Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu revealed Wednesday in a federal court that he willingly ate a fake passport during his flight to the United States in 2003 to sign a major-league contract with the club, according to Paula McMahon of the Chicago Tribune.

Abreu was testifying as a prosecution witness in a trial related to an alleged Cuban player smuggling ring led by agent Bartolo Hernandez and trainer Julio Estrada.

"I went back to my seat, I ordered a beer - a Heineken beer - and then, little by little, I swallowed that first page of the passport," Abreu testified in Spanish to a federal jury, according to McMahon.

Abreu's testimony shed light on the tactics allegedly used by Hernandez and Estrada to secure massive contracts for highly-touted players who had successfully defected from Cuba.

The first baseman revealed he initially fled to Haiti, where he then signed a contract with the agents and was given a fake Haitian passport. He was then told he had landed a deal with the White Sox, but his false credentials would not allow him entry into the U.S., forcing him to eat the identifying page on the plane before discarding the rest of the paperwork.