PARAGUAY DRUG TRAFFICKERS NAMED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000400050069-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2005
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: May 24, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

THE WASHIl '@ d?0elease 2005/06/22 DCJLi~-,RFpF-ifWllof"M000A 06 -4 ,
The Washington Merry-Go-Round
guay s drug trade.
We have now supplied Avila
with the names. mhha CIA
.Memo. for, instance, mentioned
a ''secret police o icial'who
was "heavily in-
volved in the (drug) traffic."
----r,--- 1 ~ n .-~ but
Paraguay Drug Traffickers Named
-By jack Anderson names of those behind Para-
In the impoverished little
land of Paraguay, there is an
old saying about dictator Al-
fredo Stroessner that "never a
bird falls without his knowing
about it,"
This reputed omniscience
has kept the burly El Presi-
dente in full control of Para-
guay for 18 years while his op-
ponents have died mysteri-
ously or fled into exile.
Thus, the American embassy
in Asuncion was astonished
when Stroessner, of all people,
confessed to our Ambassador
Raymond Ylitalo that he
would like more informatio>;,
about, the narcotics traffic in
Paraguay. Stroessner claimed
he wanted to stamp it out.
The efficient Ylitalo,fQrwarl-
ed the request to the State
Department, and UiL-Cmtral
Intelligence Agency o igin
ly Included it in a e ai e,
secret sumniary-oo-
The memo e-e Ted that
Stroessner was, up to his jack-
boots , i s i ggling, though
there was, no proof_be,dealt in
drugs. His-tighit little dictator-
ship, however was descxibe
as "the Heroin Crossroads of
South America," witil much of
the dope going. to the U.S.
We published the secret de-
tails on April 22. The dictator
promptly sent word to us
through his Ambassador to
Washington, Dr. Roque Avila,
that he was surprised at the
allegations and asked for the
nnnp an oess
rusted rhiaf 771VPC i
THE `WA81ft GTON POST Wednesday, May 24,1972 B
whose names we have also
given Avila, include:
? Sabino Augusto - Monta-
naro. grey-haired interior sec-
retary, and his right-hand
man, National Police Chief
Gen. Francisco Britez. No
large-scale dope trade in land-
locked Paraguay would be pos-
sible without their acquies-
cence.
? Gen. Leodegar Cabello
st )r Qoronel '
ismP --- Ea ~----......_, the spiffily-uniformed defense
minister, who is aware of the
Generals Envolved narcotics dealings of Gens.
The IA also alleged-again Rodriguez and Colman and is
without names a ... suspected of sharing their
Imnorfignt " 3gpre loot.
in narcotics. ? Gen. German Martinez, a
We iden i ied one as Gen. pale, garrulous artillery corn-
Andres Rodriguez, the sternly mander who controls contra-
handsome commander of 3,000 band in and around Paraguari.
American-equipped t r o o p s With his smuggling proceeds,
.based near Asuncion. His he has purchased model farms
troops stand guard over con- and raises thoroughbred cat-
traband warehouses, and he tle.
controls aircraft for smug- ? Vice Adm. Hugo Gonzalez,
filing. chief of Paraguay's river gun-
The other is Gen. Patricio boat navy, who earned his ex-
Colman, a light infantry com- alted rank by babysitting
mander, whose troops put Stroessner's -children. His gun-
down an armed. liberation boats protect the dope trade
movement, }n 1660, slicing off along the Paraguay and Par-
tongues, ears, heads and other ana rivers separating Para-
parts of prisoners. Colman guay from Brazil and Argen-
thereafter gained a smuggling tine.
franchise, considerable wealth ? Air Force chief Gen. Vi-
and control of cross-country cente Quinonez, who super-
buslines. vises Asuncion airport and
We have also uncovered the dozens of smaller fields. These
identities of other high Para- are also used for drug trans-
guayan figures, who are di- shipments.
rectly controlled by Stroess- ? Raul Sapena Pastor, the
ner and are responslable f ecretary of state, who person-
the drug trade,., ThctSe 1yY. approves every official
is
and diplomatic passport. He
has granted passports to
known smugglers. Even diplo-
matic pouches are used for
smuggled goods. '?
These are some of the
names my associate, Les Whit-
ten, provided Ambassador,
Avila during an hour-long
meeting with him at the mod-
est Paraguayan Embassy. The
envoy insisted he knew noth-
ing about their alleged dope
activities.
Footnote: On March 20,
President Nixon called narcot-
ics America's "number one do-
mestic problem." Three days
later, the U.S. gave 12 helicop-
ters to Paraguay. U.S. military
aid to the "Heroin Crossroads
of South America" runs
around $2 million a year.
Connally's Mission
Sources close to Treasury
Secretary John Connally say
his secret mission after leav-
ing the cabinet will be to rally
the Lyndon Johnson wing of
the Democratic Party into the
Nixon camp in November.
Richard Nixon and John
Connally have developed a
close personal bond. Both are
backroom operators and politi-
cal infighters. They practioe
the same pragmatic politics.
During their political, bull
sessions, Mr. Nixon and Con-
nally foresaw the increasing
possibility that George Mc-
Govern could win the Demo-
cratic presidential nomination.
p 1972, United Feanre Syndic5t+h,Jgc.
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 Approved For Release 2005/06/22 : I4 0415R000400050069'4
tK TIMES DATE /_ PACri: _
The Southeast Asian' Connection
By HANS 3. SPIELMANN
BANGKOK, Thailand-The' world's
attention in recent months has been
turned toward the Mideast-.=Turkey,
principally--as the source of illicit
supplies of heroin. But the fact is that
the fabled "Fertile Triangle" of South-
east Asia - Thailand, Burma and
Laos-continues to produce two-thirds
of the world's known supply of opium,
from which heroin is derived..
The figures alone are eye-catching:
in 1970 Thailand's hill tribes con-
tributed 185 metric tons of raw'
opium to the world's supply, Burma
1,000 tons, Laos 100.
It is true that most of the opium, or
about 800 tons, is consumed by South-
east Asians from Rangoon to song
Kong. Nonetheless, about 400 to>1s
continue to leave the area, bound for'
addicts around the world.. The buyers?
not all Americans by any means, range
from soldiers in Vietnam. to Junkies
along New York's Eighth Avenue.
So vast are these supplies (U.S..
addicts, for example, consume annual-
ly the heroin derived from "only" 120
metric tons of opium), so limitless the
profits,. that governments, armies and
revolutionary fronts have played parts
in the production and trade through
the years. They continue to do so, ancL
even the United States Central Intel-
ligence Agency has had its days in the
poppy fields.
ing. The truth was that me U.S.
spreading involvement in the war
meant that its chief concern was
stability in Southeast Asia. And if this
meant the continued production of
opium in the sensitive areas-say in
the fertile fields where Laos, Burma
and Thailand come together-that was
all right with the U. S.
nne U~ me u~ n ttn hprpiin?-the traffic--
Dr_ to be sure political reasons.
Green Berets were ordered to buy cbr-
tain supplies of opium in order to
make and maintain stanch allies
among the growers cum guerrillas.
Large-scale' traffickers such as the
Kuomintang were supported in some
cases, only tolerated in others, so
Opium traders in northern Thailand head for contact. iuu>; a~ .,.?j
munist attitudes and rendered Intel
ligence services. 1t0y were even
please such impressive forces, and is that it goes on unchecked. riven the uof C.I.A planes. -ven
eager to make extra moeey or to ac- The growers are mostly ethnic when the Kuomintang hit upon t_ n
quire some unusual luxuries, minorities whose loyalty to Bangkok scheme of on in a its own opium
Once they make their contacts- is tenuous. ro its U. S. officials di
either with Shan troops or with smug- So If the Government leaves the increase although t the C.I.A. could not
glers-the Kuomintang caravan can growers alone, the growers will not iithin, no_ h e C merles in the
pack up as much as fifteen tons of complain about the lowland majorite ara ea of the " to
fertile o ref triangle , es in the
opium for the return trip southward. It whom they dislike; they will instead .which turned out 96 per cent lure
is said that these troops and their accept the political status quo and the loin.
of
"allied contractors" transport between life in the poppy fields, to which they
450 and 500 tons of raw opium south- are accustomed. They will not fuss Last pressures year, as from President mentioned, because of
ward each year Their profit mark-up over prices: at harvest time. ck down on erorn w eNio the the is 200 per cent. But, the growers do accumulate od it w~ou_d be 'posse e, some ac-
One arrangement that the Kuomin- some surplus cash, as Bangkok knows Linn w'ac 1 e e
tang and the Shan have is that each too well, and with it th@y tend to a~ ether agencies ou off
Kuomintang convoy that goes into amass arms. The 'growers make it
certain dealers (i(including - a general
ert al
ttempt to
certain poppy-growing territory actu- plain that if there is any a was paid retire), who ally controlled by Shan troops must suppress or; hinder opium production
.pn their friends and who were deep-i2 t had
?`They have been growing; pay tribute. This amounts to about they will become guerrillas. Jy involved in opium. A few raids
poppies for 150 years. $1.50 a kilo, and entitles the caravan . That is what happened in Laos: the were conducted in Thailand.
to a transit letter and Shan. escorts Meo rebellion began not as a planned A deal was made in which certain
The Vietnam war and ? the complex
and confusing movement of "`foreigri~
ers" back and forth through Southeast
s created a boom-in the illicit
As... h
a
s,
a
c
re
nu w ue
I
te
n _ Kuomintang troops sell off a good deal menu do Vl course p
production or raw oprum. Today,
-- cannot compare.
Thailand, alone, it Is estimated that of the opium . back in Thailand: They tempting to eliminate the trade. But ?, .Thus the richest traffic and culti-
half of the 350,000. hill people in the ,.get four to six times what they paid. because of internal difficulties with vation of opium in the world goes on.
elevated areas of the north participate But most of It'is"headed for export- roaming armies and guerrillas,, and Not in the Mideast, formerly the big-
n officials the the b
.
-
i
__
___
f
h
e
r ow
d
t
corruption o
ha
with
ik dh more b
qucases, whose
annu sgest supplier al output has
per cent of 'these workers to airports and train stations, to sea- d ropped 120 tons and to will decrease
are addicts themselves, but they turn ports, to. Bangkok,.. Singapore, Hong further. But in the Far East, and more
But st mor
further
a tiny profit by the standards of the Kong,. Vientiane and. Saigon. And on < in Southeasta'se
.
million or-billioh-.dollar deals we are and on. , Green Berets were specifically
~~ Tiangle, where U.S. encouragement,
? accustomed to: associating with nar- In the last five years, the Kuomin-
cotics. The average worker earns tang, discovering among other things ordere4 to buy supplies. war and muddying of borders by
about $100 a year' and has, incidental- that some of the opium it was trans- rampaging easy. troops make the business
y, no real knowledge of what he is porting was bringing in 2,500 times It could be stopped and should be,
doing. That is to say, the hill people more profit to the ultimate dealer than they have largely kept hands off. Until but only due most determined oulder
do not even know that they. are pro- to its. troops, began processing the last year, no serius tempt of any tion Amon nations would do the job,
ducing an illicit product for a world opium itself. Kuomintang thereby in kind was made by an of the three. coop emoon at economic, political,
market; they. have been growing the creased its own profits, never incon- governments we have talked about and ocial levels. Such coop-
poppies and using the opium in lieu siderable, at least threefold. here to curb the traffic, to stop it motion seems unlikely.
of pain-killing medicines for about 150 In Thailand at. least, the Govern- where it must be stopped-in 'the hills.
years. merit once had a monopoly on opium. At least $85 million is at stake, and
The production of opium only. be- . That is no longer true. Poppy-growing, no single government has. seemed Dr. Hans J. Spie mann of the Univer-
has
lame illegal in Thailand in 1958, as trading and using are illegal. But Thai willing to do other than to participate. sity Qf Heidelberg in Germany
did trafficking` and smoking, and the officials have a mixed set of attitudes The governments 'in question knew traveled for many years throughout
hill people really could not understand toward the hill people and the pr.'oduc- in any case that United States objec- Southeast Asia and, is an expert on the
h tions were in the main window-dress- opium traffic there.
hi
w
f
c
w
the sum o
that they were outlaws. Not to
orry, . tion of opium today, as things developed: production went - -- --- -
on unabated.
As it is now, there is. a sort of Com-
mon Market in opium operative in
Southeast Asia. National boundaries
. are crossed by, an assortment of rogues
who, while moving tons of the stuff,
"lose" only 2 or 3 per cent as bribes
and tributes and so forth.
The operation begins with the fields
in the high country (over 3,000 feet
above sea level for the high-quality
poppy) of Thailand, Laos and Burma.
The hill people themselves have
neither the courage, contacts nor funds
to enter into the distribution, so they
await the sharp lowlanders. These
townsmen'" come around at harvest
time, looking down their noses at the
j hill -people whom they consider to be
: inferior, and buy the opium at very
low prices.
The best buy is in Burma, where a
kilo 'of raw opium sells for $15; in
Laos it's $30, and in Thailand $40.
Opium is gathered in the villages
and then in ever-larger towns by
smugglers, who may be described in
the first dealings as petty, but ''who
become rather more than that as the
opium changes hands and"the supplies
pile up. Then highly disciplined para-
military types take over, with tough-
ness and sure-handedness. -
Among these is an outfit known as
the Shan of Northern Burma-rela-
tives of the Thais--whose dream, at
least back in Burma, was the establish-
ment of an, autonomous Shan. State.
But its fighting wing, the Shan Libera-
tion Army, has, generally abandoned
politics as it. observed the fertile
fields of Shan asylum in northern
Thailand. .
Units of the front transport the
i opium grown in Burma (and this is the
i mother lode-700 metric tons for ex-
port) to bases in Thailand. Of course,
as units cross the Burmese-Thai. bor-
der, back and forth, back and forth,
the talk is all politics and the dream
of statehood, but it's camouflage for
the real aotion, which is the opium.
The Shan has somewhat complex,
but strict, working arrangements with
the notorious Kuomintang (whose par-
ent organization is Nationalist' Chi-
nese) troops of the Fertile Triangle.
Sometimes the Shan and the Kuomin-
tang trade arms and ammunition, and
medicines-often purchased from U.S.
stocks in Laos-for opium.
The Kuomintang troops also keep
up political appearances, when the
real idea is opium. They say that they
i carry out pro-US. espionage in
Burma, and even claim forays into
China for "anti-Communist" activities.
But these units are'no'longer used and
supplied by the United States or
Taiwan, as they once were, although
they maintain radio contact with each
other.
The Kuomintang is said now to have
10,000 men under arms, chiefly in
Thailand, but in Burma and Laos as
well.
Frequently, Kuomintang caravans of
between ,300 and 500 men, plus horses
and mules carrying contraband for
trade, can be seen working toward
the north of Thailand and Laos toward
Burma. They are supplied along the
way with food by villagers eager to
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back to territory controlled by the "Communist revolt," but out of bitter- in Laos were closed.
Kuomintang. (In other areas Shan ness and 'misunderstanding that arose refineries
e point is that the installations
convoys must pay tribute to Kuomin- when Laotian officials tried to step and there, together
moved to Bdurma
tang soldiers-the reverse situation.) into the opium trade. moth an aj acent area of Thailand,
As noted, there are a great. many Under pressure from the' United we highest concentration of refineries
In Southeast Asia and the states and other outsiders, the govern- in the world is now situated. Marseilles
ddi
t
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THE WASHINGTON POST DATE ff_ PAGE__________
- --~--,
rac ...., sr
k Arson
Smugglers Using -
Thai Connection
DESPITE furious denials base, chemists from Taiwan
by the Thai government, evi- fly in, the sources say. They
dente is mounting that mem- are ceremoniously welcomed
bers of Thailand's 16+man rul- by remnants of the old Na-
ing council have been cor- tionalist Chinese divisions
rupted by international dope driven from Red China and
smugglers. now living off the land in
As far away as this oriental Thailand.
intrigue is, it directly affects No longer under Taiwan's
the alarming rise of crime on control, the Nationalist vet-
America's streets where ad- erans now support them-
diets rob, house-break and . selves in the dope trade. The
shoplift to feed their gnaw- Chinese chemists work night
ing heroin habits. and day for 30 days, earning
Reports from the Central as high as $10,000 for convert-
Intelligence Agency, and the ing the morphine base to
pure heroin.
State, Justice and Defense Then roe Royal Laotian Air
more all agree that Force and an occasional Air
more and more heroin is America pilot, who pretends
>our[ng into the United he is unaware of his cargo,
>tates from Thailand, one of ferry out the newly processed
kmeirica's closest allies. white powder. This time it
"Historically, this area has goes to distribution points in'
iot been an important source Bangkok, Vientiane and
if opium-based narcotics for other Southeast Asian cities.
on U.S. a cas. This is bluntly From there, it is trans-
,tams a classified CIA report tat erce bport shipped to the United States.
American intelligence offi-
iow in ess hands. cers are even fearful some
Buttressing the CIA e may get aboard Air Force
iourc U.o allege intelligence that at at KC-135 tanker planes which
est. two who fly directly to the United
east. tE the Thai States from Thailand. The
national Eive Council planes or crews are rarely
The protect dope
official U.S. sources checked properly by U.S. cus-
also also describe in detail heroin toms.
In Hong Kong, an impor-
Bangkok involvement of a top tent trans -shipment point,'
Bangkok police commander, British officials are also
a former parltaoltentarian, a seething over the corruption
Thai one patrol northern and Thai of the Thai government offi-
a colonel l in isiona northhern cials. Some proof of this dis-
arTii div. may is contained in a cau-
he police official
o a say the tious, classified cable from
sources; as owner massage par- well- David Osborn, American con-,
known Bel where in is s sul in Hong Kong, to Secre-
readily y a where of State William Rogers.
reavunably from c Dated March 27, the cable
friends. Run by a woman urges secrecy, then confides:
who himself ain netain ns en sian or- ',Hong Kong narcotics offi-
ho ma- cials have long-standing be-
called "The d "the bor- lief that Thai officials have
delelo in is the
Smack been involved in drug traffic
Par[or" by its American pa for some years."
heroin. "Smack" is slang for Yet, despite all this evi-
m. dente of official Thai corrup-
h n hale this and other dope tion, the United States con-
h pouts have long operated of f tinues to supply Thailand
the ses with millions in American
The ariland's under curers the noses
arms. And the Thai govern-
$ Tha,ium lucra- trade
1, 1 u
p country op ' meat smugly dismisses this
s been cfi'anging dramati-
,~... column's documented reports
1I since of s January. of heroin in high Thai places
F rude morphine base from
the thai-l#urma-Laos border as ?slanderous accusations."
is no longer processed almost FOR A welcome change,
exclt3sively in the laborato- the government is going to
ries of Bangkok. get some return from one of
Instead, Royal Laotian Air its administrative frills.
Force fliers and a few pilots White House protographer
of the CIA-run Air America Ollie Atkins accompanied
now airlift much of the inor- President Nixon to Red
China and helped put to-
phine to "Golden Triangle's 1 along gether a book called "The
Thailand's northern"holder. President's Trip to CAtkins' share, instead of
$._- The'lsarhouses are anti--going into his pocket, will go
fully protected by corrupt to the federal treasury along
senior officials of the Royal with a check from his pub-
Thai Army and the Thai bor- lisher for the pictures. An
An-
des patrol who take a cut of other Atkins book, "Eye on
the, profits. Nixon," will provide royalties
When the warehouses are to the American Red Cross.
bulging with illicit morphine Q 1972, United Feature Syndicate
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 Approved ~For Release 2005/06/22 :CIA-RDP74B 100050069
_.
'2HE WA iiNG.l.ON P06'2 iAT.L' PAGE"..
The Washin torn Merry-Go-Round
in legitimate businesses, are Islands have heroin operations
Heroin Traffic Shifts South of Border
By Jack Anderson
For decades, international
heroin gangs have sent their
deadly wares from Marseilles'`
back-alley laboratories di-
rectly to Mafia distributors in
New York City.
But crackdowns have now
made this direct trade danger-
ous fo the Corsican criminals
in Fralice and their Cosa Nos-
tra counterparts in the New
York City area.
Increasingly, they are ship-
ping the addictive white pow-
der through Latin America
and the Caribbean, where
bribery, bootlegging and buc-
caneering have been respected
pursuits since the days of
Blackbeard, Henry Morgan
and Captain Kidd.
The Central intelligence
Agency, which only lately has
gotten into dope counterspy-
ng, has summarized the prob-
lem in a 20-page secret report
circulated to a few federal
gencies.
Area by area, here is the
CIA's picture of this new dope
circuit:
Central America-Mexico
said to have gotten their start
dealing in narcotics."
The home-grown Mexican
heroin is sent to San Diego,
Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver,
Phoenix, Albuquerque, Hous-
ton, Fort Worth and Dallas.
Mexican Fixes
Our own investigation has
turned up a government-pro-
tected dope "shooting parlor"
in Juarez, Mexico. Young
American addicts from El
THE WASHINGTON POST Saturday, May 6,1972 C ii
run. by "Cuban exiles and
Puerto Ricans in the,United
States (who) act as middle
men . .. while Argentinians,
Chileans, Uruguayans, and na-
currently involved in ztmug-
gling heroin from Marseilles'
France, to Valparaiso, Chile,,
via Panama," says the CIA
without naming the shipping'
line.
Power ? Plans
tionals of other transshipment
countries act as couriers."
Guadeloupe, Curacao, Aru-
ba and Trinidad are also nam-
ed by the CIA as "stepping-
stones" for shipment of her-
oin, cocaine, hashish and mari-
juana to the U.S.
South America-"Big-time
operators with international
connections and innumerable
small-scale smugglers called
`hormigas' (ants) cross the
sievelike borders with impun-
ity," alleges the CIA.
"The busy ports of Barran-
quilla, Rio de Janeiro, Monte-
video, Buenos Aires, Valpar-
aiso, Antofagasta, Callao, Gua-
yaquil, and Buenaventura act
as funnels. . . . Smuggler
planes, ranging from Piper
Cubs to DC-3s, and even to
The Interior Department;
which is supposed to market,
low-cost power from federally'
owned dams on the Missouri:
River, connived with the big
private monopolies to drown
out small consumer-owned
plants.
Assistant Interior Secretary`.
James Smith, a former privatd
utilities man himself, quietly:
committed the department to
the controversial Mid-Conti
nent Area Power Pool,';
(MAPP). This is a scheme for,,
pooling electricity cooked up
by Northern States Power, one
of the fattest of the fat cats in
the private power field..
Paso, some on military drug
withdrawal programs, simply
cross into Mexico to get a
"fix."
Panama, whose foreign min-
ister Juan Tack was recently
exposed by us as sanctioning
dope traffic, is "one of the
great contraband centers of
the world," reports the CIA.
Heroin pours in from Lima
and Santiago, cocaine from
Guayaquil and Quito, in Ecua-
dor, and from Colombia. Euro-
pean and Asian dope export-
ers also use Panama as a
transshipment point.
The Smith plan would put;
more than 10 per cent of the
federal power plant capacity'
in the area into the big compa-
nies' power pool, even though;
the federal power is supposed
to serve consumer-owned sys.
tems.
Under MAPP, the little con'
Sumer systems would be al,%
lowed to pay dues and sit in orf
meetings, but would be denied
the vote on issues vital `to then
pool.
Smith was so enthusiastic;
about MAPP that he accepted:
the idea }without detailed anal,
yses by Interior's lawyers ands
engineers.
?1972, united Feature syndicate
four-engined Lockheed Con-
stellations ... are used," says
the secret CIA report.
Costa Rica opium crops Official Corruption
have been, discovered recently
"in gardens, in a cemetery, ,most of the drug traffic in
and on the slopes of Irazu Vol- South America involves mari-
cano." There are unconfirmed juana, which is grown exten-
reports of clandestine labs. sively in Colombia, Brazil, and
The Caribbean - Nicaragua Paraguay and coca leaves and
may be a "transit point for cocaine produced in Bolivia,
heroin shipped north from Peru, Chile and Ecuador."
also some
South America via Panama to
But ' there is production i Colombia
the' United States," saga ?the opium
CIA. and Ecuador.
Puerto Rico and the Virgin "An Italian shipping line is
produces "15 to 20 per cent
(perhaps up to 25 per cent) of
all heroin used in the United
States most notorious of the illicit drug centers in Mex-
ico ico is Culiacan, capital of the
state of Sinaloa.
"It has been called the `Her-
oin Capital of Mexico Many
.people of the well-to-do towns,
including those now engaged
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1 iE W.Aiii~iG'TUiV'
...,_r+~._~ WASHINGTON POST Fr{day,' kay S', e7i b1_9
Assures Kissinger on dies
Brezhnev'
',By Jack Anderson
Kremlin czar Leonid Brezh-
nev used tough language to
impress upon Henry Kissinger
In Moscow that Russia will
continue to support North
Vietnam. i
But Brezhnev assured the
President's peripatetic foreign
policy adviser that the Viet
nam war need not stand in the
way of better Soviet-American
relations.
The conversations contin-
ued, off and on, for four days.
Sources privy to the secret de-
tails tell us Brezhnev was fu
rious over VI.S. suggestions
that the Soviets had equipped
Hanoi for an invasion of South
Vietnam.
President Nixon himself
served an oblique warning
upon the Kremlin that "great
powers cannot avoid the re-
sponsibility for the use of
arms by those to whom they
give them."
Brezhnev offered no apolo-
gies for furnishing Hanoi with
the T-54 tanks, heavy artillery
and other sophisticated weap-
ons that hays shown'up on the
fighting fronts. The :North Vi-
etnamese have used these
heavy arms to spearhead their
new offensive.
plain he would risk alienating based upon a thorough field tribes in Thailan ava
the. U.S. before abandoning investigation by American been ineffective."
North Vietnam. narcotics and intelligence Thai law authorities, whom
He suggested that a Viet- agents. entral Intelli- the government claims have
nam settlement can still be us- gene Agency has pub ishhed cracked down on the drug
gotiated. However, there was ve repo ea ng wholly or traffic, are actually in cahoots
no Soviet' offer to soften He. part with the ai o with the smugglers.
noi's terms. Brezhnev and Kis- trade These reports, classified Declares the CIA: "Officials
singer merely agreed that the Co' nfidential" and "Secret," of the RTA (Royal That
two superpowers shouldn't let substantiate our charges. Army), the BPP (Thai border
the Vietnam war disrupt their The Thais claim, for exam- police) and, Customs at the
efforts to seek a Soviet-Ameri- ple, that they "began an inten- several checkpoints on the
route to Bangkok are usually
can detente. sive campaign against danger- bribed ..."
Back at the White House, ous drugs, more than ten years There are, says the CIA, a
Kissinger apparently has per. ago." They say the Bangkok multitude of civilian and mili-
suaded the President not to government has taken "effec- tary officials in Burma, Laos
and Thailand "who take their
r
"
against d
let the Vietnam fighting jeop- tive measures
ugs. cut to ensure safe passage of
ardize relations with the Rus- A program to get hill tribes- the ium . - ."
sians. Nixon's first reaction men to stop growing opium, he CIA operatives, unlike
ese offensive was to hit back.
He said privately that he
wasn't going to permit the
U.S. to be pushed around.
But the original hard U.S.
line, at least so far as Russia
is concerned, has now been
softened.
cess"
These
carefully pinpointed poppy
fields, distribution points,
documents dated from Octo- oncludes the CIA: "Opium
ber 1970 to October 1971. 2 or morphine base is delivered
ar rom snowing progress to laboratories in Bangkok for
in the last, ten years, Thailand further refinement into mor-
entT. ih9b= i ors11T iha_ phine or heroin ...Most of
Answer to Thailand and Laos have "evolved in the the refined produce is then
The government of Thailand past ten years from a maMor smuggled aboard Hong Kong-
has accuse us dus cen'teT "tCi wtn and bound vessels-either Thai
merchant ships at the Cho a
o ngow er
' or e
i
p
accusat
ons
0 MOM 0 to ius- narcotics ro uc s mom' Phraya River docks in Bang-
s heroin o clucing mis kok or That deep sea trawlers.
Washington, Thailand angrily "'A'll?M the alleged success in posit the illicit cargo on one or
h
l
d
d
ll i
re
e severa
hun
sma
s-
charged that our recent col- preventing tribesmen from t
umn on the That drug trade growing opium, the CIA lands ringing Hong Kong for
b ed "me-1 on hear- states? "Government measures later retrieval by a Hong
as
Brezhnev not only acknowl-
edged that_ Soviet military
shipments to He have been
increased, but a made it
was~~
Kong junk."
say. to curtail the growth of the
In fact, our report was opium poppy among the hill a Irm, United Posture erndtoats
Approved For Release 2005/06/22: CIA-RDP74B00415R000400050069-4
 Approved For Release 2005/06/22 : CIA-RDP74B 0415R000400050069-4
THE WASHINGTON POST DATE ~ (2,Qi127 PAGE
e its .ara -.-ua #i emu ling--
p
Q g ~' gg
By Jack Anderson
A secret CIA report
most trusted South American
allies, Paraguay, dictator Al-
fredo Stroessner, is up to his
epaulettes in international
smuggling.
The hard-eyed general, says
a CIA "Intelligence Memoran-
dum" parcels put smuggling
franchises to his generals to
keep them from overturning
his 18-year-old regime. But as
a moral caveat, Stroessner
has tried to draw the line at
narcotics trafficking.
Stroessner's generals and ci-
vilian aides are not so finicky.
They have conspired with
world dope gangsters to make
Paraguay The "heroin cross-
roads of South America," al-
leges the , CIA document.
Classified "Secret. No For-
,eign Dissemination," the CIA
report says most heroin enter-
ing the 'United States origi-
nates in Turkey, is refined in
France and is sent to the
Western Hemisphere "inside
dead bodies being returned to
South America for burial, and
other methods equally bizarre.
"The largest part of this
traffic passes through Para-
guay with bulk shipments of
as much as 100 kilograms
(220 pounds)," continues the
snpr International Airport in
the capital of Asuncion, says
the CIA. The dope planes,
called "Mau-Maus" by the
Paraguayans, change their
registration numbers to avoid
identification.
At Asuncion, airport offi-
cials are bribed and the heroin
is warehoused "while the
`owner' makes arrangements
with U.S. gangsters for its
eventual sale in the United
States," the CIA records.
Paraguay was picked by in-
ternational narcotics dealers
because its borders are easily
crossed, it has demonstrated a
historic softness for smugglers
and "protection from high po-
litical figures" is available.
"Two of Stroessner's most
important generals (who com-
mand troops in or near the
capital) and the head of the se-
cret police are rumored to be
heavily involved in the
traffic," says the CIA.
As for the dictator himself,
he "is willing to condone .. .
smuggling of everything from
watches to whiskey," but
"there are strong indications
that President Stroessner is
opposed to the (narcotics)
trade and is willing to take ac-
Whatever the reasons, says
the CIA, Stroessner "has se-
cretly requested the U.S. Em-
bassy to supply 'him with hard
evidence that (the generals)
and others in his government
are involved" in dope traffick-
ing. Stroessner "promised to
take action immediately."
The dictator confided to
U.S. envoys in Asuncion that
the evidence need not stand
up in court but must "con-
vince him personally." As for
foreign dope smugglers,
Stroessner said he is willing to
bend his country's laws so
they can be shanghaied in to
the United States for trial.
Despite the CIA's optimism
over Stroessner, it appears he
is really more interested in
avoiding a clash with his
dope-smuggling generals than
in keeping heroin off the
streets of U.S. cities.
For more than a year,
Stroessner, who is bulwarked
by millions in U.S. aid, has
had famed French narcotics
kingpin Auguste Ricord in jail
while U.S. authorities have
slavered to bring him to jus-
tice in the United States.
tion." ' After watching the success-
To explain why a dedicated ful launch of the Apollo flight
smuggler like Stroessner last week-end, King Hussein of
would draw the line against Jordan, a pilot himself, got a
dope, the CIA points to little careless on an Air Force
CIA Buti,., .. -. ,
airliner '11comsi,7nments oT- other military rulers- in of a commercial while
t
"
`
hiss own-jet
et
rying to y turn
ge
t e stroes. - Brazil Ar ntina and Peru
c T e i x
plane around and prepare foii-t,
takeoff. The incident was;=;
widely reported in the press.-
What was not reported, how-..
ever, was the delay the king;
caused some 300 congressmen,
relatives and staffers.
The plane the king put out`,',
of commission was one of two-,?
Pan Am jets chartered for a.4:
special space junket to Cape:'
Kennedy.
After the accident, the con -4'
gressmen sat on a concrete' air
strip beneath the hot Florida;.,
sun awaiting word about when,-
they would leave. Meanwhile,:,
space officials huddled, trying:
to figure out who should go on-41
the remaining plane.
After three hours, the con
gressmen were given first,-
priority and flew off. Staffers,-
who had been partying any-:;
way at nearby Patrick Air r,
Force base, took off later in a:?
third plane brought in to re ;w,
place King Hussein's victim.
Texas Nepotism
Even the do-nothing House
Ethics Committee is wringing :4
its hands over the.fact that
convicted Rep. John Dowdy ;w!
(D-Tex.) is running his wife
for his House seat while she R;
remains on his office payroll. '-:
Mrs. Dowdy has already
earned a small fortune from
the congressional nepotism.
Her salary payments during her 20 years on the House
rolls total almost $225,000.
1372Uni1ted Feature Syndicate
Approved For Release 2005/06/22 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000400050069-4