Ric Prado is a Cuban born and raised in the Cuban Empire. He was born in 1952 during the reign of Fidel Castro, and when he was 10 years old in 1962, his parents decided to send him to the United States for freedom and a better life. At that time, Ric's family business, which was a coffee roasting business, was seized by the government.
"Rick in a scuba diving suit from when he was in the U.S. Air Force."
Before joining the CIA, Rick joined the United States Air Force Special Operations as a "Pararescue" for more than 10 years from 1971 to 1981. At that time, it was the end of the Vietnam War and Rick's intention to join the military was to fight in Vietnam. But his will was lost, so Rick turned his attention to the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA. At first, Rick was rejected from applying to work with the CIA because the organization had enough people at that time. But then his opportunity came when the CIA needed personnel who could speak Spanish to infiltrate and train the resistance group in Nicaragua to fight against the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which was supported by the Soviet Union.
"Rick during weapons training to return to the armed group that is resisting the Sandinistas."
He once trained fishermen who were “lobster divers” to be able to perform tasks comparable to “frogmen”. The lobster divers once committed sabotage acts on several occasions where he was almost killed. All of this was on his first mission.
"A lobster diver that Rick trained to be capable of performing sabotage operations."
In addition to Nicaragua, Nick was also sent to other countries such as Peru and the Philippines to support the resistance against communist forces in those countries. There are many other countries where Nick has worked, but the information is still classified and cannot be disclosed to the public.
"Rick on a Black Water helicopter in Iraq"
After the Cold War ended, a new type of warfare emerged, which changed Nick's job. In 1995, he was one of the first CIA recruits to track down an enemy he had never heard of before: Osama bin Laden. At the time, plans to kill bin Laden were being proposed almost weekly while he was living in Khartoum, Sudan. The only reason bin Laden wasn't killed was because he wasn't the CIA's primary target at the time, but "Carlos the Jackal," the suspect in the OPEC hostage-taking in Vienna, Austria, which killed three people.
Rick went on to say that at the time they could have kidnapped Bin Laden, but they didn't have permission, and of course Rick believes that if he and his team had been able to kidnap Bin Laden and have him detained and interrogated then, something like the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented.
"Rick in 2000 in Africa, which he can't reveal which country."
Rick decided to retire from the CIA after a disagreement with his superiors. After Rick decided to leave the CIA, he wrote a book called “Black Ops – The life of a CIA shadow warrior”. Before his book could be published, he had to send it to the CIA so that the CIA could consider the information he had written in his book. Even though he is 70 years old, Rick still serves as a trainer for the local SWAT team in Florida.
"Rick currently serves as a trainer for a local SWAT team in Florida."
