3RD PLANE SOLD IN ST. PETE LINKED TO CRIMINAL CASE

When Larry Peters sold the 30-year-old twin engine plane back in
August 2006, he thought it was just another deal by his small St.
Petersburg-based aircraft sales company, according to his lawyer.

But now the Cessna Conquest II is part of an FBI investigation into
international money laundering and drug smuggling, according to an FBI
affidavit.

The Cessna is the third aircraft sold in the St. Petersburg area
during the past two years to become the subject of an international
investigation. In addition, a fourth aircraft was seized by Guatemalan
authorities in 2004 after it was sold in St. Petersburg, according to
its former owner.

The Cessna was sold as part of "a complex international money
laundering scheme" to purchase airplanes for drug smuggling, according
to an affidavit by FBI agent Michael Hoenigman. It was purchased from
St. Petersburg-based Skyway Aircraft, FBI and FAA records state. It
was to be used in transporting cocaine from Venezuela to Africa,
according to the affidavit.

After being e-mailed a copy of the affidavit, Peters, who owns Skyway,
referred questions to attorney Hunter Chamberlin.

"He doesn't know anything" about the airplane being used by drug
smugglers, Chamberlin said. "This is a guy who has a very small
company. Whatever happens to these airplanes after Mr. Peters sells
them, they enter the stream of commerce and the last Larry Peters will
see of the airplane."

It is not up to Peters to "do a criminal background check on all his
potential customers," Chamberlin said.

Peters has not been contacted by any law enforcement agency from any
country, the lawyer said.

FBI officials would not identify the organization. Peters is not named
in the affidavit.

The Cessna's connection to drug trafficking turned up in an
investigation of Pedro Jose Benavides-Natera, who admitted using money
from drug organizations to purchase airplanes, according to
Hoenigman's affidavit.

Benavides-Natera was part of a conspiracy to purchase aircraft from
legitimate aircraft sellers for a Venezuelan-based drug organization
using laundered currency from Mexico, according to the affidavit.

There is no information in the affidavit about what happened to the
Cessna once it was sold to drug smugglers, and officials from the FBI
declined to comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami did not
return a call seeking comment.

Two other planes sold from this area are the subjects of an
investigation into the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, according to the
Mexican Attorney General's Office.

On April 5, 2006, a DC-9 left St. Petersburg-Clearwater International
Airport, bound for Venezuela. Days later, it was seized in Mexico,
where the Mexican army found 5.5 tons of cocaine.

In September, a Gulfstream II flew out of the airport. Eight days
later, it crashed in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Mexican
authorities found 3.7 tons of cocaine onboard.

The cocaine found on the two jets represents "a huge seizure," DEA
spokesman Steven Robertson told the Tribune in November. The DEA is
not involved in the FBI investigation into the Cessna, said DEA
spokeswoman Jeannette Moran.

Peters also has connections to the former owner of the aircraft that
crashed in Mexico. Through Atlantic Alcohol, a St. Petersburg-based
company trying to import ethanol from Brazil, Peters is a business
partner of Joao Malago, who sold the Gulfstream II.

Both Malago and Peters deny any connection to drug
smugglers.

Peters refused to comment about the Cessna. In a previous interview,
he did talk about a Beechcraft King Air 200 that was seized in
Guatemala in 2004.

"We sold the King Air 200 to a gentleman in Venezuela," he said.
"After we got into it, we found out some of these airplanes were used
for carrying drugs, the one I sold."

After the sale of an aircraft, he said, he has nothing more to do with
it.

"We deregister the airplane as soon as we sell it," he
said.

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso contributed to this report.