Cuban baseball star Andy Morales' attempted defection to the United States ended Wednesday in repatriation by the U.S. Coast Guard after he failed to convince immigration officials that he would face political persecution in Cuba.

Morales, who was repatriated along with 30 other passengers intercepted at sea in what federal investigators say was a smuggling venture, is the highest-profile Cuban athlete turned back to Cuba by U.S. authorities. Also in the returned group was another, lesser-known Cuban baseball player, Carlos Borrego.

Federal authorities also opened an investigation into the alleged smuggling operation. They seized the dangerously overloaded $80,000 speedboat that carried the Cubans and a second powerboat found in the Florida Keys that they believe belongs to the same organized ring. Two suspected smugglers, both Florida residents, were detained for possible deportation to Cuba, the U.S. Border Patrol said.

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials declined to discuss the repatriation in detail, citing confidentiality policies. But agency spokeswoman María Cardona said none of the 31 Cubans could demonstrate a ``credible fear'' of persecution during interviews with an INS asylum officer aboard a Coast Guard cutter. That made them subject to repatriation under the 1995 accords with Cuba.

``The INS treated this situation the same as it has treated every other since the '95 accords,'' Cardona said. ``To pass the credible fear threshold they would have to demonstrate that they would be persecuted or physically harmed if they were to be returned to their home country. If they are found not to have a credible fear, they are sent back to Cuba.''

The decision to send back Morales stunned some Cuban exiles, who assumed that his status as a sports hero on the island would expose him to reprisals for attempting to defect.

Morales, a third baseman, helped the Cuban national team clinch a 12-6 exhibition victory over the Baltimore Orioles with a three-run homer in the ninth inning last year in Maryland.

Some noted that former Cuban pitching star Orlando ``El Duque'' Hernandez, now a New York Yankee, was kicked off the island's national team, banned from playing ball and forced to work menial jobs after his half-brother, former Florida Marlin pitcher Livan Hernandez, defected in 1995.

OMINOUS PRECEDENT

The harassment El Duque suffered was sufficient for U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to offer him humanitarian parole into the country after he fled Cuba by sea in 1997 and was detained in the Bahamas.

``It's hard to understand how they can send back a baseball player to Cuba, not because he is a famous athlete, but because of the precedent of what has happened to other players,'' said Ninoska Perez, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation.

However, Reno's handling of El Duque's case came under sharp criticism from some advocates for immigrants, who contended he was granted special treatment because of his star status.

Others who had traveled to the Bahamas with the pitcher were denied entry into the United States.

Roger Bernstein, a Miami immigration lawyer who unsuccessfully tried to intervene on Morales' behalf, said the ballplayer should have found it easy to pass the credible-fear test.

``It's a very low threshold,'' Bernstein, a former INS lawyer, said. ``He could say, `I'm a national hero and if I seek to defect it would be a national embarrassment to Cuba, and I could be harmed if returned.' ''

Even if he had passed the interview, however, Morales would not have been brought to the United States.

Cubans who clear that first hurdle at sea are taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for further interviews to determine whether they merit treatment as political refugees.

If they qualify, the U.S. government tries to find them a third country in which to settle. Because few countries are willing, many Cuban refugees have spent years on the base waiting.

Gus Dominguez, a Cuban-American sports agent in Los Angeles who has helped other Cuban players defect, has said he spoke with Morales in Baltimore about defecting, but the ballplayer apparently had a last-minute change of heart.

Dominguez did not return a phone message Wednesday. But a U.S. friend of Morales' family said that, according to the player's family in Cuba, Morales was in trouble with the Cuban government because he was spotted speaking with Dominguez in Baltimore.

The family friend, who asked not to be identified, said Morales' problems deepened after his wife's exiled father applied for a U.S. immigrant visa for her.

Cuban baseball officials told Morales that he would not go with the national team to the Olympic games in Australia this summer, the family friend said.

The friend described Borrego as a second-string player who had been stopped by the Cuban Coast Guard in nine previous attempts to leave Cuba.

Both presumably were trying to follow in the footsteps of other Cuban baseball players who have struck it rich playing for the Major Leagues.

The Associated Press said 35 other Cuban players have defected in the past 10 years, although the INS said it could not confirm the number.

Morales, however, may be the first high profile player stopped at sea by U.S. authorities. The INS could not immediately say if there have been others.

$6 MILLION MAN

El Duque signed a $6 million contract with the Yankees after declining Reno's offer for parole and moving to Costa Rica on his agents' advice. As a foreign-based player, he was not subject to the major leagues' amateur draft, which would have forced him to negotiate with only one team. Instead, he became the object of a bidding war by several teams.

Border Patrol investigators believe that, given the position where their boat was intercepted, Morales and his companions intended to come directly to the United States.

A Coast Guard vessel intercepted the 32-foot Scorpion speedboat carrying Morales on Friday afternoon after it ran out of fuel about 25 miles south of the Dry Tortugas.

Border Patrol spokesman Joe Mellia said the two suspected smugglers on board tried to buy fuel from a passing commercial fishing boat, whose crew called the Coast Guard instead.

``That thing was grossly overloaded,'' Mellia said. ``The smugglers were treating these people like cargo, not like human beings.''

On board, investigators found a satellite navigational device with recorded data indicating the boat had been to Cuba, Mellia said. Because none of the passengers would cooperate with investigators, the two alleged smugglers will not be criminally charged, he said.

Because they are not U.S. citizens, both Cuban-born suspects have been placed in deportation proceedings, Mellia said.

The Florida Marine Patrol led investigators to a second boat they have linked to the smugglers, Mellia said.

The investigators believe the boat, which was loaded with fuel canisters and a fuel pump, was on its way to refuel the boat carrying the Cubans because they found on board a navigational device programmed with the Scorpion's position.

Smugglers are increasingly resorting to such refueling stratagems because a beefed-up Border Patrol presence has discouraged smuggling departures from the Keys, forcing smugglers to leave from Miami-Dade County, a farther distance from Cuba.

Herald staff writer Juan O. Tamayo contributed to this report.