the island.

U.S. officials estimate that GAESA, which is a private company, controls 40% or more of Cuba’s economy.

“GAESA wields such immense power that the Cuban government, the government led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, Manuel Marrero, and others, must ask GAESA for the resources needed to manage the country. And GAESA provides them if it so chooses,” said investigative journalist Mario Penton of Marti Noticias, who focuses on covering Cuba.

In March, Marti Noticias published a report detailing Adys Lastres Morera’s alleged association with investment companies.

“Something that strikes us as particularly noteworthy is that Adys Lastres Morera arrived in the United States in 2023, having been petitioned by her son, U.S. citizen Ernesto Carvajal Lastres,” Penton said. “And immediately thereafter, her name appeared associated as a manager at Santa Elena Investments and Remas Investments, companies dedicated to real estate investments in Florida.”

Penton said shortly after his report became public, everything related to those real estate investment companies was wiped from the internet.

Rubio said he terminated Adys Lastres Morera’s permanent resident status, posting to X, “There will be nowhere on this earth, much less in our country – where foreign nationals who threaten our national security can live lavishly.”

Adys Lastres Morera’s son said over the phone Thursday that he’s in crisis mode, trying to figure out where his mom is and why she was detained.

“I am not entirely clear on how Marco Rubio can have the authority to revoke residency without going through a court process,” he said.

Adys Lastres Morera’s son said he’s a U.S. citizen and has been living in the U.S. for 12 years. He’s currently looking for an attorney who can take his mother’s case.

SOUTH MIAMI, Fla. — A 50-year-old man was arrested Wednesday, nearly a week after he followed a woman who had just left a gym in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood and then exposed himself to her while she was stopped at an intersection in South Miami, authorities said.

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According to an arrest report from the South Miami Police Department, the victim told police that just after leaving the gym last Friday, she immediately noticed that she was being followed by a gray Tesla Model Y.

“The vehicle continued following the victim southbound on S. Dixie Highway while the driver attempted to gain her attention,” a police officer wrote in the arrest report.

The driver, later identified by police as Rogerio Miranda De Souza, of Pinecrest, was also “brake checking” her “in a manner that could have caused a collision,” the report stated.

Police said the victim was stopped near the intersection of South Dixie Highway and Southwest 70th Street when Miranda De Souza drove extremely close to the driver’s side of her vehicle, at which time she noticed his pants were lowered, exposing his genitals, and he was stroking his penis while making direct eye contact with her.

The victim provided detectives with the vehicle’s license plate number and a physical description of the suspect.

Police said she later identified Miranda De Souza in a photo lineup.

He was arrested Wednesday on a charge of indecent exposure.

As of Thursday morning, Miranda De Souza was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $1,000 bond.

“Investigators have since learned that a neighboring law enforcement agency is conducting a separate investigation involving the same subject under similar circumstances,” a news release from SMPD stated. “Based on the ongoing investigation and the similarities between the incidents, detectives believe there may be additional victims who have not yet reported their encounters to law enforcement.”

Anyone with information about this investigation, or who believes they may have been victimized by Miranda De Souza is asked to call the South Miami Police Department or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

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