Jose Abreu ate his fake passport

Jose Abreu was a witness in a testimony earlier Wednesday morning in a case regarding the smuggling of Cuban baseball players.

Jose Abreu, the first baseman for the Chicago White Sox, told an interesting story Wednesday as he testified in front of a Miami federal court. The gist of his story was that he ate part of his fake passport to come to the United States.

Abreu, a Cuban immigrant, admitted to traveling to the United States under a false passport because he if he was not “there on that particular day, the deadline, then the contract would not be executed and would no longer be valid,” Abreu told jurors. “We had to be in Chicago to sign the contract.”

Bartolo Hernandez and Julio Estrada are accused of smuggling Cubans from their home country in order to come to the United States to play baseball for the Major Baseball League.

Abreu described to the court how he destroyed the fake passport: “Little by little I swallowed that first page of the passport. I could not arrive in the United States with a false passport,” he said. Abreu is not the only Cuban baseball player involved in this trial. Adeiny Hechavarria and Leonys Martin are two of the other players that were asked to testify Wednesday.

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Abreu, along with the others who testified, were granted “limited immunity,” which states that there would be no penalty for revealing everything that they know to the court.

The White Sox granted Abreu a leave of absence from the team to participate in the federal case. Abreu won the Rookie of the Year Award back in 2013 and last season notched 25 home runs and 100 RBIs. Hopefully, Abreu can make his return to the team soon and get the White Sox back on the right track.