COCAINE PROFITS LINKED TO LATIN UPHEAVAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540016-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: May 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540016-4
PHILADEPHIA INQUIRER
12 May 1985
LRTI cqz Ati=
PAG.I.o2 -
Cocaine profits linked to
Latin upheaval
By Frank Greve
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON ? Profits -froni
cocaine smuggling are promoting
intrigue and turmoil in Hondu?-?
ras, Nicaragua and El Salvador,
recent federal indictments sug-
gest.
Politicians of every stripe alleg-
edly are involved ? leftist, right-
ist, in office, insurgent, and in ex;
? ile. Millions of dollars from
narcotics trafficking, the U.S. in-
dictments suggest, were intended
to finance everything from arms
purchases to an election campaign
and a coup. Top Reagan adminis-
tration officials say some of the
? money was intended to help fi-
nance the government of Nicer*,
'The sums are insignificant in
terms of the global narcotics trade,
but they can have a huge impact in
the Central American political
arena, whether it be in elections,
terrorism or insurgencies," Clyde
D. Taylor, deputy assistant secre-
tary of state for international nar-
cotics matters, warned in a recent
interview. "A $10 million drug deal
can buy a lot of insurgency and
political action anywhere in Cen-
tral America."
The region's growing signifi-
cance to smugglers results, he
said, from recent crackdowns in
? Colombia and Mexico, plus im-
proved U.S. surveillance of Carib-
bean air routes and sea lanes.
The effect has been to channel
more traffic into Central Amer-
ica, .which smugglers had long.
considered too far off-course for
runs to South Florida and less
desirable than Mexico for refuel-
ing en route to other points in
North America.- - ? - -
Among the situations described
in a variety of government docu-
ments
? Proceeds from an alleged
$10.3 million cocaine run were to
finance an alleged assassination
plot against Honduran President
Roberto Suazo Cordova. .
? U.S. Customs agents nabbed a
leading Salvadoran ultra-rightist
and three companions with an un-
explained $59 million in cast a
month before that country's elec-
tion. All four showed up on Cus-
toms' list of narcotics trafficking
suspects, according to a govern-
ment affidavit filed in connection
with the search of their chartered
jet
? Smugglers refueled at a mili-
tary airfield in Nicaragua and
sought to set up a cocaine process--
ing laboratory in that country.
? Two .U.S. Army Green Berets
are charged with selling more
than a ton of stolen Army mines,
, grenades, explosives and ammu-
nition to federal agents they
thought were Nicaraguan rebels,
or contras. An affidavit filed in
the case alleged that the Green
Berets were to be paid in cash and
cocaine. No smuggling.: ;indict-
ments, however, name ' U.S.-
backed contras fighting Nicara-
gua's Sandinista government
For smuggling cases involving
both arms and narcotics, the Rea-
gan administration has coined a
new term: "narcoterrorism." In
the administration view, ? not
persuasive to all drug experts ?
Nicaragua and Cuba have become
narcoterrorism's leading spon-
sors in the Western Hemisphere.
Gen. Paul F. Gorman, for exam-
ple, recently retired commander
in chief of the U.S. Army's South-
ern Command based in Panama,
asserted in congressional testi-
mony in March that Latin Ameri-
can drug traffickers had "reacted
to pressure from lawful authori-
ties in many countries by forming'
common cause with Marxist-Le-,
iainists, with anarchists and with
international terrorists."
Supporting Gorman's view, is
the case of Frederico Vaughan, an
aide to Nicaragua's powerful inte-
rior minister, Thomas Borge. Ac-
cording to an arrest warrant filed
in Miami last July 18; Vaughan
provided a military airstrip near
Managua for refueling and trans-
shipment of 1,452 pounds of co-
caine bound from Colombia for
the United States. ? ?
The smuggling plane's pilot, a
camera-equipped Drug Enforce-
ment Administration informant,
said Vaughan and reputed Colom-
bian trafficker Pablo Escobar Ga-
viria ultimately intended to set up
a new cocaine processing labora-
tory in Nicaragua.
In congressional testimony last
month, Customs commissioner
?
William von Raab alleged that fu-
gitive financier Robert Vesco,
now believed to be living in Ha-
vana, had financed the plot, for-
-which Vaughan was to be paid
$1.5 Million.
Because of Vaughan's position,
his unhindered use of a military
airfield and his alleged use of a
diplomatic pouch for currency
? smuggling; many administration
officials, including von .Raab and
Gorman, concluded that the en-
terprise- had Nicaraguan govern-
ment backing. Others? including
Peter Gruden, head of the DEA's
Miami office, thought the case im-
plied the participation- of Sandi-
nista higher-ups, without proving
that supporting smugglers was
Sandinista government policy:
? Vaughan, indicted in Miami on
cocaine smuggling charges in
January, is considered a fugitive.
A drag-smuggling case with con-
trasting anti-communist overtones
involves prominent supporters of
Gen. Gustavo Alvarez, Honduras'
pro-American military strongman-
exiled in March 1984 and now be-
lieved to be living in Miami -
Defendants include Gerard Lat-
rhiriimn, a Miami arms merchant
who had won major arms contracts
? under Alvarez Gen. Jose A. Bueso-
Rosa, Alvarez' exiled former chief
of staff, and Faiz J. Sikaffy, a Hon-
duran importer-exporter and
prominent Alvarez-backer.
wined
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540016-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540016-4
They sought drug money to pay
off the triggerman in a scheme to
assassinate President Suazo Cor-
doba "and replace him with a for-
mer general in the Honduran mil-
itary services," according to
affidavits filed with their indict-
ments in 'Miami last November.
Alvarez was not indicted, or
Identified as involved in the
scheme, in any public documents.
The indictments charge Latchin-
ian, Sikaffy, Bueso-Rosa, and five
other defendants with conspiracy
to commit murder for hire and
smuggle into the United States
$10.3 million in cocaine to finance
the plot.
According to pre-trial testimony
by retired Army Col. Charles
Beckwith, the alleged coup-plot-
ters ? in search of a killer ?
contacted Beckwith, leader of the
failed US. rescue raid on the Teh-
ran embassy in 1980.
They subsequently chose *. re-
tired Army Maj. Charles Odorizzi,
according to testimony by both
Beckwith and .Odorizzi. Odorizzi
? was an, officer in the Delta Force
hostage-rescue unit led by Beck-
with; and a partner in Beckwith's
Austin, Texas security firm, SAS
Security of Texas Inc. ? ?
..?..,Beckwith and Odorizzi. in-
formed federal officials of the
plot, and Odorizzi rejoined it as- a
?
wired undercover agent of the
FBI. Odorizzi was told, according
to an FBI affidavit in the case,
that the .Hondurans were in the
process of distributing, on behalf
of a representative of the Hondu-
ran chief of police, 1,080 kilos of
cocaine seized near the Guatema-
lan border in April 1984 and val-
ued at $10.3 million. -
? Ultimately, ? the alleged scheme
fell apart, according to an FBI
agent's affidavit, when the plotters
failed to line up enough support
within the Honduran military for
_ their proposed coup d'etat
.Latchinian and Sikaffy were ar-
rested Oct. 28 in Vero Beach, Fla.,
where, it is charged, they were
preparing to accept 15 duffel bags
of cocaine. Bneso-Rosa has been
charged in the case but remains
in Chile, where he is Honduras'
:military representative. ? - ? -
Gen. Alvarez' nephew, Lt Oscar
'Alvarez, is mentioned in connec-
tion with the Green Beret mull-
tons case. Sgts. Byron Carlisle and
Keith Anderson, both stationed at
Fort Bragg, N.C., were indicted in
October 1984 and accused of selling
stolen explosives, Claymore mines
Roberto Suazo Cordova
Target of alleged assassination plot
and grenades to undercover agents
of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, To-
bacco and Firearms. Lt. Alvarez
was never criminally implicated or
indicted in the case. .. ?
An affidavit filed in the case
?
states that an undercover ATE
agent and his informant persuaded
Carlisle to introduce them to Lt
Alvarez. then assigned to Fort
Bragg for training. Carlisle, a
1 weapons and intelligence
1st, had met Lt Alvarez in Hondu-
1 ras in 1982 or 1983 when both were
' assigned to an elite counterterror-
ist unit created under Gen. Alvarez
and trained: according to reports
published by the Waslaingtonl>ost,
by US. Army and CIA personnel.
Carlisle and Lt Alvarez were
friends and partners in a Hondu-
ran mahogany importing business,
according to both men. The import-
ing was done in the name of C-
MAG, incorporated by Carlisle and
Anderson in 1981.
Anderson's attorney, Stephen H. ?
Broudy of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
contends that his client was en-
trapped by the undercover ATP
agents and believed that they
were 'aiding contra rebels. Broudv
seeks to question 44 Army person-
nel. four CIA personnel and an
FBI agent in his client's defense,
accordin to court records. He
also seeks from the IA "certain
documents which deal with a clas-
sified government operation
which allegedly took place in.
Honduras and Nicaragua concern-
ing the training of contra rebels::
In defenses like this, potentially
involving secret documents and
testimony, procedures call for a
Classified Information Protection
Act hearing. After such a hearing,
if a judge agrees that the classi-
fied material is relevant to a de-
fense, the government must
choose whether to reveal the se-
crets or drop the prosecution.
?
Francisco Guirola, a Salvadoran
businessman detained last Febru-
ary at an airfield near Corpus
Christi, Texas, flashed a diplo-
matic passport and warned Cus-
toms agents that searching suit-
cases aboard his chartered jet
would "cause trouble."
In the eight suitcases, Customs
agents found 5.50 pounds of un-
marked $100 and $20 bills total-
ling $5.9 million.
Guirola's name, the names of
three companions, and the tail.
numbers of their aircraft all.
turned up on the Customs com-
puter index of suspected narcotics
traffickers, according to a federal
affidavit "Guirola in March 1984
was reportedly involved in cocaine
and arms smnggling in El Salvador
and Guatemala," said the Customs
search warrant application.
Guirola also served as a fund-
raiser for Roberto d'Aubuisson, the
leader of El Salvador's far-right
Arena party and a reputed 'organ-
izer of that country's death-squad
activities, according to report in
the New Republic last month.
- Writers Craig Pyes and Laurie
Becklund reported that Guirolla
carried, at the time of his arrest,
Salvadoran official credentials.
They were signed by d'Aubusson
and identified Guirola as, in the
translated words of the creden-
tials, a "special adviser to the Con-
stituent .Assembly."
While uncertain how the 1.5.9
million might have been intended
to be used, Pyes and Becklund say
U.S. officials believe it would have
gone, at least in pan, to support
Arena, d'Aubuisson and other ,.
right-wing candidates in the Salve
doran election in March. ?
, Guiroli and his aircraft carried
no narcotics, and he faces no
smuggling charges. Indictments
against Guirola and a co-defend-
ant allege only that they con- ?
spired to carry more than $10,0001
In currency out of the .country ?
without notice.
In a plea bargain agreement late
last month. Guirola pleaded no
contest to conspiring to violate a
federal law barring the transport
of more than $10,000 out of the
country without notifying federal
officials and -relinquished all
claims to the money. In return, he
. expects to be placed on probation
if the agreement is accepted by a'
federal judge next month. ?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540016-4