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April 1, 2008
Is CIA Using Rendition Aircraft to Haul Drugs?
By Wayne Madsen
The Central Intelligence Agency, also known as the "Cocaine Import Agency," is suspected by aviation experts of running cocaine and other drugs on its fleet of small passenger jets used to ferry prisoners to and from American gulags like Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
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The Central Intelligence Agency, also known as the "Cocaine Import Agency," is suspected by aviation experts of running cocaine and other drugs on its fleet of small passenger jets used to ferry prisoners to and from American gulags like Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. N675BC 12.06.2004 MUGM (Gtmo) KFLL N675BC 07.01.2005 KPDK (DeKalb-Peachtree) MUGM N675BC 18.07.2006 MUGM KFLL (Ft.Lauderdale-Hollywood) N675BC 24.05.2006 MUGM KFLL N675BC 28.03.2006 MUGM KFLL N675BC 22.10.2007 MUGM KTPA (Tampa) The plane has also been a frequent visitor to Grand Cayman and was seen in Mexico in 2003. Another CIA rendition aircraft, Learjet (N500ND), registered to World Jet of Delaware, a frequent visitor to Guantanamo, experienced an accident at Dominica's Melville Hall Airport on August 11, 2007, while landing from St. John in the US Virgin Islands. The accident is common for aircraft carrying heavy "loads." The National Transportation Safety Board concluded: "The pilot in command pumped the brakes with no response. The drag chute was deployed but was not effective. The pilot in command stated he took over the flight controls and applied maximum braking. The airplane continued to roll off the end of the runway, down an embankment, through a fence, and came to a stop on a road."
A Beechcraft Super King Air 350 (N675BC), registered to a suspected CIA front, Aviation Enterprises, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware, was recently spotted alongside a Russian-made AN-124, suspected of being a major drug transport cargo plane, in Colombia.
The "specially configured" King Air flew from Tampa to Guantanamo Bay on October 22, 2007. From 2002 to 2006, the King Air was registered to Prewitt Leasing Inc. of Bedford, Texas.
On September 19, 2007, the King Air was spotted at Medellin's Enrique Olaya Herrera airport in Colombia. On August 20, 2007, the plane was sighted at Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica. The aircraft was last seen in Houston.
The King Air's trips to Guantanamo include:
Authors Bio:
For more, visit Wayne Madsen Report, which its publisher, Wayne Madsen, keeps refreshed with more news than any one reporter has a right to.
Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist, nationally distributed columnist, and author who has covered Washington, DC, politics, national security, and intelligence issues since 1994. He has written for The Village Voice, The Progressive, CAQ, Counterpunch, and the Intelligence Newsletter (based in Paris).
Look for his new book, Overthrow a Fascist Regime on $15 a Day: The Internet Irregulars vs. The Powers That Be!, in the fall.