Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein once traveled to Cuba as a VIP guest of dictator Fidel Castro - in disregard of strict American sanctions on the island's communist regime.

The billionaire's secret trip in 2003 was made with Colombia's former president Andrés Pastrana, who acknowledged the trip in a statement Wednesday.

Epstein - who was found dead in his jail cell in New York on Saturday - stayed on the island for two days, Pastrana said.

The trip broke strict travel rules set in place by the United States, who slapped commercial, economic, and financial embargoes on Cuba in the 1960s, including a ban on US citizens traveling to the country.

Americans were only allowed to visit as tourists when restrictions were eased by President Obama in 2016.

Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) was a VIP guest of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro for several days in 2003

Former Cuban ruler Fidel Castro (pictured) welcomed Jeffrey Epstein to his communist island for a brief visit in March 2003

Pastrana wrote in a Twitter statement: 'Amid journalistic revelations about horrifying and reprehensible sex scandals of financier Jeffrey Epstein, a trip of mine on his plane to Nassau, Bahamas has appeared, to transfer to the final destination of Havana, Cuba, invited by President Fidel Castro,' .

'Mr. Jeffrey Epstein left Cuba a day or two later; I stayed on the island,' he added.

A flight manifest revealed by Epstein's former pilot, David Rogers, showed that on March 20, 2003, Pastrana boarded the shamed financier's private plane at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, and landed in Palm Beach International Airport.

On March 21, the aircraft took off from Palm Beach International to Nassau International Airport in the Bahamas.

The logbook indicates that Epstein's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, and model executive Jean-Luc Brunel, were also part of the traveling party on both flights.

Colombia's former president Andrés Pastrana (pictured) acknowledged Wednesday that he traveled with Epstein to mingle with Castro in March 2003 before the child predator returned to the United States

A 73-page log documented Jeffrey Epstein's flights from New Jersey to Florida before leaving for the Bahamas prior to his visit in Cuba with Fidel Castro. The flight record doesn't indicate when the private aircraft arrive and departed from the communist island

All of the passengers, except Pastrana, were listed on the flight manifest of a return flight from the Bahamas to the airport in Palm Beach on March 23.

The 73-page flight record, which was acquired by the Miami Herald, didn't show the Cuban leg of the trip nor did it appear in data stored by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Pastrana, who attempted to disassociate himself from the child predator, acknowledged he first met Epstein at the Academy of Achievement summit held in Ireland in June 2002.

'I met Mr. Jeffrey Epstein in Ireland when I was honored at the 'Summit of Achievements' in Dublin, a widely publicized ceremony that was attended by Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Bono and Jeremy Irons. I never knew about Mr. Jeffrey Epstein's now-infamous island,' said Pastrana.

Pastrana was president of Colombia from August 1998 until August 2002, and went on to be Ambassador to the United States in 2005 and 2006.

Pastrana is the latest wealthy and influential person revealed to have traveled on Epstein's jet.

Other famous guests include Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Naomi Campbell, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker and Prince Andrew.

It comes as questions continue to emerge about the billionaire financier's death after he died in an apparent suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges at the Metropolitan Correctional Center

The news comes as questions continue to emerge about the billionaire financier's death after he died in an apparent suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Epstein had pleaded not guilty in July to charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005.

Prosecutors said he recruited girls to give him massages, which became sexual in nature.

Attorney General William Barr has said the criminal investigation into any possible co-conspirators would continue.

Barr, whose agency oversees the Bureau of Prisons, has also demanded an investigation into Epstein's death and ordered the removal of the prison's warden.

The disgraced financier had been on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan but was then put back in a regular cell.

Sources have said guards did not follow procedures to check on Epstein frequently and that he was left alone in his cell for as long as three hours.