Mafia Spies Tells the Story Behind the CIA's Failed Plan to Assassinate Castro

Tom Donahue and Ilan Arboleda are sitting in a small coffee shop in Coral Gables, just off Miracle Mile. The string lights hanging directly outside the shop grow increasingly luminescent as the sky darkens. It's one of those hot and sticky Miami nights, so the duo is safely indoors, surrounded by the icy cold embrace of the air conditioning.

Although the filmmakers have known each other for two decades, they've been in business for 14 years and have worked on 15 projects together. Mafia Spies is the latest project from their production company, Creative Chaos, and premieres today on Paramount+.

The pair's longtime friend and fellow producer, Danny Strong, approached Donahue and Arboleda in late 2022 with the 424-page book Mafia Spies by Thomas Maier, which dives into the government's involvement in the failed association attempt against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. He asked, "Can we make this a documentary series?"

The duo read the book and immediately got to work.

Taking a sip of his iced coffee, Donahue speaks matter-of-factly. "We both love old movies from the Sixties, and Mafia Spies was very old Hollywood. This was old Vegas. This was old Palm Springs. This was old Miami. So we saw this as a very romantic series, but we also knew that we wanted to do what Thomas Maier did with his book, which is tell a story that's all grounded in fact," says Donahue, who, in addition to producing the series, also wrote and directed all six episodes.

Anyone who grew up in Miami knows snippets likely riddled with conspiracy theories about how the U.S. government tried — and failed — to assassinate Castro in the 1960s. Now, viewers can learn a thing or ten about what actually happened from people who lived through it.

Miami is all over Mafia Spies. The famed Fontainebleau is where the initial deal with the mafia goes down. The Magic City essentially became a CIA base in the Sixties. The show also touches upon Operation Mongoose and the Bay of Pigs. The docuseries is equal parts entertaining and educational.
Arboleda, who was born and raised in Miami, places his elbows on the marbled tabletop and leans forward. "Growing up with all the stories of the exiles and all their efforts to try and take down Castro, and now we bring that all to light [in Mafia Spies], that was exciting for me to tell that story."

Arboleda continues, "And then the other thing that I really loved about being from Miami was the idea that we could tell a story about a side of history of Miami that is told often, but it's not told to a larger audience."

"Many of these stories about spies and mobsters are always told from a very American point of view," Donahue adds. "So we wanted to make sure to show the Cuban side's point of view. I think that's rarely done."

The filmmakers used Maier's book as the foundation for the series while also interviewing a bevy of folks to support the storyline. In addition to the top-notch reenactments with actors like Robert Davi, they feature interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, educators, authors, actors, and other people with firsthand accounts.

"It was interesting to hear from these people who helped bring the stories to life in the show," Donahue says. "It's not just a lot of academics; there's a lot of first-person, too, and that was really important to us."

Of all the wild storylines that swirl around in Mafia Spies — like the hit that was put on Frank Sinatra or how the Chicago mob helped win John F. Kennedy the election — one thread that stands out to Donahue and Arboleda is about a family named Fuller.
For generations, the Fuller family lived in Cuba, where they ran a lumber business. Even though the family was American, they felt very Cuban and very much connected to the land. When Castro took over, they left the island. "They had to flee like everyone else had to flee, and one of the young sons was determined to get revenge on Castro," Arboleda explains.

That son was named Robert, who also went by the name Bobbie. A former Marine, Bobbie joined up with other exiles and decided to take a boat down the Miami River and invade Cuba in October 1960. The boat was immediately seized, and two of Bobbie's shipmates were killed instantly on the shores while Fuller was taken into custody. After being tortured, the 26-year-old was executed at a stadium in Cuba, and his death was televised.

Meanwhile, in Miami, the Fuller family, including younger brother Fred, listened intently on the radio and heard the whole thing 90 miles away. Fred, who is still alive today, was interviewed for Mafia Spies and shared his testimony in the series.

"That's a really powerful story. It's a very Miami story," says Arboleda, letting his head drop.

While Fuller's story only appears in the second episode, one character looms over the six-episode series: gangster Johnny Roselli.

Roselli is labeled the "fixer" for the Chicago mob and is married to an American actress. To everyone in Hollywood, however, he's a "strategist." He's eventually recruited by a former agent to help the U.S. government in their secret invade-Cuba-and-take-out-Castro mission.

"He knew that he had to bring on someone even bigger than him, so he brings on Sam Giancana, the head of the Chicago mob," says Arboleda, setting the tone for the entire Mafia Spies series.

Looking over at his filmmaking partner, Donahue jokes, "How is this not scripted?"

All six episodes of Mafia Spies can be streamed now on Paramount+.