BEHIND POSADA: DRUG TRAFFICKING

Panamanian sources confirm links between Jose Valladares Acosta, accomplice
of terrorist gang leader Luis Posada Carriles and Orestes Cosio, recently
deported from the United States for drug trafficking and involvement in
three murders The extremely dangerous terrorist has always maintained
links with drug trafficking circles in Miami - the U.S. drugs capital

ON October 7, Jose Valladares Acosta, a fugitive from U.S. justice, died
from natural causes in Panama. He was waiting to be tried as an accomplice
of terrorist gang boss Luis Posada Carriles on a charge of conspiracy to
assassinate Fidel Castro. He was a crony of Cuban-American Orestes Cosio,
deported to the United States on May 22 for drug trafficking and taking
part in three murders.

Sources in Panama revealed to Granma International that Cosio, who lived in
Chiriqui province under the alias Luis "Mack" Navarro, associated with Jose
"Pepe" Valladares and Pedro Caridad Gordillo Serrano, a retired Miami
police officer also linked to drug trafficking, in a mechanics workshop
known as the "Big Truck". Chiriqui is a town bordering on Costa Rica, some
450 kilometers west of the Panamanian capital.

After Posada Carriles and his accomplices were arrested on November 17,
2000 at the Coral Suite Hotel in Panama City, when they had completed their
preparations to assassinate Fidel Castro, the Panamanian authorities
discovered that the detained men had been helped by Valladares Acosta.

They later discovered that the four individuals had stashed C-4 and Semtex
explosives at Valladares' farm in Boquete, Chiriqui province, where they
had stayed three days before being arrested in the capital.

Born on February 7, 1934 in Pinar del Rio (Cuba), Valladares died from
coronary complications on October 7 in Boquete, where he had been living
for many years. In Panama he was known successively as "Pepe el Largo",
"Pepe el Flaco", "Pepe el Cubano" and "El Cojo". He had a U.S. passport:
No. 04499538.

Last May 22, Panama's Immigration Office informed that Orestes Cosio had
been deported to the United States after being arrested in Chiriqui in
possession of a forged U.S. passport and two weapons. One of the guns had
been stolen in Panama. He had lived in Chiriqui since 1998 and was involved
in various businesses. The Cuban American had various stamps in his false
passport for trips to Central America.

Posada, aged 74; Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, 67; Guillermo Novo Sampoll, 62;
and Pedro Remon, 58, are all being held in El Renacer prison, Panama City
awaiting the preliminary hearing of their trial, scheduled to begin on
December 5. The four terrorists were arrested shortly after Cuba informed
the Panamanian authorities of a conspiracy to assassinate President Fidel
Castro in the midst of a student gathering.

The four are represented by lawyer Rogelio Cruz, former attorney of the
Republic, sacked for his links with Colombian cartels. Cruz has traveled to
Miami on various occasions to meet members of the Miami clique who are
paying Posada's defense costs.

Valladares, Accomplice Of Orlando Bosch

According to data disclosed by a source close to Valladares, the
businessman's links with the Miami terrorist camarilla date back close to
30 years to when he helped Orlando Bosch, a terrorist of Cuban-American
origin, with preparations for blowing up a Cubana Airlines plane over
Barbados in 1976. The attack caused the death of 73 people. Luis Posada
Carriles was later identified as Bosch's partner in the crime and sentenced
in Venezuela.

When Bosch was freed, thanks to the intervention of Cuban-American Otto
Reich, then the U.S. ambassador to Caracas, and that of the White House, he
went to stay in one of Valladares' houses in Miami.

Other sources - linked to the April 1999 trial in Panama that took place
after Cuba exposed Luis Posada Carriles' presence in El Salvador, which
obliged him to flee the country and hide in Honduras and Costa Rica -
affirm that the terrorist boss directed one of his contacts in the United
States to contact "Pepe" Valladares and tell him about his situation.

When the frustrated attempt on the Cuban President's life was revealed,
Valladares abandoned his home to take refuge in an unknown location.

100 Pounds Of C-4 Found In Colon

At the end of September 2001, the Panamanian DA's Office obtained
information stating that certain individuals in the city of Colon were
trying to sell some 100 pounds of C-4 explosive. The DA's Office associated
the information with the missing explosives from the Posada conspiracy and
ordered an immediate investigation.

Coincidentally, on October 19, DA Argentina Barrera, at the time
responsible for Posada's dossier, plus other members of the DA Office were
called to the office of FBI investigator Ramon Quijana at the U.S. embassy.
He gave them the same information and proposed a joint "controlled
purchase" operation. The FBI man added that he likewise believed that the
explosives were part of the batch that Posada and his group had thought to use.

At the end of the same month, Miles Burden - head of the FBI at the U.S.
embassy in Panama - sent a report to DA Barrera indicating he had
information about weapons and possibly explosives hidden at Valladares'
farm in Chiriqui. The DA's Office asked the FBI for technical aid because
the farm was so large, and the FBI agreed. However, a few days later Miles'
posting came to an end, which seems to have frustrated buying up the cache.

After his arrest, Valladares Acosta told the Panamanian DA that Posada
Carriles and his group had been at his house.

The suspect claimed that he had recommended the terrorist gang leader to
use a rifle with a telescopic lens to murder the Cuban president instead of
explosives, which could kill many innocent people.

The four terrorists proposed dynamiting the University of Panama's Aula
Magna where Fidel Castro was to speak after the Ibero-American Summit.

After being found guilty of complicity, Valladares was placed under house
arrest to await trial.

"The Most Dangerous Terrorist"

Luis Posada Carriles and Miami's Orlando Bosch share the FBI's descriptive
title "most dangerous terrorist in the hemisphere".

Without exception, their three accomplices have a comprehensive past in
terrorism. Among other crimes, Jimenez murdered Cuban technician Artagnan
Diaz in Merida, Mexico. Remon killed Felix Garcia Rodriguez, a Cuban
diplomat at the United Nations in New York. Novo assassinated Chilean
leader Orlando Letelier in Washington.

On December 5, Judge Enrique Paniza will determine whether or not there is
a case against the four individuals. He must analyze the dossier complied
by DA Dimas Guevara who recommended charging Posada and his group with four
lesser crimes but not intent to murder, on the grounds of the absence of an
explosive valve in the evidence. Nevertheless, popular organizations are
planning to ask the judge to try the accused on other charges, including
the attempted assassination of the Cuban head of state.

According to lawyer Julio Berrios, Judge Paniza will be asked to add the
charge of attempted collective homicide, beating in mind the catastrophe
that an explosion could have caused in the University amphitheater.

The four terrorists' lawyer Rogelio Cruz has tried in vain to get Judge
Paniza removed from the trial, by alleging that he had a "special interest"
in implementing the charges. The judge denied the claim and the request was
rejected by a higher court.

Luis Posada Carriles' links with the drug trafficking world began in the
1980's when he was acting as Felix Rodriguez' right-hand man at the
Salvadoran base of Llopang, in a shadowy chapter of the misnamed
Iran-Contra scandal. To this day he remains unpunished. The boss of the
terrorist gang has always maintained his links with drug trafficking
circles in Miami, the U.S. drugs capital.

Cosio's drug trafficking links with his accomplice Jose Valladares once
again confirm the constant trading in narcotics that lies behind the
activities of this extremely dangerous terrorist.