Luis González-Pardo, a retired Cuban Air Force pilot living in Florida, was named a defendant in a federal indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro and four other Cuban military officers. All five face conspiracy to commit murder for the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that killed three Americans and one U.S. resident over the Straits of Florida.

González-Pardo entered the U.S. repeatedly without disclosing his 30-year military career. Arrested in November, he pleaded guilty to immigration fraud in January and faces up to 10 years on May 28. The new murder conspiracy charges carry a potential life sentence. He flew one of the MiGs involved but did not open fire, according to the indictment.

Cuban exile investigator Luis Domínguez identified González-Pardo through U.N. aviation records and interviews with defectors. He faces May 28 sentencing on immigration charges days before the broader indictment trial looms. Congress flagged the pilot as tied to the 1996 attack when he entered the U.S. in 2024 under humanitarian parole.