Guns for Antigua
The Guns for Antigua scandal was a
After the assassination of presidential candidate
The Royal Commission under Blom-Cooper uncovered an international conspiracy to ship arms from Israel to Colombia via Antigua.
Background
In 1983,
In September 1988, Sarfati, along with Yair Klein (a retired IDF Colonel with links to Gacha) and Bruce Rappaport, presented a proposal to the Antiguan government (on behalf of Klein's security company Spearhead Ltd.) for a mercenary training camp designed to train ‘corporate security experts, ranging from the executive level to the operational level, and bring them to the highest professional capacity in order to confront and defuse any possible threat’[7] which was to be run by Klein. There was also to be a speciality shop where, at the end of the course, those trained at the camp could purchase arms and ammunition.[8]
Shipment
In an attempt to get out of bankruptcy, Sarfati, who was now living in Miami, and Klein contacted
The weapons were loaded on the Danish ship Else TH, which sailed from Haifa on 28 March 1989, bound for Chile via the Panama Canal. It reached St John's, Antigua, on 24 April and unloaded a container carrying the guns. The Else TH was primarily loaded with weapons for government troops in South America, including Colombia, and Antigua was a convenient first stop. However whilst the Else TH was at sea, Diego Viafara Salinas, Gacha's personal physician, had defected to the Colombian security services and had produced a video apparently showing Klein running training camps for Gacha's cartel forces.[11][12] This meant that the training school on Antigua could no longer be used to launder the guns for Gacha but because the shipment had already been paid for, Klein and Sarfati diverted a Medellin-owned ship, the MV Seapoint, from Haiti to Antigua to pick up the container with the guns to be delivered to Gacha. The container sat unguarded on the dockside for seven hours before the MV Seapoint arrived and collected it, before dumping it on a deserted beach in north-west Colombia where the ship also picked up a 2½ ton shipment of cocaine.[13]
Aftermath
Following the report of the Commission, there were protests in Antigua with signs proclaiming "The Birds Must Go," which resulted in Vere Bird Jr resigning as Minister of Public Works.[14] He was also barred from holding public office.[15]
Klein was put on trial at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court for three counts of exporting military equipment and expertise without the requisite licenses. Klein pleaded guilty and was convicted in late November 1990. During the trial, he explained that he pleaded guilty "to put an end to the witch hunt running rampant in some of the press, based on rumours and speculation which are harming the state and me." He claimed he had acted "in good faith and in the belief that my actions were within the law.".[16]
Walker was dismissed by Vere Bird Sr from his position as ADF commander.[15]
References
- ^ Philips, Dion. "Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force: A Preliminary Look". Retrieved 17 August 2011.
- ^ Reeves, Phil (6 December 1990). "Guns for Antigua: Cocaine barons supplied with Israeli arms; Louis Blom-Cooper QC was commissioned to discover how Israeli arms were shipped to Medellin cocaine barons. Phil Reeves unravels a conspiracy hatched in Miami, which stretched from Israel, through the West Indies to South America". The Independent (London).
- ISBN 978-0-09-958191-8.
- ISBN 9781442205895. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-7156-2376-3.
- ISBN 978-0-09-958191-8.
- ^ Griffith, Ivelaw (1997). "Narcotics arms trafficking, corruption and governance in the Caribbean". Journal of Money Laundering Control. 1(2): 139–140.
- ISBN 978-0-7156-2376-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7156-2376-3.
- ^ US Congress, Committee on Governmental Affairs (1991) Arms Trafficking, Mercenaries, and Drug Cartels, Hearing, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 102nd Cong., 1st Sess., 27 and 28 February, pp. 127-130
- ISBN 978-0-09-958191-8.
- ^ Joshua Brilliant; Asher Wallfish (9 May 1990). "Antiguans probing how Israeli weapons ended up in Colombia". The Jerusalem Post.
- ISBN 978-0-09-958191-8.
- ^ Michael Kaufman (30 June 1999). "Vere Bird, 89, Who Led Antigua to Freedom". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 July 2023.
- ^ a b "UK ANTIGUA REPORT CALLS FOR ISRAEL TO REVIEW ARMS EXPORTS". The Jerusalem Post. 6 December 1990.
- ^ Hugh Orgel (3 December 1990). "Israeli Reserve Colonel Convicted of Illegal Sale of Arms, Know-how". Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
See also
- Yair Klein
- Bruce Rappaport
- Maurice Sarfati
- Lester Bird
- Vere Bird, Jr.
- Louis Blom-Cooper
- Geoffrey Robertson
- Israeli Military Industries
- Medellín Cartel
- José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha