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Zoom speaker David Tuch recounts the astonishing true story of his cousin, Harold Derber: a British Merchant Navy radio operator who carried his wartime training into the clandestine networks of the Cold War. He worked with Fidel Castro to smuggle Cuban refugees off the island, while tangling with Cuban intelligence, the Miami Mafia, and the CIA. Attorney James Donovan features heavily in his book because his cousin's ship, The Empress of Bahamas, was selected to return the Bay of Pigs prisoners after Donovan's successful negotiation. The Red Cross reneged on the deal, but his cousin went ahead anyway, which brought the full weight of the CIA and State Department crashing down on him, eventually leading to his deportation as a national security risk. By the 1970s, Derber had become the largest marijuana trafficker in American history, pioneering the use of "drug motherships” and running a guns-for-drugs trade to arm Marxist guerrillas in Latin America. Drawing on declassified files, an unpublished memoir, and accounts from the undercover investigators who pursued him, The Wireless Operator uncovers how one man’s secret life at the crossroads of espionage, organized crime, and revolution during the Cold War helped ignite the modern war on drugs.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3850231-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3850231-2
