3 BAY CUBAN CIGAR SELLERS PLEAD GUILTY

Three Bay Area residents who smuggled thousands of Cuban cigars into
California pleaded guilty Monday to charges of trading with an enemy of the
United States.

Ringleader Joseph Bruce Hybl, 41; his girlfriend Julie Ann Chatard, 35; and
Jack R. Bramy, 49, will be sentenced on July 27 in U.S. District Court in
Sacramento, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Seave.

Two other members of the international smuggling ring, Xavier Abrego, 44,
and his wife, Kimberleigh Lavonne Ferm, 39, both of Elk Grove, pleaded
guilty previously, Seave said.

The five were indicted by a federal grand jury a year ago after they
supplied undercover agents in Sacramento, Atherton and elsewhere with Cuban
cigars, officials said.

Importation of Cuban cigars and other Cuban goods without a license has
been a crime since 1963 when President John F. Kennedy imposed a trade ban
on the communist island.

Abrego and Ferm were arrested April 18, 1997, after delivering about 64
boxes of Cuban cigars to an undercover agent, prosecutors said.
Specifically, Hybl, Chatard, Abrego and Ferm each pleaded guilty to one
count of conspiracy and one count of trading with an enemy. They face up to
15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines, the government said in a prepared
statement.

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)