[NYTr] Newsly Found Link to DEA/FBI/CIA to Crashed Drug Plane in Mexcio

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

NarcoNews - Dec 1, 2007
http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2919.html

New Document Provides Further Evidence That Owner
of Crashed Cocaine Jet Was a U.S. Government Operative;

Signatures Link
Florida Pilot Greg Smith to DEA/FBI/CIA 
Operations in Colombia

By Bill Conroy
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

A Gulfstream II jet that crash landed in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in
late September bearing a load of nearly four tons of cocaine has been
linked so far by media and Internet reports to everything, it seems,
but alien spaceships.

But Narco News has recently obtained a document that could help you,
kind reader, better identify the UFOs (unexplained frequent
obfuscations) that seem to hover over this case.

This particular Gulfstream II (tail number N987SA), was used between
2003 and 2005 by the CIA for at least three trips between the U.S. east
coast and Guantanamo Bay — home to the infamous “terrorist” prison camp
— according to a number of press reports. The suggestion that a “CIA
plane” was flying a huge quantity of drugs toward the U.S. ensured that
this incident would attract far more attention than the typical drug
smuggling story.

Media speculation has also advanced theories that the jet’s cocaine
payload was destined for the notorious and elusive Chapo Guzman’s
Sinaloa drug-trafficking organization in Mexico, or that it might have
been a deal backed by the Russian mafia, or Lebanese businessmen, or
even a business venture tied to the Bush or Clinton camps. All of these
theories are just that, ranging from the possible to the highly
improbable.

And if not a run-of-the-mill drug run, Narco News has considered
previously that the jet might have been part of U.S. law enforcement
undercover operation or a trafficking run involving corrupt law
enforcers, or even a CIA black operation.

The truth is, at this point, no one really knows — except those who
engineered the ill-fated narco-transport. But there are clues, which,
like breadcrumbs, can be followed in the trail toward the truth. In
this case, those clues include the following:

    * The plane took off from Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport headed
for Toluca, outside Mexico City, on Sept. 18. It crashed in the hills
by the nearby town of Tixkokob, Mexico, on Sept. 24 after departing
from Rio Negro, Colombia. DEA sources told Narco News that with that
much cocaine on board weighing it down, the jet likely would have had
to make a refueling stop in Mexico before pushing onto its final
destination. Just prior to the crash, the jet was, in fact, refused
landing clearance at two airports — in Cancun and Merida — indicating
that somehow things went sour, that the deal was not properly greased.

    * Donna Blue Aircraft Inc., a Florida-based firm controlled by two
Brazilian men, acquired the jet on Aug. 30 and then quickly sold the
Gulfstream II on Sept. 16 — eight days prior to its crash.
    * Listed on a bill of sale provided to Donna Blue are the names of
two individuals who took delivery of the jet prior to its demise in
Mexico. Those individuals are Clyde O’Connor and Greg Smith.
    * A prior Narco News story revealed that a CIA asset named Baruch
Vega claims that between 1997 and 2000 an individual named Greg Smith
was brought in by the FBI to pilot some 25 to 30 flights between
Florida and Latin America as part of a U.S. government-sanctioned
operation targeting Colombian narco-traffickers. Vega played a key role
in that operation, which involved both the DEA and FBI — working
independent of each other with Vega as their common asset.

So it seems Mr. Smith might be a key to unraveling the Gulfstream II
cocaine mystery.

More Breadcrumbs

Is the Greg Smith whose name appears on the crashed cocaine jet’s bill
of sale the same Greg Smith who flew with Vega in antidrug operations
some 10 years ago? This was very much an open question in our last
report on this story, but we may now have an answer.

Narco News’ efforts to contact both Smith and O’Connor have proven
unsuccessful to date. But we did manage to track down Joao Malago, one
of the owners of Donna Blue, the company that sold the jet to Smith and
O’Connor. Malago, who is a Brazilian citizen with business interests in
Florida, has some concerns about how his company has been portrayed in
certain online new reports to date. He shared those concerns with Narco
News via e-mail:

    I had some problems when I sold this plane [N987SA] for this 2
guys. Greg Smith and O’Connor bought the plane and ask me to hold the
bill of sale for 1 week until they get in Mexico where the plane will
be delivery for a Charter Company there. I told him that all the papers
will be at Scrow [an escrow] company with the delivery and bill of sale
in they name.

    This aircraft was delivery at September 16Th 5:00 PM in Fort
Lauderdale and they flow the aircraft from there to TOLUCA Mexico.

    After 2 weeks they did that flight with drugs. [From all media
reports to date, neither O’Connor nor Smith were on the Gulfstream II
when it crashed.] The authorities in USA call me and I show all the
papers for than and I was never part of DEA/CIA or FBI. Some people
told on internet that my company is a CIA cover office and that bring
me a lot of problems. First this is not true and you can image if this
people came to talk with me. I have family and I dont want any more
problems there.

To help clear the air, Malago agreed to e-mail Narco News a copy of the
bill of sale that lists Smith’s name. The emergence of this document,
which has been discussed in other media reports but not make available
to you, kind readers, creates an opportunity for a possibly important
comparison.

The Smith who Vega claims served as his pilot in his work for the U.S.
government is listed as an officer of a Ft. Lauderdale-based company
called Aero Group Jets Inc. (Court records obtained by Narco News also
support Vega’s contention that this company provided a jet to assist
Vega’s work with the U.S. government between 1997 and 2000.)

In addition, a search of corporation records available online from the
Florida Department of State indicates that this same Mr. Smith is
listed as an officer for two additional companies with the same address
as Aero Group Jets — which is 1995 W. Commercial Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale.

Those other companies are Aero Flight Services Inc. and Jet America Inc.

A search of the Florida Department of State’s records also reveals that
O’Connor has an even longer record of entrepreneurship, with his name
appearing on filings as an officer/director for half a dozen companies
based in the Ft. Lauderdale area.

O’Connor and Smith’s companies — including Smith’s Aero Group Jets —
are now inactive or no longer in business, according to state of
Florida records.

However, the corporation records for Aero Group Jets do include Smith’s
signature — from a 1998 annual report filing — which can be viewed at
this link.

The bill of sale provided to Narco News by Donna Blue’s Malago also
includes the signature of an individual named Smith. That bill of sale
can be viewed at this link.


Top, the signature of Gregory D. Smith on Aero Group Jets’ 1998 annual
report filing; and below, “Greg Smith” on the Gulstream II’s September
16, 2007 bill of sale. In comparing the two signatures, there are some
differences, such as one is signed as Gregory D. while the other is
signed simply as Greg, with no middle initial.

However, there are some striking similarities as well, including the
fact that some of the letters appear to be penned in precisely the same
way.

Mike Levine, a former undercover DEA agent who now works as an expert
witness in court cases (and also has his own radio show in New York
City), had this to say after comparing the signatures:

    I did much of this handwriting comparison work, without using an
expert, but my opinion was accepted before grand juries as having a
significant amount of work experience in comparing handwritings (IRS,
BATF, Customs and DEA). I would say the samples you sent me are
definitely the same handwriting.

So it does appear Vega’s Greg Smith and the Greg Smith linked to the
crashed cocaine jet are, in fact, the same person.

Ultimately, though, it is you, kind reader, who has to make that
judgment call.

Back to Bogotá

In all of this, we must remember that the cocaine that was onboard the
Gulfstream II when it crashed came out of Colombia.

In prior stories, Narco News has reported that leaks of classified
information from the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, were allegedly
discovered in 1999 during a DEA operation targeting Colombian
narco-traffickers. That operation, codenamed “Cali-Man,” played out
between 1997 and 2000, utilized Vega as an asset, and was overseen by
Miami-based DEA Supervisor David Tinsley.

The U.S. Embassy leaks uncovered by Tinsley in 1999 are also referenced
in an internal memo drafted in 2004 by a Justice Department attorney
named Thomas M. Kent. That memo was leaked to Narco News last year.

The Kent memo also makes other serious allegations that revolve around
DEA agents in Colombia assisting narco-traffickers and paramilitary
forces — an alliance since dubbed the Bogota Connection.

In the wake of reporting the U.S. Embassy leaks, Tinsley found himself
the target of an internal DEA investigation that resulted in his
suspension and eventual dismissal from his job.

Tinsley sought to get his job back, claiming the charges against him
were bogus. He brought a claim of wrongful termination before a Merit
Systems Protection Board (MSPB) judge, who, in April 2004, ruled in his
favor and ordered the DEA to reinstate him — with back pay, plus
interest.

Vega worked as a cooperating source for Tinsley’s Cali-Man operation
and likewise ran across the trail of the alleged U.S. law enforcement
corruption in Colombia. He, too, was targeted by the government — at
the same time Tinsley was being investigated.

The FBI charged Vega in 2000 with obstruction of justice, alleging that
he used an illegal scheme of promising Colombian narco-traffickers
lenient sentences in exchange for money and their cooperation with the
U.S. government. Those charges were dropped, however, because
prosecutors were later forced to concede that Vega’s so-called
“corruption scheme” was actually a government-sanctioned cover story.
In fact, Vega claims the FBI authorized the cover story.

But the government still found a way to stick it to Vega by hitting him
with a misdemeanor tax charge. Vega says he served 52 days in jail
after being convicted in 2004 of that taxing transgression. Ironically,
one of the allegedly corrupt Colombian law enforcers who Vega claims
was part of the Bogotá Connection, Col. Danilo Gonzalez of the
Colombian National Police, was assassinated in Bogotá on the very day
Vega was sentenced in the tax case.

Vega, in a recent lawsuit filed in federal court, claims the FBI and
DEA both used him between 1997 and 2000 to help broker plea deals with
Colombian narco-traffickers and that, in the end, the U.S. government
stiffed him out of $28.5 million in promised payments for his work.

It was during that work for the FBI and DEA that Vega ran across Greg
Smith, whom Vega claims was brought in by the FBI to pilot some 25 to
30 flights that involved couriering federal agents, Colombian
narco-traffickers and lawyers back and forth between the United States
and Latin America as part of the naroc-trafficker “recruiting” efforts.

Vega also says that the CIA was very involved in this effort, assisting
with assuring the safe transport of the narco-traffickers to the
airports in Latin America.

“We did have the full cooperation of the CIA…,” he told Narco News.

On at least one occasion, Vega adds, a CIA agent actually flew in the
jet during one of the Latin American missions — though he stresses the
agent simply needed to hitch a ride and was not directly involved with
the operation.

The CIA even popped up during the course of Tinsley’s Cali-Man
investigation in Colombia. A DEA report obtained by Narco News provides
the following details concerning that incident:

    [DEA Miami Division Special Agent] SA Vasquez … stated between June
and December 1999, he received a complaint from unknown CIA personnel
concerning GS Tinsley. According to SA Vasquez, the information he
received was vague and pertained to GS Tinsley’s unexpected arrival in
Panama [where the informant Vega often arranged meetings with
high-level Colombian narco-traffickers as part of Cali-Man], and the
fact that he [Tinsley] was somehow interfering with CIA operations. SA
Vasquez was unable to recall the exact time frame of the incident.

In addition, one of the files leaked out of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá
to a narco-trafficker was a CIA file, according to Vega. The file
provided to that narco-trafficker, Vega alleges, was a record of all
the intelligence gathered by the CIA in Colombia on some 200
narco-traffickers.

So it appears the CIA’s fingerprints are all over the Bogotá Connection.

And now, given Mr. Smith’s possible link to the Gulfstream II jet — an
aircraft reportedly linked to past CIA operations — Vega says he cannot
rule out that Smith might be an asset of not only the FBI, but the CIA
as well. He stresses, though, that it is only a “suspicion.”

However, Vega says that suspicion is fueled, in part, by the events
that played out after he was released from his 52-day jail stint
stemming from the tax case. Vega claims that prior to his arrest on the
tax charge, as part of a lease-purchase deal, he put $250,000 down
toward buying the jet that Smith had piloted in the narco-trafficker
recruiting trips to Latin America.

Vega explains that in addition to the missions for the U.S. government,
he also used the jet in traveling for his personal business as a
fashion photographer.

Vega, who has a long history working as a CIA asset, explains that the
fashion business was a perfect cover for his work.

“My operations used fashion as a cover and beauty as a weapon,” he says.

After getting out of jail, Vega says he attempted to recover the jet or
the money he had advanced for the aircraft, but was paid a visit by the
FBI who told him in no uncertain terms to “stay away from the plane.”

To this day, Vega alleges, he has not recovered the money nor does he
know what happened to the jet.

Mirror reality

It seems that in the world of spooks and covert jets, finding the truth
is like finding the source of a light in a house of mirrors.

Several law enforcement sources familiar with CIA operations told Narco
News that the Agency’s practice is to set up separate companies for
each operation, so that if something goes wrong — a jet is lost, for
example — there is no bleed over to other operations, which also are
being carried out through a matrix of separate companies.

In addition, the sources say the CIA operates like a large management
company and regularly contracts for services as needed, including
pilots. And because of the nature of its clandestine work, the sources
contend the CIA has to deal in the shadowy world of criminal
organizations — because the Agency itself is considered an illegal
operation in most of the foreign countries in which it has operations.

But it must be stressed that, at this point, it is not clear what role
Smith really played in the ill-fated flight of the Gulfstream II.

If you, kind reader, believe the signatures are a match, which means we
are dealing with one individual, then it appears that the Smith
involved in the purchase of the crashed Gulfstream II has a history of
piloting flights for sensitive government operations where the FBI, DEA
and CIA intersect.

If, as one scenario might suggest, Smith is indeed a CIA operative —
and that is only “speculation” at this point as Vega says — then he
likely is only one reflection in an array of mirrors. It just so
happens that in this particular case, one of those mirrors has been
covered with four tons of coke.

Stay tuned…