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Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Officials in Cuba said they have arrested 17 people in a Russian human trafficking scheme that tricked young men on the island into fighting for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Cesar Rodriguez, Cuba's criminal investigation department lead, announced the arrests Thursday on the state-run news channel Canal Caribe.
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Rodriguez said that one of the people arrested was responsible for organizing efforts to recruit inside Cuba. He did not name any of the individuals arrested or their contacts in Russia.
Rodriguez said the recruiters were targeting Cubans interested in military activity, focusing on those with criminal records who had exhibited "antisocial behavior."
The Cuban foreign ministry earlier in the week condemned the trafficking operation between allies where Russia used contacts on the island nation to recruit young Cubans to fight. Moscow has been desperate for more bodies in the war.
"Cuba has a firm and clear historical position against mercenarism, and it plays an active role in the United Nations in rejection of the aforementioned practice, being the author of several of the initiatives approved in that forum," the Cuban foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.
"Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine. It is acting and it will firmly act against those who within the national territory participate in any form of human trafficking for mercenarism or recruitment purposes so that Cuban citizens may raise weapons against any country."
Cuba and Russia have been allies since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. More recently, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin announced their plans to strengthen ties between the two countries.
Russia, though, has struggled to attract recruits to its war effort, with some fighting-age Russian men being reported leaving the country quietly to avoid the war. The Wagner Group had been accused of using convicts from Russian prisons to fight in the Ukrainian invasion.
