Castro's head worth US $150,000 to CIA.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offered US$150,000 to Mafia figures to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro, just one of several CIA plots against foreign leaders detailed in 693 pages of classified US documents recently released, reports AFP (June 27, 2007):

Other CIA targets, now revealed in the agency's own documents, included Congo independence leader Patrice Lumumba and Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo. Among the CIA files is a lengthy memo which exposes the agency's recruitment of top mafia figures already wanted for crimes in order to assassinate Cuba's communist leader. "The mission target was Fidel Castro," said the 1973 document;

The man chosen for the "sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action" was one Johnny Roselli--in reality Santos Trafficant, head of mafia Cuba operations. He recruited a second man, called Sam Gold, whom the CIA discovered was actually Salvatore "Momo" Giancana, head of the Chicago mob and "successor to Al Capone." Both were on the US attorney general's ten most-wanted fugitives list. "It was to be made clear to Roselli that the US Government was not, and should not, become aware of this operation," it said;

The mafiosi recommended against the use of firearms to kill Castro, it said, and suggested "some type of potent pill that could be placed in Castro's food or drink." Sam indicated that he had a prospective nominee in the person of Juan Orta, a Cuban official who had been receiving kick-back payments from the gambling interests, who still had access to Castro, and was in a financial bind," the memo said. Roselli gave Orta the pills, but "after several weeks of reported attempts, Orta apparently got cold feet and asked out of the assignment." "Roselli made it clear he did not want any more for his part and believed Sam would feel the same way. Neither of these individuals were ever paid out of Agency funds," the document said;

The assassination was meant as a prelude to the disastrous invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs. The declassified documents were dubbed the CIA's "family jewels," denoting the importance of their secrecy. The files were assembled by then-director of the CIA James Schlesinger, after the agency was implicated in the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of president Richard Nixon in 1974. Details: the documents can be found on http://www.nsarchive.org