In August 2000, Panamanian officials working on behalf of US Customs
seized a $1.5 million dollar Bell Helicopter in Panama. Several years
earlier, they seized $335,800 cash from a Bell Helicopter bank account in
the United States. Both were seized because of alleged involvement in the Black
Market Peso Exchange. Government officials speaking on a condition of
anonymity said that the highly unusual business transactions which led to
the seizures were virtually impossible to disguise as legitimate business
dealings.
Customs agents originally learned about the helicopter because they
were participating in an undercover money laundering investigation in
Mobile, Alabama. Undercover Customs agents posing as money brokers would
pick up large quantities of cash (drug proceeds) from the streets of
several major US cities. They would then deposit the cash into special
undercover bank accounts and await instructions from their Colombian
contacts on where the send the money. The agents received instructions to
make five wire transfers totalling $335,800 into the Bell Helicopter bank
account, according to the seizure affidavit. The money was partial payment
for a helicopter.
After investigating further, Customs agents learned that in early 1998,
a representative for Victor Carranza approached the Bell Helicopter sales
agent in Colombia about purchasing a helicopter. Carranza is a well-known
emerald mine owner who US and Colombian investigators say has links to the
drug trade and the right wing paramilitary groups in Colombia. The Bell
Helicopter sales agent has denied knowing that Carranza was anything other
than a legitimate businessman.
Customs investigators learned that the Carranza representative who
approached Bell had been indicted in the United States for drug
trafficking in 1990. Customs investigators also learned that the
Panamanian company used to purchase the helicopter from Bell was a front
for Carranza and had been previously linked to drug trafficking.
In mid-1999, US Customs filed an affidavit to seize all the drug money
they had wired into bank accounts as part of their undercover operation.
Most of the smaller companies involved did not even contest the seizures,
but Bell Helicopter immediately responded by saying that they had no
knowledge that this was drug money, according to the case record. The
company "denies that any funds on deposit in [their bank account] are
proceeds of drug trafficking activity or are forfeitable pursuant to any
statutory provision," according to the Bell court filings.
Customs officials decided to investigate further, and in interviewing
the Bell sales agent in Colombia, found out that the Customs wire
transfers had been only partial payment for the helicopter. Customs agents
learned that other irregular wire transfers had been used to pay for the
rest of the helicopter's sale price of $1.5 million dollars. "Between
June and September 1998, Bell received 26 payments totaling $1,029,000
which were also credited towards the purchase of the defendant
helicopter," the affidavit says. All of these payments came from US
individuals and companies who had no link to Carranza or his company, a
very unusual way to do business.
The US government used the additional evidence to seize the actual
helicopter in August of this year, saying that the entire helicopter was
paid for through the black peso system. To date, no one has contested the
seizure of the helicopter. US officials located it in Panama and seized it
on August 4, 2000.
Ironically, at the same time Bell Helicopter was negotiating the
helicopter sale to Carranza, the company was actively lobbying Congress to
earn the contract for helicopters as part of Plan
Colombia. Plan Colombia is the $1.3 billion aid package that the US
Government just approved to help Colombia fight narcotics trafficking. It
includes 42 refurbished Huey IIs from Bell Helicopter at a price of over
$130 million dollars.
And, another irony: these Huey IIs potentially will be used by the
Colombian military to fight the paramilitary groups who are linked to
Carranza.
