Chile: Pinochet : International Terrorist,, WMD Maker, Mobster, Possibly Dope Dealer

I missed, dictator, torturer, murderer, sadist, criminal, tax cheater, thief.
The secret police director for General Augusto Pinochet's regime, says he ran a cocaine production and smuggling operation for his boss, during the dictatorship.

tip of the hat to Beautiful Horizons

Augusto Pinochet's $26m (£14m) fortune was amassed through cocaine sales to Europe and the US, the general's former top aide for intelligence has alleged.

In testimony sent to Chilean Judge Claudio Pavez, Manuel Contreras alleges that Pinochet and his son Marco Antonio organised a massive production and distribution network, selling cocaine to Europe and the US in the mid-1980s.

According to Contreras, once Pinochet's ally and now a bitter enemy, Pinochet ordered the army to build a clandestine cocaine laboratory in Talagante, a rural town 24 miles from Santiago. There he had chemists mix cocaine with other chemicals to produce what Contreras described as a "black cocaine" capable of being smuggled past drug agents in the US and Europe.

Contreras was the head of Pinochet's own Gestapo, and I don't mean that comparison lightly.

Contreras is serving two jail terms for human rights violations. As former director of DINA, Contreras is accused of running death squad operations that led to the murders of an estimated 3,000 Chileans in the mid-1970s.

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As Randy noted in his piece, General Contreras was very tight with Pinochet, to the point where he had breakfast every morning with him. DINA advised by former Nazi's, not only was responsible for the death and torture of thousands in Chile, but it terrorized exiles abroad. Letelier's death shocked many Latin Americans because it broke the informal rule - based pragmatic considerations that todays ruler is tomorrow's asylum-seeking ex-ruler - that exiled political opponents do not get whacked abroad. And the absolute last place to do it was in post-Watergate Washington D.C., where decisions on military aid, loans for big hydroelectric projects, and visa's were made. DINA's message was clear: no one was safe from its long arm, and it was playing by its own rules.

So the regime was a state-sponsor of terrorism, and was working really hard at rogue regime status. And they earned it, producing weapons of mass destruction, with the secret police chief organizing secret labs to develop, manufacture, and stockpiled biological weapons for both battlefield and terror operations against opponents, in violation of just about every treaty. Pinochet and his top cronies, also diversified by entering the illegal arms trade, which makes them a criminal enterprise. And much like organized crime syndicates everywhere, Pinochet and his criminal cronies murder their own buddies if they feel they will testify against them.

The details of the cocaine operation came as part of an investigation into the murder of Colonel Gerardo Huber, a top intelligence operative and close friend of Contreras.

Huber was found murdered in the middle of an investigation that implicated the Chilean army in breaking a UN weapons embargo and sending arms to Croatia in 1991. Huber, who had extensive first hand knowledge of the deals and was expected to testify before Chilean judges, was kidnapped and his body dumped in a remote area.

The mastermind behind the cocaine operation, alleges Contreras, was Eugenio Berríos, a renegade chemist who was used repeatedly by Pinochet's secret police force, DINA, to run clandestine laboratory experiments. Earlier testimony and documents show that Berríos and the lab tested anthrax and botulism and were able to produce the deadly gas sarin.

The biological weapons were slated to be used against Pinochet's personal enemies and in a massive form against enemy troops in the event of an invasion by Argentina. The drug operation, says Contreras, was designed to raise cash for the dictator.

With this kind of illegal expertise and international terror background, the Pinochet Mafia was over-qualified to produce and export cocaine. With modern lab facilities and no one chasing after you, producing small amounts of cocaine is easy and cheap. A fairly effective intelligence agency could have no problem shipping tens of millions of dollars worth of cocaine across borders, either to 3rd party country brokers who paid cash and asked no questions, or in smaller amounts in destination countries, via the classic diplomatic pouch.

Even if these last accusations are nothing more than a self-serving statement by a proto-fascist, there is serious evidence that Pinochet and his rogue regime sponsored international terrorism, produced weapons of mass destruction, sold weapons illegally, conspired to murder witnesses, earning 28 million dollars in illegal profits. This in addition to being responsible for the murder, torture and exile of thousands of his countrymen. Anyone making more apologies for this beast at this stage of the game, is blind, deluded or stupid in my book. Hopefully this wretch completes his descent into hell pretty soon, but not before the rest of his garbage gets aired fully.