MYSTERIOUS SCHEME LANDS 8 AMERICANS IN BRAZILIAN JAIL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000400540035-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: June 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Mysterious scheme lands 8
Americans in Brazilian jail
By Pete Carey .%
Mercury News Staff Writer
In a bizarre tale of international intrigue that reads
like a lost chapter from The Dogs of War, the plight
of eight Americans sentenced last week to at least
four years in a Brazilian prison has been explained
variously as a CIA operation, an attempted coup, a
plan to arm Brazilian insurgents and an effort to
establish Mafia-run gambling resorts on the coast of
Africa.
It may be some of those things; it may be none.
Amid a storm of rumors, suspicions, accusations,
charges and counter-charges, one of the few certain-
ties about the "Nobistor affair" is that many of''those
involved say the others are liars.
During the past two weeks, several sources famil-
iar with the case have described a plot strikingly
similar to Frederick Forsyth's novel, in.*hich'a group
of European mercenaries buy a ship, load it with
weapons and steam for Africa, where they overthrow
a government. The sources' account, which cannot be
verified conclusively, contrasts sharply with accounts
provided by the Imprisoned men, their lawyer and
even the Brazilian prosecutors.
Whether the plot is fact or fic-
tion, the target the sources
described is real: Ghana's Marxist
ruler, Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings.
The results of the plot are
equally real.: The eight Americans
were convicted Thursday of violat-
ing Brazilian contraband laws; U.S.
federal agents have opened an
investigation; the governments of
Ghana, Brazil, Argentina and the
United States want answers; and
six tons of military supplies and
weapons are lying unexplained in 1
the hold of an oceangoing tugboat,
the Nobistor, in Rio de Janeiro's
Guanabara Bay.
'Through their lawyer and family
members in this country, the
imprisoned Americans have main-
tained that they were acting
merely as security guards, hired to
safeguard a $200,000 shipment of
weapons bound by sea from Argen-
tina to Africa. But the sources say
the men were hired to overthrow
Rawlings and install in his place
Godfrey Osei. a Ghanian dissident,
who escaped from prison in 1983;
and who has lived in the United'
States since then.
Two California participants
Among the eight are a 38-year-
old San Francisco State University
graduate student named Timothy
M. Carmody and a 30-year-old
Santa Rosa sin named Frederick
T. Verduin.
The others are self-described
"soldier of fortune" John Dee
Early; Robert li Foti of New York
City Sheldon W. Ainsworth of
Omaha, Neb.; Julio Rodriguez-Lar-
razabal and Steven Villa Sosa, both
of Fayetteville, N.C.; and Steven
W. Hedrick. Early, who described
himself as the leader, was sen-
tenced Thursday to five years in
prison, the other men to four years.
The arms deal first came to
light in March when a seagoing
tugboat, the Nobistor, dropped
anchor at a small port 20 miles
east of Rio de Janeiro. Federal
police searched the boat and found
six tons of 70 FAL rifles, subma-
chine guns, hand grenades, revolv-
ers and ammunition.
After their arrest, the men said
they had been hired by Osei and a .
shadowy Texas commodities bro-
ker named Ted Bishop to ferry the
shipload of weapons from Buenos
Aires, Argentina, to Ghana, osten-
sibly for the Ghanaian defense
ministry.
Coup plot alleged
Bishop, the-men said, could con-
firm the whole story, but they
were unable to find him.
However, Bishop - interviewed
last week by telephone from his
home in Texas - told a very dif-
ferent tale. He said that the Ameri-
cans had been hired to assist Osel
in overthrowing Rawlings' govern-
ment and that he had warned them
against participating as soon as he
had found out. After the coup,
Bishop said, the eight Americans
were to be paid bonuses from Gha-
na's national treasury and from its
diamond and gold mines.
Bishop's story couldn't be veri-
fied conclusively, and an associate
of Osei's denied that bonuses were
to be paid as Bishop described. But
other parts of the tale have been
confirmed by other sources.
From the moment of their
arrest in Rio de Janeiro last March
on charges of weapons smuggling,
the jailed Americans themselves,
while bitterly blaming Bishop for
their plight, have insisted that only
he could provide the true story
behind their abortive operation.
Osel as new ruler
Bishop and others interviewed
during the past two weeks said the
plotters were to have installed Osel
as the new ruler of Ghana. Osei
escaped from a Ghanaian prison
after being convicted of participat-
ing in a 1983 attempt to topple the
Rawlings government.
Bishop, 46, and other sources
quoted Osei as saying the weapons
were purchased with $500,000 to
$750,000 borrowed from New York
City organized crime figures. Osel
said the gambling figures had been
promised permission to build a
gaming resort on Ghana's coast.
Bishop and another source, who
asked not to be identified, said Osei
had three suitcases filled with cash
to finance the deal.
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"Godfrey told me he got it from
the Mafia, and he was having to
pay it back at 300 percent rates,"
Bishop said.
Osei, interviewed briefly by tele-
phone, denied Bishop's allegation
that gambling Interests had
financed the purchase of the weap-
ons. "This is ridiculous," Osei said.
"Ask him how did he get to know
me."
CIA agent?
Bishop had said earlier that he
met Osel while working on a com-
modities deal with Osei's Hudson,
N.Y., roommate: "That Is a big lie.
He, Ted, calls himself a CIA agent.
Right? (Ask him) how he got to
know me. He knows. He knows."
Osel declined to comment fur-
ther, offering neither any explana-
tion for his involvement in the case
nor any denial that he had been
plotting the overthrow of the Gha-
"Godfrey was taking them out to
dinner, paying their booze bills,"
Bishop said. "Godfrey's head
swelled up three sizes when he got
his private army. They used to go
out to dinner two by two, all strung
out down the main street of Buenos
Aires, with Godfrey at the head
wearing his khakis with shoulder
straps. In. his own mind, he had
already become a dictator gen-
eral." ?
'OK with your government'
At that point, the sources said,
all of the men had been led by Osei
to believe that the operation was
sanctioned in some way by the U.S.
government.
"He was saying, 'It's OK with
your government, there's not going
to be any jeopardy,' " said one
source, who claims to have helped
devise Osei's plans for assaulting
Rawlings' stronghold.
Says Bishop hadn't told them
"Bishop did not tell those men it
was illegal, absolutely not," Cald-
well said in a recent interview. "I
still to this day have not figured
out why anybody would hire that
guy to do anything."
The Americans contend that
they then forced the crew of the
weapons-laden Nobistor to change
its destination - from Ghana to
South America. They were
arrested March 14 in Itaipu, a
small port 20 miles east of Rio.
Federal police impounded the ship
and confiscated the.weapons. The
trial began several weeks ago and
ended with the guilty verdict
Thursday.
In the U.S., federal agents were
drawn into the case last month
when Caldwell and three other
men confronted Bishop at the
apartment complex he owns and
manages in Farmersville, Texas, a
town of 2,700 near Dallas.
In an angry exchange, the men
argued about Bishop's role in the
weapons shipment, believing that
he knew more about the deal than
he was telling. Some of the men
say Bishop has worked for the CIA
in the past, an allegation Bishop
denies.
Bishop eventually pull-ad a gun
on Caldwell and ordered the men
out of his apartment, according to
Farmersville police. No charges
were filed, but Farmersville Police
Chief John Davidson said he turned
the matter over to the U.S. Trea.
sury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms. ?
Although it is not clear whether
the ATF has jurisdiction over the
legal issues in the case, a spokes.
man for the agency's Dallas
bureau said it has opened an inves-
tigation. Ordinarily, said a Dallas
ATF agent who 'asked not to be
identified, the ATF wouldn't look
into a brawl in a small farming
town.
"When we got involved, we
found international gun runners,"
the agent said. "That's how we got
involved." He said the agency's
inquiry has only "scraped the sur-
face" of the complicated deal
Assault plan
Another source, who asked not
to be identified, said he and two
other men whom he wouldn't iden-
tify developed Osei's assault plan
for the palace in Accra last Octo-
ber but then backed out of the
operation, sensing that Osei didn't
have enough money to make it
work. Family members of one of
the eight Americans said the man
is knowledgeable about the opera-
tion.
The source said he was in Osei's
apartment in the sprawling Le
Frak complex in Queens, New'
York, when several Asian men
arrived with three suitcases con-
taining a large amount of cash. He
said Osei later told him that the
"Chinese Mafia" was financing the
coup.
"What Osei wanted to do was
overthrow Jerry Rawlings and put
himself in power," the source said.
"I started on this in October of
1985."
G I told all of them right there in the
lobby of the Republica Hotel in
Buenos Aires. I said, "You, better get
out. I'm going home." 9
- Ted Bishop, Texas commodities broker
naian government.
"The situation is a little dicey, i
you know," Osei said. "Maybe any-
thing that I say would jeopardize
my plans. So, in the future maybe I
can give you my story."
Bishop denied ever having
worked for the Central Intelligence
Agency. The CIA has declined to
confirm or deny any involvement
in the affair.
Bishop said he arranged through
a Buenos Aires broker for Osei to
buy the weapons from Argentina's
Fabricaciones Militares, the
government arms factory, after
Osei asked him for help. Osei, he
said, promised to pay him for his
help by granting him the market-
ing rights to part of Ghana's coffee
and cocoa crops.
Direct buy from producers
"We was going to pay fair mar-
ket price for it but buy it directly
from producers up in the hills and
market it on the world market,"
Bishop said.
When they were hired by Osei in
February, the Americans all
believed they were to provide
security for a legitimate arms
deal, according to various sources.
The men - there were nine at that
point - assembled in Miami., were
flown to Panama and then on to
Buenos Aires, where they met
Bishop and Osei.
"It was all first class," said one
man who later backed out of the
deal. "We stayed in nice hotels, the
food was good."
Once in Buenos Aires, Bishop
said, they waited for Osel to buy
the weapons and lease a ship.
In Buenos Aires - or aboard the
Nobistor, depending on who tells
the story - Osei revealed the full
scope of his plan to the Americans.
It called for attacking the govern-
ment compound in Accra, freeing
and arming prisoners in a nearby
jail, overthrowing Rawlings and
attacking a Libyan base 40 miles
from Accra.
Then, according to Bishop, who
said he learned of Osei's plans in
Buenos Aires, they were to elimi-
nate several of 'Osei's enemies. If
they went through with the coup, in
addition to $4,000 to $10,000 each
for ferrying the weapons to Ghana,
Bishop said, they were to be paid
In cash f tom Ghana's national
treasury and diamonds and gold
from its mines.
'This is the first I heard'
"When they got down there,
Godfrey told them about it," said
Bishop. "I heard it from John
Early. He asked me about it, and I
said, 'This is the first I heard about
it, John. I don't even know what
you guys are doing down here.' "
Bishop said another of the
Americans asked him whether he
worked for the CIA and whether
the agency had given its tacit
"sanction" to the operation. "He
said, 'I thought you were the one
recruiting, and you are CIA.' I said,
'You better get out of this deal
This is a bad deal.'
"I told all of them right there in
the lobby of the Republica Hotel in
Buenos Aires. I said, 'You better
get out. I'm going home.' "
Eight of the Americans ignored
Bishop's advice, he said. Leaving
behind a Tampa, Fla., private
investigator named Scott Caldwell,
they set forth on the Nobistor. At
sea, they received an urgent ship-
to-shore message from Caldwell in
Tampa. He warned the Americans
that he had learned the arms deal
wasn't sanctioned by the U.S. gov-
ernment.
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Battle plan drawings
Osei, he said, provided "blurred"
aerial photographs of the govern-
ment compound, from which draw-
ings were made for the battle plan.
The original plan called for a force
of about 300 to 400 men and an
expenditure of $3.5 million, the
source said.
The combatants were to include
100 Europeans. Two commando
assault groups were to hit the pal
ace and government buildings
while a headquarters group han-
dled logistics.
The boat would meet with
another ship off the Ivory Coast
and then proceed to Ghana, where
the men would go ashore and
attack the capital. The source said
he became suspicious when it was
clear there would be no advance
payment.
No money up front
"Godfrey didn't want to pay any-
body up front," the source said.
His thing was, when you hit the
beach and assault the palace, you'll
be free to go to the national trea-
sury, the gold mines. (He said,) 'I
will provide you with transporta-
tion.' I said, The hell with that.' No
professional would get onto that
There's no guarantee he wouldn't
put us up against a wall. Every-
body else was saying, you got to
take a chance.... This is when I
backed out."
A few weeks later, the source
said, he learned that eight Ameri-
cans were in jail in Rio. "It con-
firmed my worst fears," he said.
Both Caldwell and Steven
Elswick, a 33-year-old ex-Marine
who lives in Lexington, Ky., and
who recruited Carmody, the San
Franciscan, say they are convinced
that the men thought they had been
recruited for a routine security job.
"I'm convinced they were
pigeons," said Elswick. "They were
in the wrong place at the wrong
time."
Mimi Whitefield of the Knight-Rid-
der News Service contributed to
this article.
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