RUSSIAN MOB TRADING ARMS FOR COCAINE WITH COLOMBIA REBELS

Huge Smuggling Ring -- An MSNBC.com Exclusive

WASHINGTON, April 9 -- Russian crime syndicates and renegade Russian
military officers are supplying sophisticated weapons to Colombian rebels
in return for huge shipments of cocaine, U.S. intelligence officials told
MSNBC.com. A senior intelligence official described the smuggling ring as
``literally an industry'' that threatens to overwhelm the Colombian
government and turn the U.S.-backed fight against the Colombia cocaine
cartels into a losing proposition.

THE CLINTON administration is trying to escalate the long-running war on
Colombia's cocaine cartels, and a $1.7 billion aid package to the South
American nation is under consideration in Congress. U.S. intelligence
officials, all of whom spoke to MSNBC.com on condition of anonymity, said
the scope of the Russia-to-Colombia smuggling ring took them by surprise
and remains unknown to all but a few high-ranking figures in the American
government.

In short, an alliance of corrupt Russian military figures, organized crime
bosses, diplomats and revolutionaries has been moving regular shipments of
up to 40,000 kilograms of cocaine to the former Soviet Union in return for
large shipments of deadly weaponry.

The intelligence officials said the smuggling ring works like this:

Russian-built IL-76 cargo planes take off from various airstrips in Russia
and Ukraine laden with anti-aircraft missiles, small arms and ammunition.

The planes, roughly the size of Boeing 707s and a mainstay of the modern
cargo industry, stop in Amman, Jordan, to refuel. There, they bypass normal
Jordanian customs with the help of corrupt foreign diplomats and bribed
local officials.

After crossing the Atlantic, the cargo jets use remote landing strips or
parachute air-drops to deliver their cargo to the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The guerrilla group is challenging the
authority of the U.S.-backed Colombian government, and its guerrillas
provide security to Colombia's cocaine cartels.

The planes return loaded with up to 40,000 kilograms of cocaine. Some of
this is distributed as payment for the arms to the diplomatic middlemen in
Amman. The rest is flown back to the former Soviet Union for sale there, in
Europe and in the Persian Gulf.

CORRUPT DIPLOMATS

Officials close to the investigation cited intelligence intercepts that
show the IL-76 cargo planes use Royal Jordanian Airlines cargo facilities
in Amman, where airline officials are bribed to ignore false cargo
manifests. While in Amman, the planes are cleared for transit under
diplomatic cover originating from a Spanish-speaking embassy in Amman,
according to U.S. intelligence officials. The officials refused to specify
which embassy was involved.

``They're using diplomatic authority to get that stuff in,'' said a senior
U.S. intelligence official close to the investigation. ``If they're not
using a [diplomatic] pouch, they're using diplomatic authority to clear the
shipment. This is a big operation. There are a lot of people involved --
it's literally an industry.''

The Spanish-speaking embassy official in Jordan, whom the intelligence
officials would not identify by name, has the power to clear diplomatic
shipments and may also be able to authorize embassy funds when additional
money is needed to move the shipments through Amman. Still, while the
embassy contact may have a high rank, intelligence sources said they do not
think the scheme is operating with the knowledge of the country involved or
Jordan's government.

REBELS AND CARTELS

Once the plane has refueled in Amman, officials said, it then proceeds from
Jordan to various landing strips throughout South America, where shipments
are coordinated by a renegade Peruvian military officer.

A senior U.S. intelligence source has identified by name three men alleged
to be directly involved in those shipments. Luiz Fernando Da Costa, working
under the alias Fernandinho Beira-Mar, is one of Brazil's most wanted
narco-traffickers. For the past four years, Da Costa has used the town of
Pedro Juan Caballero in Paraguay as his base of operations. According to
U.S. intelligence, Da Costa runs arms received from Fuad Jamil, a Lebanese
businessman operating in the same Paraguayan town. The official said Jamil
uses a legitimate import company as a front.

While most of the weaponry goes directly to FARC, a smaller amount is
parceled off to other guerrilla groups. Among them is Hezbollah, the
Iranian-backed movement best known for its guerrilla activities in southern
Lebanon. U.S. intelligence officials say the group has set down roots among
the Arab immigrant communities of Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil
and frequently uses legitimate business operations to cover illegal arms
transfers.

Within Colombia, arms deliveries to rebel guerrillas are coordinated
through the town of Barranco Minas, the headquarters for the FARC's 16th
Front. The 16th Front is lead by Tomas Medina Caracas, who operates the
arms ring under the alias Negro Acacio.

PAYING OFF THE SMUGGLERS

The FARC rebels, who control the distribution of the arms, pay the
smugglers with cocaine. The drug is then loaded onto the planes for the
return journey through Amman. Hundreds of thousands of kilos of cocaine
have been smuggled over the last two years.

According to drug enforcement officials, cocaine can bring more than
$50,000 per kilo in Europe. The involvement of Russian organized
crime in its smuggling is well established, and the most common gateway is
Spain, where European drug enforcement officials say the bulk of Colombian
cocaine and heroin enters the continent. Intelligence officials confirmed
that because of Spain's pivotal role in the European drug trade, their
suspicions in Amman focus on Spain's embassy.

Some of the cocaine is delivered under diplomatic cover to intermediaries
in Jordan, where it finds its way onto the streets. The majority of the
cocaine shipment continues on to Russia and Ukraine, where it feeds the
growing appetite for the drug, or is sold in other lucrative markets in
Europe and the Persian Gulf.

A POWERFUL UNDERGROUND ALLIANCE

The smuggling ring brings together two powerful and destabilizing forces
that have become key targets of U.S. foreign policy: the deep-seated
corruption of the former Soviet states and Colombia's spiral toward
drug-induced anarchy. For Russia and Ukraine, billions of dollars in
International Monetary Fund, World Bank and direct aid is at stake.
Scandals over the alleged misuse of such loans already have sparked
investigations in the U.S. Congress.

For Colombia's backers in the United States and advocates of increased U.S.
aid, the revelations are particularly ill-timed. Congress is considering a
$1.7 billion drug-interdiction aid package for Colombia, including
sophisticated Blackhawk helicopters. Among the weapons being supplied to
FARC, intelligence officials said, are rocket-propelled grenade launchers
(RPGs) and Russian SA-model shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft weapons similar
to the U.S. Stinger missiles.

As U.S. soldiers learned in Somalia, both RPGs and missile launchers can
bring down a Blackhawk helicopter, even in the untrained hands of rebel
armies.

''[The guerrillas] get the RPG to explode in the vicinity of the tail rotor,
which gives the helicopter its horizontal stability,'' said a U.S. Army
official. ``All that has to happen is for the tail rotor to become a bit
unbalanced or for a hydraulic line to be cut, and that helicopter is coming
down. It takes good aim and cases full of RPGs, but it's been done many
times.''

WELL-ESTABLISHED NETWORK

U.S. intelligence officials say the arms-for-drugs ring has been
operational for two years. MSNBC.com first broke the story of large arms
shipments to FARC rebels last October, and it was that shipment that drew
the attention of U.S. intelligence agencies to what they eventually
concluded was a major trafficking ring. That single drop last October was
said by U.S. intelligence officials to have delivered $50 million worth of
AK-47s deep inside FARC-held territory. U.S. authorities ultimately
apprehended one of the traffickers, the officials said.

Since that time, the intelligence officials said, arms traffickers have
refined their operation. While the IL-76 is designed to drop large loads by
parachute, that method requires favorable weather and specially trained
flight crews. After repeated problems with air drops, traffickers seek to
avoid detection by using a variety of existing runways where they can bribe
officials to allow the cargo in. The IL-76 also is capable of landing at
rough, remote landing strips.

The size of the cargo is staggering; the IL-76 is used to transport troops,
arms and tanks for the Russian military. In one hour, a trained ground crew
can unload, refuel and reload a plane bearing 90,000 pounds of cargo, U.S.
military officials say. That's equivalent to 5,400 rifles and 360,000
rounds of ammunition, along with shoulder-held missiles and RPGs.

RUSSIA, FROM RED TO GRAY

The scale of the smuggling underscores the enormous challenge that law
enforcement authorities face in the former Soviet Union, where Soviet-era
intelligence operatives in many cases made a seamless transition from Cold
War spying or military intelligence into organized crime. ``The source of
the weapons [smuggled into Colombia] is both organized crime and military,''
a U.S. intelligence official said. ``There is a tremendous gray area between
the two in Russia and the Ukraine.''

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, many KGB and other Soviet security
agents appropriated bank accounts, companies and contacts used for covert
operations, and turned them instead into conduits for their own organized
crime activities, including arms and drug trafficking.

~~~~~
Sidebars:

Officials close to the investigation cited intelligence intercepts that
show the IL-76 cargo planes use Royal Jordanian Airlines cargo facilities
in Amman, where airline officials are bribed to ignore false cargo
manifests.

`The source of the weapons [smuggled into Colombia] is both organized crime
and military. There is a tremendous grey area between the two in Russia and
the Ukraine.' -- UNNAMED U.S. INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL