White Sox's Jose Abreu Ate Phony Passport To Cover Up Illegal Travel To U.S.

MIAMI, FL — Jose Abreu, the Chicago White Sox's Cuban first baseman, testified in federal court Wednesday that he ate pieces of a fake U.S. passport so he wouldn't be caught illegally traveling to the States as part of a player smuggling ring, The Associated Press reports.

Abreu was testifying in the trial of sports agent Bartolo Hernandez and trainer Julio Estrada who are accused of shuttling Cuban players from that island nation to third countries where they would become residents in order to sign big money U.S. baseball contracts, the report stated. According to Abreu, Estrada's Total Baseball company negotiated his Major League Baseball deal, and Hernandez helped with the player's training and living arrangements while in Haiti and the Dominican Republic after he left his home in Cuba, the report added.

During a flight from Haiti to Miami, Abreu — who was granted limited immunity and given time off from Sox spring training in Arizona to testify — said he drank a Heineken beer to wash down the page of his passport that had his photo and the alias he was using on it, the report stated. The 2014 American League Rookie of the Year was illegally flying to the United States so he could be in Chicago to sign his $68 million White Sox contract by the October 2013 deadline, the report added.

"Little by little I swallowed that first page of the passport," he told the jury, according to the AP. "I could not arrive in the United States with a false passport."

Abreu acquired the phony document and plane ticket from a fixer in Haiti after he and his family traveled by speedboat to the island from Cuba, the report stated. The 30-year-old ballplayer was told to destroy and dispose of the fake passport on the plane, and he felt running it through his digestive system was the best method to do this, the report added.

Under U.S. immigration policy concerning Cuba at the time, Abreu was able to stay in the country once he set foot in Miami, the report stated. That policy was later repealed by President Barack Obama, the report added.

In his first three major league seasons, Abreu has a .299 career batting average to go with 91 home runs and 307 RBI. Last season, he hit 25 homers and knocked in 100 runs.

More via The Associated Press

Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu in 2014. (photo by EricEnfermero | Wikimedia Commons)

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