-Caveat Lector- from: an email As always, Caveat Lector Om K ----- U.S., Colombia to Confront Lucrative 'Peso Exchange' By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday , August 29, 2000 ; A01 BOGOTA, Colombia -- Early this month, a $1.5 million Bell helicopter was tracked by Colombia-based U.S. Customs agents from here to Panama, where it was seized by local authorities acting at U.S. request. The helicopter, a seven-seat Bell 407, had been purchased in 1998 by a Colombian multimillionaire with laundered drug-smuggling money, according to Customs and the Justice Department. The Texas-based manufacturer, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., has denied knowing that drug profits were the source of the money in its New York bank account, where payment for the aircraft was deposited via 31 separate wire transfers from unrelated individuals. Bell, which is due to sell 42 military helicopters destined for Colombia as part of a $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug aid package, is aggressively contesting the Justice Department's decision last year to freeze the account and demand the money be forfeited. Colombia broke international precedent last spring by agreeing to send its monthly legal import records to Washington, where U.S. Customs agents collate them with U.S. banking and other law enforcement records and with shipping manifests for products leaving the United States for Colombia. Those recorded as leaving the United States, but not listed as arriving in Colombia, are considered contraband, and the information is passed to Colombian authorities. For its part, a U.S. government that long denied American exporters were part of the problem has launched a campaign to warn companies such as Bell--and the cigarette, alcohol, appliance, electronics and auto parts manufacturers whose products consistently are illegally offered for sale here--that they risk losing their money or worse if they turn a blind eye to clear signs of smuggling or payment in laundered funds. "When a company receives payment for its exports in the form of wire transf ers, checks or cash from random third parties with no connection to the transaction, alarm bells should go off at corporate headquarters," said U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. "This is not how standard business deals are done." In the Bell case, none of the 31 deposits to pay for the civilian helicopter had any ostensible link to any other or to the aircraft's actual purchaser, identified as Victor Carranza, who the Justice Department has alleged was well known to Bell and whose company had previously done business with Bell. Moreover, five of the deposits were made by undercover Customs agents who had infiltrated a drug money laundering ring operating across the United States. Its exposure in July 1999 resulted in 34 U.S. indictments; the seizure of 1,160 pounds of cocaine and $4.5 million in cash; and the freezing of 65 bank accounts, including Bell's. Carranza, the principal shareholder in Colombia's largest emerald mining company, is in prison here on charges of sponsoring and financing right-wing paramilitary forces. Colombian and U.S. investigators have also alleged that he is involved in drug smuggling. A Customs affidavit laying claim to the helicopter was unsealed this month in federal court in Washington, after the aircraft was seized. According to officials in Washington, associates of Carranza had flown the helicopter from Colombia to Panama to try to conceal it. No one has asked the U.S. government to give it back. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
