ARMS DEALER ARRESTED IN PLOT TO KILL CARTEL KINGPIN

A veteran British mercenary and arms trafficker who allegedly became
involved in Colombia's drug war in the early 1990s was arrested this
week as he tried to attend a chemical weapons safety class in Texas,
U.S. officials said yesterday.

David Brian Tomkins, 63, was arrested Thursday when he arrived in
Houston, where he was scheduled to attend a survival class at Fort
Bliss, Tex., according to Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) of the Department of
Homeland Security. Taking the class was a requirement to be hired by a
U.S. firm involved in reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

"The arrest of this individual removed a key player from the ranks of
international arms dealers," said Michael J. Garcia, the acting
assistant secretary for BICE.

A federal judge set bond for Tomkins at $100,000.

Although Tomkins has been linked to paramilitary activities stretching
from Suriname to southern Africa, he was arrested on a nine-year-old
warrant that alleges he helped one of the world's largest drug cartels
attempt to assassinate the head of a rival cocaine-trafficking
organization. Officials say he was paid $10 million for his efforts,
which ultimately failed.

A 1994 indictment, brought in the Southern District of Florida,
alleges that in 1991 Tomkins attempted to buy a Dragonfly A-37 fighter
jet from undercover agents on behalf of the Colombia-based Cali
cocaine cartel. The Cali organization at that time was supplying more
than half the cocaine consumed in the United States and Europe.

The jet was to be used to bomb the prison near Medellin where Pablo
Escobar, the leader of the rival Medellin cocaine cartel, was being
held. In December 1991 Tomkins made a down payment of $25,000 for the
aircraft and inspected a jet set up by Customs agents. But Tomkins
fled back to Britain after being mysteriously tipped off that he was
involved in a sting operation. After escaping, he allegedly called
federal agents and taunted them, officials said.

Escobar was eventually killed by police in 1993 after escaping from
prison.

In addition to the jet, officials said, Tomkins sought to buy
500-pound bombs from El Salvador to use in the attack and Bell
helicopters for use by the cartel.

In congressional testimony, Tomkins has acknowledged a long history of
service to Colombia's drug barons, for whom he was a top weapons
purchaser. He said he worked for the Cali cartel for at least three
years, but claimed that he did not know his employers were drug
traffickers.

In 1991, just months before he allegedly attempted to buy the jet, he
testified before a Senate committee about how easy it was to provide
illegal groups with weapons. He bragged that he could usually get any
weapons order filled within a week.

Other mercenaries who worked with him said Tomkins was an explosives
expert and had served in the elite British SAS forces before offering
his services to the highest bidder.

Tomkins was one of dozens of mercenaries who worked for the cocaine
cartels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a time when the drug barons
operated more openly, financed by millions of dollars from drug sales.