Part 4: Drugging America...DOJ Protected Drug Smugglers & Terrorists

This chapter here is at least to me, more disturbing then the first 4 because of current events and the two agencies most involved in the events of the last two and a half years.All the events covered in here happened before the Internet age,and therefore the general population for the most part, is not privy to the information contained in here.What good is a so called Department of Justice,when in reality all it is a last line of defense for the Clowns,and their black-ops? And to tie the word law enforcement to the FBI, is just a very sick joke on the American People.

Drugging America 

A Trojan Horse 

By Rodney Stich
CHAPTER FIVE 

DOJ-Protected Drug 

Smugglers & Terrorists 

This chapter focuses on Dominican drug cartels along the northeastern seaboard of the United States, the drug-money funding of U.S. political parties and terrorists, and examples of Justice Department personnel protecting them, and Justice Department personnel retaliating against government agents investigating these activities. In one instance, Justice Department personnel enabled terrorists in New Jersey to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. Ironically, as described in great detail in two of my other books, Defrauding America and Terrorism Against America, I show how Justice Department personnel repeatedly blocked my exposure of corruption that enabled the success of 19 hijackers on September 11, 2001. 

Much of the material for this chapter came from insiders in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the DEA, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, and other law enforcement groups in the New York area. 

Shutting Down the Investigation that 

Enabled Jersey City Terrorists to 

Bomb World Trade Center in 1993 

INS agent Joseph Occhipinti was a key figure in fighting drug traffickers and drug cartels. He spent over 20 years with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, primarily in drug-related investigations. During that time he earned over 70 commendations and awards, including three from the U.S. Attorney General. Because of his outstanding work, he was promoted to chief of the Anti-Smuggling unit for the New York City area, and in that position he gained considerable knowledge about the operation of Dominican crime groups operating in the northeastern section of the United States. 

As Occhipinti brought about the arrest of many politically connected drug traffickers, politicians and Justice Department personnel blocked further investigations and prosecutions. In addition, all three groups retaliated against him and brought an end to his long and outstanding government career. 

Project Intercept 

One of several multi-agency task forces Occhipinti coordinated was the 1987 operation called Project Intercept, and included personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The purpose of bringing agents from the various agencies into one group was to coordinate their investigations, evidence, and prosecution of criminal activities. 

That operation was credited with identifying how Dominican drug lords and other ethnic organized crime groups were involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, and alien smuggling activities at major New York airports. It had a high arrest and conviction rate for drug traffickers and was so successful that Project Intercept became the subject of congressional hearings. 

It was so successful that, after the politically powerful Dominicans and drug traffickers complained, the INS District Director terminated it within a year of its startup. Occhipinti was then ordered to concentrate instead upon filing reports against employers who hired illegal aliens. This group did not have the political clout of the drug traffickers. 

Project Resurrect 

Starting in 1988, Occhipinti coordinated another multi-agency undercover operation called Project Resurrect, which involved agents from the New York City District Attorney’s office, Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Department of State. This project resulted in the successful prosecution and conviction of over two dozen Dominican organized crime figures. 

The project exposed the role of a group known as the Federation of Dominican Merchants and Industrialists of New York, otherwise known as the Federation. This group operated bodegas, money transfer businesses, travel agencies, boutiques, loan companies, and an assortment of other businesses. (Bodegas is the term used by people in the Spanish community for grocery stores.) One of the people arrested and convicted was a key member of the federation, Executive Board member Martha Lozano. 

Discovering Theft Ring at JFK Airport 

One of Occhipintis investigations focused on a high-level smuggling operation at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Due to a shortage of government agents, the Immigration and Naturalization Service hired private agencies to carry out some of its routine tasks. Wells Fargo was one of the companies hired, being responsible for placing illegal aliens, caught by INS agents, on board aircraft to be sent back to their country of origin. The company engaged in a “shell game” that protected illegal immigrants from being deported. 

Certain employees of Wells Fargo developed a profitable scheme. When an illegal alien was arrested, his or her relatives would be contacted, and for a price, an impostor would replace the illegal alien. The impostor, who was legally in the United States, would be placed on board the aircraft and flown out of the United States. He or she would then fly back as a legal or documented alien. The illegal alien would meld into the community and remain in the United States. 

Operation Red Eye 

In 1989, Occhipinti was involved in another multi-agency task force called Operation Red Eye. It was composed of agents from the DEA, Port Authority, Amtrak Police Department, and INS, whose goal was to interdict at major New York City transportation centers illegal aliens smuggled into the United States via Mexico and the Canadian border. 

The project was very successful in apprehending illegal alien drug couriers employed by the Dominican drug cartels and other ethnic crime groups. The operation was shut down when the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York (SDNY)  complained that the interdiction stops were based on racial profiling. 

Of course, if Dominican crime groups were using Dominicans in large numbers to smuggle drugs into the United States, it would be somewhat ludicrous not to focus on Dominicans. That charge would be like complaining about focusing on Colombians coming out of high drug trafficking areas in Colombia when they constituted the primary people engaged in the illegal activities. 

Over a period of time, Occhipinti felt that people in the U.S. Attorney’s office were sabotaging the multi-agency task force, preventing it from carrying out its government responsibilities, and enabling large quantities of drugs to enter the United States. 

Investigating Drug-Related Murder 

Exposed Other Crimes 

The murders (October 18, 1988) of two NYPD officers, Michael Buczek and Christopher Hoban, in the Washington Heights section of New York City caused the police department to ask for Occhipinti‘s assistance because of his expertise in Dominican organized crime activities. (Washington Heights had turned into a major Dominican neighborhood, where Dominican organized crime groups base many of their operations, and which has one of the highest homicide records. When I was growing up many years ago on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River across from Washington Heights, it was considered a desirable middle-class neighborhood with predominantly Jewish residents.) As a result of this investigation, the murderer was reportedly Dominican drug lord Daniel Mirabeaux. 

During this investigation, Occhipinti discovered a major Dominican drug operation controlled by Freddy Antonio Then, who established training camps in the Dominican Republic teaching people how to traffic in drugs. He reportedly smuggled these people illegally into the United States from Mexico. Then arranged for these smuggled aliens to be married to a U.S. citizen and thereby obtain permanent resident status with the arranged marriage. 

Occhipinti learned that Then was buying local grocery stores, bodegas, which were often used for various illegal activities, such as drug trafficking and drug money laundering. Occhipinti arrested Then several times on various charges, including illegal gun possession. Then’s prominence in the Dominican population and as a key member of the Federation would shortly be used against Occhipinti. 

Project Bodega 

Another multi-agency task force, in which Occhipinti was involved, in 1989, was called Project Bodega, and composed of agents from the DEA, Customs service, FBI, New York Police Department, Manhattan District Attorney’s office, and INS. It investigated activities at the many bodegas in the New York City area where certain known criminal activities were prevalent. 

Manhattan District Attorney 

Supported the Task Force 

Because of its successful discovery of criminal activities, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was so pleased with the group’s work that it assigned several of its prosecutors, including John F. Kennedy, Jr., full time to prosecute the cases that were generated.

The task force discovered a widespread pattern of criminal activities involving Middle East and Dominican groups in the New York-New Jersey area, some of them associated with bodega grocery stores operated mostly by Dominicans, Cubans, and Middle East people. In the New York-New Jersey area, bodegas were often a front for unlawful activities. During consensual searches of bodegas, the task force discovered evidence of drug trafficking, drug money laundering, food stamp fraud, food coupon fraud, loan sharking, and smuggling of illegal aliens. 

Involvement of CIA-Front Company: 

Sea Crest Trading Company 

Investigators discovered that many bodega activities involved Sea Crest Trading Company, incorporated in Connecticut, with its main office in Greenwich, and another office in New York City. Closely tied in with Sea Crest was Capital National Bank in New York. Involved in the Sea Crest group were CIA operatives from the Cuban Bay of Pigs fiasco. Sea Crest started operations in 1984, and during the 1980s and 1990s was extensively used by the CIA in various activities.[Always and forever it is the damn clowns,anyone who thinks the Criminally Insane Association is an asset to this country has to be profiting from their criminal activities DC]

Years earlier, several of my CIA sources, primarily Gunther Russbacher, described Sea Crest and Capital National Bank as CIA-front companies and recipients of DOJ protections. The president of Capital National Bank, Carlos Cordoba, a Cuban national, was convicted in 1992 of bank fraud. Despite the importance of the offense, he received only a token probation sentence—which would be routine if the bank was in fact a front for the CIA. 

A confidential source in the New York Police Department (NYPD) Special Investigations Unit reportedly uncovered evidence of arson and other criminal activities by Sea Crest, and that Sea Crest had key political connections that were protecting it against prosecution. As with other city, state and federal agents, he was intimidated and harassed by higher-ups. During the investigation, he discovered a conflict of interest between attorney Christopher Lynn, a member of the NYPD Civilian Complaint Review Board and his defense of those involved in Sea Crest’s illicit activities.The confidential source reported the disappearance of critical evidence on Sea Crest’s drug activities. [No damn surprise there DC] 

An affidavit, executed on March 1, 1994, by Domingo Antonio Lovera, described the growth of Sea Crest over the years in usurious loans, using Dominicans and Cubans to obtain and collect loans from bodega operators. Lovera described how Sea Crest used Capital National Bank to launder the money obtained from various illegal operations. Investigations showed that this CIA front company made a practice of putting Dominicans into bodegas and then forcing them into various unlawful activities. Because of the high-interest and usurious loans (permitted where Sea Crest was incorporated Connecticut), and high monthly payments, bodega operators found they had to engage in criminal activities to keep from losing their businesses. 

Sea Crest and Bodegas in Connecticut 

In a two-part series (August 1998), the Hartford Courant described the activities of Sea Crest Trading Company, the Dominican-run bodegas, and various criminal activities. The article described drug dealers ducking into bodegas immediately after making drug sales and giving the cash to the bodega operators, and drugs being purchased from the operators. Quoting Hartford police  Detective Robert Lawlor. “The bodegas provided a meeting place and the cover of a legitimate business. It hasn’t reached the point here that it has in New York, but it’s only a matter of time.” 

The newspaper made reference to a 1997 classified report by the U.S. Department of Justice on Dominican drug trafficking and said dealers “move proceeds by disguising them in the financial records of travel agencies, boutiques, grocery stores and other Dominican-run businesses.” Despite the Justice Department’s knowledge of Sea Crest‘s activities, the CIA-connected company appeared to have a get-out-of-jail card that kept them from being prosecuted. 

Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) 

According to an article in Puerto Rico’s El Vocero newspaper, Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) members, including Simon Diaz and Pablo Espinal, contributed money to President Clinton’s reelection campaign during a fundraiser at Coogan’s Irish Pub in New York’s Washington Heights. The article stated that this drug-tainted money was linked to the Dominican Revolutionary party. Vice President Al Gore posed for pictures with Diaz and Espinal. The article identified Simon Diaz as vice president of a New York City chapter of the PRD and that he was currently under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and anti-narcotic agencies concerning PRD’s “alleged nexus with international drug cartels.” 

Private Investigator Uncovers 

Similar Criminal Activities 

A concurrent investigation by a private investigator uncovered considerable evidence of criminal activities at bodegas that the multi-agency task forces were discovering, especially as it related to food coupon fraud. Private investigator Ben Jacobsen, a retired New York detective, was working as chief investigator for the A.C. Nielson Corporation, which administered the food coupon program for many large companies selling to grocery stores. Corporations estimated that they were losing over $200 million a year in fraudulent coupon redemptions. 

Jacobsen‘s investigation uncovered canceled checks and other evidence showing Sea Crest Trading Company and one of its associate companies, Control Book Keeping, to be behind this practice. 

The food coupon fraud worked like this: People involved in the fraud brought into a central location newspapers and magazines containing food coupons that were intended to be used to purchase a particular food item. The coupons were clipped, put into a barrel or some other device that dirtied them to look like Customers had handled them. The coupons were then distributed to different bodegas that then sent them to coupon redemption centers. When the checks were sent to the grocers for these coupons, the checks were either endorsed over to Sea Crest Trading Company or cashed, and the money sent to Sea Crest. Sea Crest reportedly was at the center of this scam. 

FBI Cover-Up 

FBI Special Agent Lionel Baron of the FBI’s New York City terrorist unit obtained from Ben Jacobsen the names of his informants with the expressed intention of infiltrating Sea Crest. Despite receiving considerable evidence showing the criminal activities did exist, Baron and the FBI never went forward with any prosecution. 

Lying By FBI Agents 

When New York Post reporter Al Guart requested access to Baron’s investigative notes under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI replied there were no notes and no investigation. This false statement by the FBI was made despite the fact that Baron had interviewed a number of witnesses, including Cesar Cabral, Hector Rodriguez, Alma Camarana, Peter Navaro, Luis Rodriguez, and Detective Raul Anglada, proving that an investigation had been made. Rodriguez had even given a sworn affidavit to the FBI relating to a usurious loan from Sea Crest. Guart discovered many of the alias corporations used by Sea Crest. 

Investigation of Sea Crest Blocked 

at State and Federal Levels 

Guart’s continuing investigation into Sea Crest‘s activities, including interviews with law enforcement agents, confirmed to him that in every case, investigations and prosecutions were blocked by high-level state and federal personnel. This is further evidence of DOJ obstruction of justice when criminal activities involving the CIA or other covert agency, and covert illegal operation, is involved. In every one of my books, I give details of how state personnel, law enforcement and judicial, routinely cooperate with federal DOJ personnel to block investigations of highly sensitive, and usually corrupt, activities by federal agencies. And this includes state and local “law-enforcement” and judicial personnel in retaliating against anyone threatening to expose these activities. 

Guart interviewed Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferier regarding Sea Crest‘s operations in the Bronx with the intent of getting the Bronx District Attorney to investigate the company. Ferier denied knowing anything about Sea Crest, but said he would set up an appointment with the Bronx District Attorney. When Guart conducted a Lexus check, he discovered a New York Times article (August 13, 1993) in which Ferier assisted Sea Crest in procuring a special ordinance to rebuild their building that had mysteriously burned in the Bronx. In the article, Ferier was quoted as referring to the president of Sea Crest, Mr. Berkovitz, as “my good friend Bernie.” 

New York Post Cover-up of 

Covert Criminal Activities 

Guart prepared four news articles on Sea Crest which were to be published, but weren’t. His editor told Guart that they were afraid to publish the articles. Earlier, when the New York Post ran a series of articles, “The Framing of a Cop,” which made reference to bodegas and Sea Crest, the newspaper received bomb threats and threats from the Dominican Federation that they would boycott the New York Post in the Washington Heights section of New York. 

A DEA report (October 16, 1992) provided by Occhipinti alleged that Sea Crest was reportedly responsible for over $500 million in money laundering operations from the Washington Heights section of New York City. 

The Federation 

The multi-agency task force discovered that members of the Federation were frequently involved in criminal activities, that major drug groups were using the federation businesses as fronts, and that the Federation’s influence extended into political offices, including New York City Mayor David Dinkins. The Federation started putting pressure on political figures, seeking to disband the task forces led by Occhipinti. 

Customs Investigation 

Halted by CIA Pressure 

A confidential source in the New York Police Department Intelligence Unit knew about the Dominican Federation‘s involvement in criminal activities following a prior joint investigation with U.S. Customs (Customs Case # NY 02AR8NY003). Targets in that investigation included Pedro Allegria and Federation Vice President Erasmo Taveras who had been indicted in 1989 and later convicted of a $70 million money laundering and loan sharking scheme. According to the confidential source, the CIA ordered Customs to drop the pending indictments against several of the Dominican drug traffickers, who then continued to engage in money laundering activities—with the protection of the DOJ—despite evidence presented to the U.S. Attorney by Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari in 1992. 

Bergen County Investigation Halted 

Under-sheriff Jay Albert of the Bergen County, New Jersey, Sheriff Department authorized a criminal investigation into Sea Crest and the Federation’s infiltration into that county. The investigation was turned over to detectives Juan Lopez and Wayne Yahn, who gathered evidence substantiating the involvement of Sea Crest and the Federation. Their investigation was terminated on the basis of an alleged jurisdictional dispute with the Bergen County prosecutor’s office. 

Project Esquire: Investigating 

U.S. Attorney’s Office 

During the Project Bodega investigations the group discovered from a police informant, Alma Camerena, that a former assistant U.S. Attorney and his law partner were allegedly part of Then‘s drug cartel operations and also involved in political corruption. According to Camerena, the former U.S. attorney was attending sex and drug parties with his former colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s office and receiving favored treatment in criminal cases involving his clients. Occhipinti said, “I found the allegations to be credible for a variety of reasons.” 

Occhipinti reported these allegations to Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lawrence, who was the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, with whom Occhipinti had previously worked. Lawrence then arranged to debrief Camerena. After questioning Camerena, and determining that the charges were true, showing depravity in the U.S. Attorney’s office, instead of addressing the matter, Project Esquire was terminated. 

Search of Dominican Bodegas 

Occhipinti‘s task force had multiple investigations going simultaneously. Focusing on the criminal activities in the bodegas, the task force sought additional court-admissible evidence by conducting consensual searches of several dozen bodegas in the Washington Heights section of New York during the last half of 1989 and early 1990. In conducting consensual searches, the owner or operator is asked to sign a consent form agreeing to have their properties searched. Otherwise, a search warrant must be obtained. 

In one search of the Then’s Brothers Grocery Store, the task force discovered $131,000 in cash bundles destined for Sea Crest. This money was later judicially forfeited as drug proceeds by the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. In another bodega owned by Richard Knipping in the Bronx, the task force discovered hundreds of newly issued government food stamp books for which Knipping could provide no explanation. These seizures and related criminal charges started major retaliation efforts against Occhipinti by various members of the Federation, Dominican criminal cartels, the black Mayor, David Dinkins, and the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York City. 

Drug Traffickers and Immigrants 

Reacted with Demonstrations 

The politically powerful Dominican drug traffickers, the Federation, and Mayor David Dinkins orchestrated demonstrations against Occhipinti in the drug-infested Washington Heights area of Manhattan. Rather than support the head of the multi-agency task force, Project Bodega was terminated, despite the heavy concentration of drug and other criminal activities discovered during the bodega searches. Drug trafficking then escalated. 

Using Clinton’s Tactics--

Blaming the Republicans 

Mayor Dinkins issued a statement claiming the search of the bodegas was a “Republican Conspiracy” intended to sabotage the 1990 census and intimidate immigrant voters from going to the polls. Dinkins was referring to the large numbers of illegal aliens in the area, many of whom voted for him in the prior election that resulted in the slim majority that won him the election. 

What Dinkins was probably afraid of was that the increased police activities would keep illegal aliens from the voting booths where he had a large following in the Dominican community. Dominicans constitute a large voting block in the New York and other urban areas in the Northeast. Figures indicate there were over half a million Dominicans in New York City alone, and that they will outnumber all other Hispanic groups within a few years. Dinkins had been receiving large contributions from the Federation and the Dominican crime figures, being another reason for wanting to shut down the investigation of criminal activities involving mostly Dominicans. 

Consensual Searches 

Violated Their Civil Rights? 

The Federation, the immigrants, the drug traffickers, and Mayor Dinkins claimed that the searches violated the civil rights of the bodega operators, and focused their charges against Occhipinti, even though he was only one member of the task force. It was necessary to focus the attacks on one individual in order for the protest to succeed. The group pressured the U.S. Attorney to file criminal charges against Occhipinti for violating their civil rights. This had never been done before against a government agent on the basis of an alleged technical violation. The group charged Occhipinti with violating their civil rights on the basis of the consensual searches—despite the fact that the bodega operators had signed consent forms before the search. 

Several members of the multi-agency task force told the U.S. attorney that there were no violations of anyone’s civil rights during the task force’s search of the bodegas. IRS Special Agent Ronald Nowicki was present during the search of Knipping‘s bodega and stated there were no violations of search procedures. DEA Agent John Dowd was also present during the search of Knipping’s bodega and stated that the search was legal. But this wasn’t what the DOJ prosecutors wanted to hear. 

Reporting Threats Against 

Occhipinti to U.S. Attorney

Alma Camarena, the legal secretary in the law offices of former AUSA Jorge Guttlein, and Andres Aranda, overheard the attorneys discussing ways to eliminate the threat that Occhipinti posed to their Dominican and drug trafficking clients. Upon hearing these threats, Camarena went to the U.S. Attorney’s office to report what she heard, and was interviewed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeh Johnson. “Mr. Aranda told Mr. Guttlein that he would like to have Mr. Occhipinti eliminated.” Camarena said, adding that Guttlein didn’t like that idea and said he would think up another plan. 

After she gave this information to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Johnson, or someone else in the U.S. Attorney’s office, gave this confidential information, and the name of the confidential witness, to Camarena’s boss who was the target of the charges! 

U.S. Attorney Protecting Drug Cartels 

Instead of protecting a respected government agent, the U.S. Attorney filed criminal charges against Occhipinti. These charges were based upon the perjured statements of the bodega operators—most of who were engaging in criminal activities and who were continuing their unlawful activities—to justify obtaining an indictment against Occhipinti from a grand jury. 

The indictment charged Occhipinti with failure to obtain written consent of the bodega operators before searching the premises. (He relied on their verbal consent.) Also, that he kept money seized by the task force group (During trial, the jury held him not guilty of that charge, and at a later date some of the bodega operators who made that charge admitted that they lied.) 

This was the same U.S. Attorney’s office that had been covering up for the criminal activities that Occhipinti and his task force had been exposing. It was the same office that had covered up for the CIA-Mafia drug trafficking reported by one of their own agents, Richard Taus, during this same time period, which is described in other pages. 

Peculiar Comparisons 

Compare these civil rights “violations” with the common practice of DEA and ATF agents breaking down the doors to peoples’ homes, throwing the residents to the floor, shoving loaded pistols in their faces, and occasionally shooting and killing innocent people. These agents have the full support of the Department of Justice and federal judges. There was a difference; Occhipinti was exposing powerful drug traffickers, who had connections with CIA operations, and who had political connections. 

Usual Withholding of Exculpatory 

Evidence by DOJ Prosecutors 

Transcripts of the grand jury proceedings showed DOJ witnesses lying when they testified they did not have prior criminal records. DOJ prosecutors withheld this perjury from the grand jury members and from the defense during the jury trial. Also withheld from the grand jury and trial jury was the fact that the task force had discovered contraband and illegal activity at each of the locations that they searched 

Black Activist Federal Judge 

with Strong Ties to Democratic 

Mayor Dinkins and the Federation 

Selected to be the judge for Occhipinti‘s trial was U.S. District Judge Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to the federal bench and who had a radical and biased reputation. Federal court procedures require assignment of judges to a particular criminal trial be done on a normal rotation process, and is normally done by the court clerk. Judge Motley was preselected instead of chosen at random. Occhipinti said U.S. Attorney Jeh Johnson‘s face reflected joy and he gave a “thumbs-up” sign when Judge Motley’s name was announced as being the trial judge. 

Motley had close political ties to black mayor of New York City, David Dinkins. She was a protégé of Raymond Jones, a powerful black leader of Tammany Hall who was also an associate of David Dinkins in the Harlem Carver Democratic Club. 

A Mafia Don Would Have 

Been Pleased With This Lineup 

A New American article (February 21, 1994) stated that during Motley‘s Senate confirmation hearings, evidence was presented showing Motley to be an ardent Young Communist League organizer who established student cells at New York University. The records showed that Constance Baker, her maiden name, was training for the Red Underground. Despite this record, Senator Edward Kennedy nominated Motley to become America’s first black female federal judge, and other senators, wanting to get as many of the black votes as possible, quickly endorsed her. [Sound familiar? DC]

The prosecutor, Jeh Johnson, was a former law clerk for the judge, and it was said that he was her “Godson.” The article raised another problem that should have been the basis for changes in the trial setting: 

There was bad blood between Johnson and Occhipinti as a result of the Project Esquire investigation or corruption within Johnson’s office. Further, some of Johnson’s associates alleged that he had boasted that an Occhipinti conviction would land him a high-paying private sector job-a prediction that has been fulfilled. Today, Johnson’s office walls at the prestigious New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton and Garrison  are adorned with artists’ renderings of the Occhipinti trial, which Johnson regards as “trophies.” 

Record of Overturned Decisions 

Judge Motley had more decisions overturned on appeal than any other judge in that circuit, indicating she was either legally ignorant, contemptuous of the law, or rendering decisions based on personal interests or money under the table. 

Pre-Trial Problems for Occhipinti 

Making matters worse for Occhipinti, his attorney, Norman Mordkofsky, was suffering a nervous breakdown. The heavy media publicity and street demonstrations, and the loss of his legal practice, caused Occhipinti's trial attorney to suffer severe stress before the trial, causing Occhipinti to seek substitution with another legal counsel. The attorney explained his serious problems to Judge Motley and filed a motion to be excused so that Occhipinti could obtain another attorney. Judge Motley denied the request, calling the attorney a liar. Occhipinti ended up with incompetent legal representation. 

A week earlier, New York Supreme Court Judge Anthony Scarpino removed Mordkofsky from a murder case because of his bizarre behavior. The judge publicly admitted that there was no question that Mordkofsky was suffering some kind of psychological problem. After Occhipinti‘s trial, the attorney was admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care. 
https://www.fpparchive.org/media/documents/public_policy/The%20Plight%20of%20Joseph%20Occhipinti_Greg%20Kaye_February%2021,%201994_The%20New%20American.pdf
In one letter to me, Occhipinti wrote: 

During my trial, he talked about committing suicide on several occasions. Judge Motley demanded that he go to trial. On the trial records, Mordkofsky demonstrates before the jury bizarre behavior as well as his failure to call very much needed defense witnesses or go through the counts of the indictment. It was also determined that his breakdown was attributed to the termination of his law practice. 

His two partners were criminal defense lawyers who represented many Dominican organized crime figures I was investigating, including some of Freddy Then‘s drug associates. Clearly, I had won several crucial criminal cases which made Mordkofsky’ s two partners look bad. Another important fact I later learned that Mordkofsky’s next-door neighbor was an attorney who incorporated many of the Dominican Bodegas with suspected ties to the Federation and Sea Crest. In fact, it was this very same attorney who represented the Then Brothers grocery store on the $131,000 forfeiture case. I truly believe that there was immense pressure on Mordkofsky, which resulted in his nervous breakdown. There are medical and hospitalization records to document this breakdown. 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which provided the staff for the multi-agency task force, included three Assistant District Attorneys and a team of investigators. They wanted to testify on my behalf. They knew the project was lawful and had proper predication. In fact, Ann Rudman, chief of the Asset Forfeiture Program, tried to convince INS not to close down the project. 

Yet, these District Attorney officials never came forward. According to Jacobson and others, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was threatened by SDNY prosecutors that if they came to my aid, they might subject themselves to federal prosecution since they jointly worked on the task force with me. 

Also, in the documented setup of another NYPD police officer, Louis Dellapizzi, on fabricated civil rights charges, Attorney Andres Aranda was never indicted for the setup because of reported influence by SDNY prosecutors. If Aranda had been indicted, many suspect that as part of a plea bargain deal, he would have confirmed my setup and exposed the official corruption at the US Attorney’s office. 

Typical Judicial Chicanery 

During the trial, Judge Motley refused to allow the defense to introduce information about the criminal background of the Dominicans witnesses who claimed Occhipinti violated their civil rights, despite the fact that this information was relevant to assess the witnesses’ credibility. Motley made numerous rulings that kept any information about CIA and criminal activities from being heard by the jurors. 

DOJ Withholding Exculpatory Evidence 

Most of the bodega operators who filed civil rights complaints against Occhipinti had prior criminal records, and continued to be charged with criminal violations after the trial had ended. This information was known to the prosecutor who unlawfully withheld the information throughout the trial proceedings. Federal law requires that the prosecutor provides the defense with all exculpatory evidence known to the prosecutor; this requirement is routinely violated by the Justice Department attorneys, who never suffer any retaliation for it. 

Prosecutorial Deception 

There were numerous prosecutorial errors before and during trial, all intended to insure that the jury decide Occhipinti guilty. To obtain the indictment from the federal grand jury, U.S. attorney Johnson withheld exculpatory evidence and made inflammatory statements against Occhipinti. The prosecutor threatened and intimidated witnesses who would be testifying in Occhipinti’s defense. One official with the NYPD admitted to Jacobsen that NYPD officers involved in Project Bodega were being threatened with indictment if they came to Occhipinti’s defense. 

Outraged Attorney Files Court Affidavit 

During the trial, attorney Angel Nunez, who had been observing the proceedings and becoming outraged by the prosecutorial and judicial misconduct, submitted an affidavit into court records detailing the numerous trial irregularities. Nunez interviewed those who filed the complaint against Occhipinti, and in 55 undercover taped conversations they admitted the searches were legal in their estimation, contradicting their grand jury and trial testimony. 

Nunez tried to submit an affidavit into the trial relating to these findings, showing a conspiracy against Occhipinti and the witnesses lying. Judge Motley refused to allow the affidavit admitted into the trial. When Nunez tried to admit the tapes and transcripts into the hearing, she again refused, compounding her refusal by seizing the tapes, preventing them from being used elsewhere. When the judge heard that Occhipinti reported these irregularities to the media, she put a “gag order” on Occhipinti, preventing him from speaking out, surely an unconstitutional order. 

Guilty, Said the Jury 

The jurors, from a heavy drug-trafficking area that Occhipinti‘s group had targeted, handed down a guilty verdict against Occhipinti on June 12, 1992, on the charge of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of the bodega operators. 

First Law Enforcement Officer Sentenced 

To Prison for Alleged Technical Error 

Never before in American history had a federal law enforcement officer been criminally prosecuted in a case where there was no violence involved and where the officer had done a routine consensual search, and merely involved an “alleged” technical violation. Even if, for argument, Occhipinti, a key agent in U.S. Customs, had actually violated some technical search procedure that would not subject the officer to prison. Instead, the evidence obtained in a faulty manner would be excluded and administrative action possibly taken against the officer. It had always been, and still is, government policy to conduct an administrative hearing, and certainly not file criminal charges. The FBI never conducted any hearing. The question is, why did the Department of Justice file the sham charges? [And unless this sham was overturned,how much do you want to bet that these corrupt POS are using this case as precedent to prosecute other so called 'civil rights' violations? DC]

Ending a Successful Drug-Fighting Career 

Judge Motley sentenced Occhipinti to 37 months in a maximum-security prison where Occhipinti would be surrounded by convicted drug dealers that he helped put in prison. This same tactic was used to eliminate other witnesses against government corruption. Read on. 

Justice Department Retaliating 

Against FBI Supervisor 

FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the New York office, Jim Fox, had replied to media questions, stating the FBI had evidence showing Occhipinti was innocent of the charges and that the government was withholding the evidence. In retaliation, the FBI suspended him—two months prior to his planned retirement. 

Occhipinti filed a motion for a new trial, based upon Fox’s statements, but Judge Motley denied the motion. Fox died of cancer in 1998. 

Fallout From Justice Department’s Conduct 

There were several expected consequences to the Justice Department’s charges against Occhipinti : 

• Government agents were put on notice not to go after politically connected criminal elements in the Dominican community. 
• Caused other government agents to ignore politically connected criminal activities. 
• Established an “acceptable” procedure for retaliating against government agents who threaten politically connected criminals. 
• Emboldened larger and well-connected drug traffickers to continue or escalate their criminal activities, knowing they would be protected by DOJ personnel. Small-time drug traffickers, with no political or CIA connections, would receive DOJ attention. 
• Made possible continued crimes, some of it violent, against Americans and against America. 

Another of Many DOJ Contributions 

to Increased Crime Activities 

A 1993 report by the president of the New Jersey Police Benevolent Association said that in the year before Occhipinti’ s conviction the local Drug Enforcement Agency conducted 2,700 investigations, and that the year after Occhipinti’s conviction, that number dropped to 500. The reason given was that agents feared being sent to prison for carrying out their drug investigations. 

The president of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority Police Union said that their officers had ceased all consensual searches and drug interdiction activities in the ports of New York and New Jersey, out of fear of being charged with civil rights violations (of politically-connected criminal groups). 

Sgt. Lenny Lemer of the NYPD-DEA drug task force gave testimony to Congress revealing that during a 1992 criminal investigation they discovered at Sea Crest evidence of the conspiracy against Occhipinti. The U.S. Attorney’s office in New York ordered Lemer to remain silent about this information, giving the sham excuse that there was an ongoing investigation. The Justice Department prosecutors chose to use the obviously biased statements from major drug traffickers over the statements of any of the government agents. 

Appeal Process on Heels of 

Watts Riots and Local Demonstrations 

With a new attorney, Stephen Frankel, Occhipinti appealed his conviction. Oral arguments were scheduled (June 1992) at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal was based on ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, and judicial errors. The appeal brief and appendix exceeded 750 pages. 

Trying to intimidate the judges, the Dominican Federation staged a noisy demonstration in front of the courthouse. The noisy group carried warning signs warning of riots in Washington Heights if Occhipinti‘s trial decision was overturned, and then packed an overflowing courtroom where oral arguments were to be heard. 

Apparently intimidated, and fearing a Watts-type riot, the judges suddenly refused to allow oral argument, despite the fact that was the reason for the hearing. Normally, an appellate court takes weeks or even months before it issues a decision after an oral hearing, taking time to digest the written and oral arguments. In Occhipinti‘s case, the decision was rendered within one hour of the “hearing,” apparently to placate the near riots of Dominican immigrants, drug traffickers and bodega operators. 

Risks in Prison 

His appeal rejected, Occhipinti was ordered to turn himself in on June 12, 1992. The day before he was to turn himself in, Occhipinti appeared on a New York television show, the Jackie Mason Show, and explained what really happened. Judge Motley retaliated, ordering the U.S. Marshal to immediately arrest Occhipinti. The marshal ignored her order and told Occhipinti to surrender the next morning. As is customary, Occhipinti was placed in leg irons and body chains and sent by prison plane to El Reno, Oklahoma. The greater distance from New York insured he would have difficulty getting publicity or using other legal remedies. 

Recognized by Prisoners 

He Previously Arrested 

As Occhipinti entered the general prison population at El Reno, Oklahoma, he was recognized by some of the prisoners from New York whose incarceration came about as a result of Occhipinti’s task force. Fortunately, sympathetic prison guards, made aware of the risk, put Occhipinti into solitary confinement. While this protected him from physical harm, the isolation resulted in a breakdown. DOJ prison officials blocked every attempt by Occhipinti to be transferred closer to his family, realizing that he and his supporters would be working to bring about his release. 

Many People Protested the 

Outrage and DOJ Protection 

of Politically Connected Criminals 

Many courageous people expressed outrage at sentencing a key government drug agent to prison for having reported the criminal activities in the New York area. Staten Island Borough President, Guy V. Molinari heard about Occhipinti‘s plight, and even though Occhipinti was not one of his constituents, Molinari started an investigation, acquiring several affidavits from key people that proved Occhipinti’s innocence. 

FBI Trying to Set Up 

Borough President Molinari 

Molinari‘s actions seeking to reveal the truth behind the DOJ’s prosecution of Occhipinti started an all-too-common DOJ retaliation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Valerie Capone and FBI Special Agent Jarrett investigated Molinari’s staff on the excuse the evidence the staff had uncovered relating to the drug cartel conspiracy was fabricated. Capone also threatened NYPD Detective Lemmer with potential prosecution for providing Molinari with exculpatory evidence relating to the Occhipinti setup and cover-up of criminal activities in the New York area. 

The DOJ, through its FBI agents, then tried to entrap Molinari, using a woman wearing a wire-recorder seeking to trap him with sham charges. They also charged Molinari with compensating a person for giving testimony. (More about this law and this practice in later pages.) (Yeah Russian collusion ringing in my ears 30 years later,they know no new tricks DC]

Media Reference to FBI Setup of Molinari 

An article in the New York Post (April 26, 1995) made reference to the misuse of the FBI’s powers against Molinari : “Guy Molinari Fumes: FBI tried to set me up.” The article stated in part: 

Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari angrily charged yesterday that two FBI agents sought to entrap him in a criminal scheme with the help of a “wired” government informant. “It’s outrageous,” Molinari said. “If they will do this to me, an elected official, I hate to think what they might do to a member of the general public.” 

Molinari came under FBI scrutiny during his relentless efforts to prove the innocence of Joseph Occhipinti, the Immigration and Naturalization officer who was convicted and imprisoned on charges of conducting illegal searches of drug locations in upper Manhattan. Occhipinti, the most decorated officer in INS history, served seven months of a 37-month prison term before President Bush commuted the sentence, principally at Molinari’s behest. 

Molinari, who had never heard of Occhipinti, became involved only two days before the agent was sentenced. He was so appalled at what he saw at the sentencing that he and his staff launched an independent probe. Molinari concluded that Occhipinti had been framed and convicted on the perjured testimony of drug dealers. Molinari’s efforts on behalf of the beleaguered agent—who is not even a constituent—are among his finest hours in a long career of public service. But those efforts started his problem with the FBI. 

“When a small team of FBI agents working out of Queens arrived at my office, it became clear to me that the focus of their investigation was not the evidence we had produced but the involvement of me and my office in the matter.” Molinari told me yesterday. “Here was I, a law-abiding citizen, seeking to redress what I believed to be a miscarriage of justice, and finding that I had become the target of the FBI probe. They tried to get me to commit a crime. It’s outrageous" 

Molinari‘s evidence against the FBI includes a sworn affidavit from Alma Camarena, a former law clerk who first informed the government that Dominican drug lords were planning to frame Occhipinti. [With Justice Department assistance!] 

In the affidavit, Camarena swears: “On or about January or February of 1993, I was contacted by an FBI agent to come to their office in Queens. I agreed. At that interview, they said that they wanted me to set up Mr. Molinari by my wearing a wire against him. I said, “Yes only because I was afraid.” The trap was to get Molinari to admit he offered Camarena a job in exchange for tainted testimony. 

Camarena said she overheard the agents planning the operation. “They were bragging how they would get a helicopter to circle Mr. Molinari‘s office to overhear my conversation with him.” she swore. “They said when Mr. Molinari agreed to get me a job on the wire, they would arrest him.” 

Camarena said she called Molinari, but “I never said what the FBI wanted me to say. The FBI agents appeared upset because I didn’t repeat everything they wanted.” 

Molinari told the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility that the agents seemed more interested in investigating him than in the criminal conspiracy or the perjury against Occhipinti. 

Drug Dealers, Immigrants, and DOJ 

Personnel In Conspiracy Against 

Law Enforcement Officers 

Molinari articulated this fact from looking at the Occhipinti case as he said: 

The Occhipinti case is very significant. It is part of a new phenomenon in which law-enforcement officers are being convicted on the perjured testimony of drug dealers. 

Complaining to FBI’s Lapdog 

Office of Professional Responsibility 

Molinari complained to the FBI’s “lapdog” Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) about the scheme to file false charges against him. Almost a year later, the FBI responded: 

There is insufficient evidence to find that the allegations made by you and supported by Alma Camarena are substantiated. While it appears that on August 28, 1992, the agents discussed with Camarena the possibility of her wearing a wire in some type of cover action against you, and that she agreed to do so, the idea was not endorsed by the agents’ supervisor and was flatly rejected by Department of Justice attorneys. 

President George Bush Pardons Occhipinti 

After acquiring considerable evidence and affidavits clearly showing how drug traffickers and DOJ personnel set up Occhipinti, Molinari requested President George Bush to commute Occhipinti’s sentence. Other concerned people also contacted Bush. On January 15, 1993, shortly before Bush left office, he signed a commutation for Occhipinti. However, he refused to give Occhipinti a full pardon, which left Occhipinti with a felony conviction. During the 1980s, Bush was heavily involved in CIA activities in which Sea Crest played an important role and he was also in the loop with the heavy drug trafficking associated with the Contra affair. 

Continuing to Expose Criminal 

Activities Upon Release 

After Occhipinti was released from prison, as a private citizen, he presented evidence he had concerning the many criminal activities to various law enforcement agencies that had jurisdiction and responsibilities in those areas. During a February 2, 1993 meeting in the office of the Bronx district attorney to discuss Sea Crest and Dominican crime activities, attended by district attorney personnel, Occhipinti described the evidence that the task force group had acquired. Before leaving, an unnamed investigator privately told Occhipinti that no investigation would be conducted because of the high political links to the CIA and Dominican organized crime operations. 

Brooklyn District Attorney Drops Investigation 

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hines had meetings with Occhipinti in 1993 concerning the evidence Occhipinti’s group had acquired, which was in his jurisdiction and area of responsibility. Hines stated he would authorize an investigation into Sea Crest, but interest suddenly cooled and the investigation was dropped. 

Bronx DA Halts Investigation 

During a January 12, 1994 meeting with Assistant District Attorney Edward Friedenthal in the Bronx, Friedenthal told Occhipinti that an investigation would be conducted into Sea Crest, based upon information provided by Occhipinti’s task force. An unnamed Bronx investigator from the district attorney’s office told Occhipinti that no investigation would be conducted due to political concerns, alluding to the political connection between Mayor Dinkins and the Bronx district attorney. He was correct; no investigation was conducted. 

New Jersey Investigation Halted 

A conference took place on July 21, 1994 with Sgt. Jim Mulholland of the New Jersey Police intelligence unit, Occhipinti, and several high-ranking deputy attorney generals from New Jersey, which was arranged by former New Jersey Attorney General Robert Del Tufo. A week earlier, on July 13, 1994, Occhipinti and several New York City law enforcement agents testified before the New Jersey Senate about Dominican organized crime operations in New Jersey. New Jersey law enforcement personnel planned to act upon the information, until Justice Department personnel contacted them. 

Postal Service and ATF Cover-Up 

Federal agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Bureau interviewed Occhipinti in December 1994 concerning these criminal activities. According to a confidential source, Postal inspectors and the Organized Crime Strike Force for Newark, New Jersey, had indicated an interest in Sea Crest Trading Company, but the investigation was also stopped. 

Congressman Traficant Seeking 

Congressional Hearing 

Complaints of the criminal activities and government cover-ups were brought to Representative James Traficant‘s attention. He obtained a confidential June 1992 DEA report that corroborated reports of a special interest group protecting Sea Crest corrupt activities. The DEA report said that Sea Crest laundered over $500 million dollars a year from Washington Heights. Traficant placed into the Congressional Record (September 27, 1996BE1734) affidavits and other evidence showing the existence of the CIA and Dominican drug offenses in the United States. He also referenced Justice Department’s actions blocking the exposure of these activities. 137S

Dominican Diplomat Confirming 

Dominican Criminal Activities 

Ramon Antonio Grullon, a former Dominican diplomat, prepared two affidavits on March 10, 1994 that were entered into the Congressional Record by Traficant. In the affidavits, Grullon said he had been recruited by Federation members Pedro Allegria and others to participate in a conspiracy against Occhipinti, and that the motive for these acts against Occhipinti was Occhipinti’s investigation of Sea Crest and the Federation’s bodegas. Grullon described the criminal activities of Sea Crest and the involvement of Richard Knipping and Jose Liberato in the illicit operations. 

Drug Money to U.S. Politicians 

Grullon also described being present when drug money was given to certain elected officials. Throughout these pages are reports of U.S. politicians from both political parties knowingly receiving drug money. 

Congressional Resolution 

That Went Nowhere 

A resolution was entered into the Congressional Record on April 28, 1993 by Representative Dick Zimmer seeking the appointment of a special or independent prosecutor to investigate the matters that Occhipinti discovered. The resolution stated in part: 

Whereas, there is voluminous evidence that in 1991 and 1992 Mr. Occhipinti may have been the target of a well orchestrated conspiracy by Dominican drug dealers, leading to his prosecution on civil rights charges under 18 U.S.C.A. 241 and 242; (1) This House memorializes the President and Congress of the United States to appoint a special or independent prosecutor to investigate the case of Mr. Joseph Occhipinti, including an investigation of the alleged drug cartel conspiracy against Mr. Occhipinti, and, further, of the alleged Justice Department cover-up in the handling and prosecution of the Occhipinti case. The President is memorialized further to grant, if the investigation warrants, a full pardon so Mr. Occhipinti can clear his name. 

House further memorializes the President and Congress of the United States to seek a congressional investigation examining the extent of Dominican crime operations in the United States especially in New Jersey. 

Congress Did Nothing to Offend 

the Dominican Constituency 

Despite the gravity of the criminal activities in the New York area uncovered by the various law enforcement agencies, and despite the obstruction of justice activities by DOJ personnel, few in Congress wanted to investigate the problems. Some were covering up for the Justice Department and others were too scared and cowardly. There were many other links to the Occhipinti matter that would be revealed by any thorough investigation. An investigation would alienate a large political constituency in the Dominican groups. 

A full investigation would reveal, for instance, the decades of CIA drug trafficking; drug money going to both political parties; the most recent examples of drug money going to the Democratic party and President Bill Clinton. 

Seeking Congressional Relief for Occhipinti 

Further information supporting Occhipinti‘s innocence and the DOJ organized crime coalition against him was provided by an affidavit placed into the Congressional Record (E1734) on September 27, 1996, by William Acosta, which stated in part: 

(2) I am former thirteen-year law enforcement official who successfully infiltrated the Medellin and Cali Colombian drug cartels. I am considered an expert on the Colombian and Dominican drug and money laundering operations in the New York City area. 

(3) In 1987, I was previously employed as an undercover operative for the United States Customs Service, wherein I was assigned to route out corruption at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In 1987, I was the principle undercover agent on “Operation Airport 88,” which resulted in the prosecution and conviction of seventeen government officials for bribery corruption and related criminal charges. I was then promoted to Special Agent and reassigned to the Los Angeles District Office. 

(4) In 1990, I was appointed to the New York City Police Department as a Police officer. In view of my Colombian heritage and confidential sources close to the Colombian cartel, I was eventually assigned to the Internal Affairs Unit. During my undercover activity, I generated evidence of police corruption for the Deputy Commissioner of Internal Affairs, which was later corroborated by the “Mollen Commission” hearings, which investigated police corruption. 

(5) On January 14, 1992, Manuel De Dios, a close personal friend and world renown journalist executed the attached notarized affidavit, wherein, Mr. Dios corroborated the existence of a drug cartel conspiracy against Mr. Occhipinti. The orchestrators of the conspiracy were major Dominican organized crime figures connected with the “Dominican Federation” which is the front for the Dominican drug cartel. The Federation are the principle drug distributors in the United States for the Colombian cartel. Unfortunately, Mr. De Dios was assassinated before he could bring forward his sources who could prove the drug cartel conspiracy against Mr. Occhipinti. After Mr. De Dios’ assassination, I too became fearful of my personal safety and never made public the evidence on the Occhipinti case.

(6) It should be noted that I personally assisted Mr. De Dios in this investigation of the Occhipinti case, which corroborated the Federation conspiracy. In fact, I personally accompanied Mr. De Dios to the Washington Heights area where we secretly taped recorded Federation members who confirmed the drug cartel conspiracy. Those tapes still exist and can exonerate Mr. Occhipinti. In essence, Mr. Occhipinti was set up because of his increased enforcement efforts on Project Bodega which was exposing and hurting the Dominican Federation‘s criminal operations in New York City, which included illegal wire transfers, drug distribution, gambling operations, food stamp fraud, food coupon fraud, among other organized crime activity.

(7) My investigation also determined that Mr. Occhipinti was exposing a major money laundering and loan sharking operation relating to the Federation, which was controlled by the Sea Crest Trading Company, of Greenwich, Connecticut. Sea Crest also maintains an office at 4750 Bronx River Parkway in the Bronx, New York.

Sea Crest was using the Capital National Bank in order to facilitate their money laundering operations. In 1993, Carlos Cordoba, the President of Capital National Bank was convicted in Federal Court at Brooklyn, New York for millions of dollars in money laundering and he received a token sentence of probation. My investigation confirmed that Sea Crest, as well as the Dominican Federation, are being politically protected by high ranking public officials who have received illegal political contributions, which were drug proceeds. In addition, the operatives in Sea Crest were former CIA Cuban operatives who were involved in the “Bay of Pigs.” This is one of the reasons why the intelligence community has consistently protected and insulated Sea Crest and the Dominican Federation from criminal prosecution.

(8) At present, there are nine major Colombian drug families, which control drug operations in the New York City area. These drug families often referred to as the “Nine Kings.” The Dominican Federation are part of their drug trafficking and money laundering operations. I possess documentary evidence, as well as video surveillance tapes of their drug operations. In addition, the New York City Police has investigative files to corroborate this fact. I have also uncovered substantial evidence of political and police corruption, which has been intentionally ignored. In fact, it is my belief that former New York City Police Internal Affairs Commissioner Walter Mack, who I directly worked for, was intentionally fired because of his efforts to expose police corruption. I plan to make public this evidence to the United States Congress, as well as key members of the media in order to preserve this evidence in the event I am assassinated like Mr. De Dios. 

(9) It should also be noted that criminal Investigators Benjamin Saurino and Ronald Gardello of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan similarly ignored the evidence I brought forward to them on the Nine Kings and Dominican Federation. These two investigators were credited for convicting Mr. Occhipinti and they made it clear to me they didn’t want to hear the evidence I had on the Federation which could have exonerated Mr. Occhipinti. They were only interested in corruption cases I had brought to their office. In fact, I recall a conversation, wherein, Investigator Saurino asked me about my involvement with Manuel De Dios and if I knew anything about the Occhipinti case. He then stopped and referred to Occhipinti in a derogatory manner, by saying “He’s no *** good.” Realizing his bias and lack of interest in investigating the Federation and Nine Kings, I changed the subject of conversation.

(10) In April 1995, I resigned from the New York City Police Department Internal Affairs Unit after it became evident that my efforts to expose police corruption were being hampered. The same reason why I believe Commissioner Walter Mack was fired. It became evident to me that my life was in eminent danger and I could be easily set up on fabricated misconduct charges like Mr. Occhipinti. In fact, they brought departmental charges against me in 1995 and I won the case. The trial judge also admonished the department on the record for perjury. Often, I found myself isolated and in constant danger working alone in the worst neighborhoods of the city without a backup. Today, I possess substantial evidence to prove that the NYC Police Department media campaign to demonstrate that they could independently police themselves and route out corruption was simply  a media ploy to avoid having an independent counsel to oversee their internal affairs unit. In reality, corruption is still rampant in the department and high-ranking police brass are intentionally terminating viable corruption investigations in order to avoid future scandals exposed by the Mollen Commission. I also possess a consensually monitored tape conversation, which implicates a high-ranking police official who received bribes from the Dominican Federation. 

(11) I am willing to testify before Congress as to the allegations set forth in this affidavit. In addition, I am willing to turn over to Borough President Molinari and Congressman Traficant the documentary evidence I possess on the Dominican Federation, the Nine Kings and the Occhipinti drug cartel conspiracy. There are other important pieces of information relating to drug cartel operations and political corruption that I have not made public in this affidavit in order to protect my sources as well as ongoing media investigations that I am involved with. In addition, I am willing to submit to a polygraph examination to prove the veracity of my allegations. 

William Acosta 

141s

Veteran Police Officer Who Knew the Ropes 

Acosta, with over 12 years in law enforcement, had come to the United States from Colombia and became a police officer, working undercover with state and federal agencies in bringing about the arrest and conviction of numerous criminals. As a Colombian, he had a better understanding of the drug smugglers and their method of operation, and better able to infiltrate their ranks. 

During this time he received numerous commendations and medals. His work gained him attention in articles appearing in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Newsday, George Magazine, and the Village Voice. ABC’s television program, “Nightline,” showed Acosta as “The Good Cop” on a segment, with one of the guests saying he took the oath of an officer “too literally.” Unfortunately, except for pie-in-the-sky fantasizing, there is no place in the real world for anyone to expose high-level corruption in government. 

As a result of carrying out his duties, Acosta suffered retaliation. He was threatened, he was shot at, he was attacked, and financially ruined. 

Another Witness Came Forward

and Paid a Deadly Price 

In the same Congressional record, Manuel De Dios, former editor of El Diario/La Prensa Newspaper and editor of a weekly newspaper known as Canbyo, gave an affidavit that was published several years later in the Congressional Record (September 27, 1996). The affidavit stated: 

During the course of my work for Canbyo I understood to write an expose concerning criminal complaints brought against an Immigration and Naturalization Service Supervisory Special Agent named Joseph Occhipinti by various members of the Federation of Dominican Merchants and Industrialists of New York. During the course of my investigatory work in researching the article, I interviewed numerous individuals who are members of the Federation of Dominican Merchants and Industrialists of New York. 

These individuals confided to me that Mr. Occhipinti had been set up by the Federation and that the complaints against him were fraudulent. These individuals have indicated to me that they are in fear of their safety and as a result would not go public with this information. I would be more than willing to share my information with any law enforcement agencies or Courts concerned with these matters and would cooperate fully in any further investigations. 

Expose DOJ-Protected Corruption: 

Pay the Consequences 

In an all-too-common scenario befalling people who expose DOJ corruption, De Dios paid the price. He was gunned down and killed on March 11, 1992. His death would not have happened but for the DOJ conspiracy of coverups and obstruction of justice, a common consequence of their misconduct. 

John F. Kennedy, Jr. : Profile in Cowardice 

An article in The New American had the title, “Profile In Cowardice.” It described a prominent New York socialite who contacted Congressman James Traficant (December 2, 1993) and provided information on one of the DOJ’s steps taken to frame Occhipinti. The witness was identified in the article as “A.R.,” and identified as a friend of AUSA John F. Kennedy, Jr. That witness stated that during a June 11, 1991, conversation with Kennedy, and the night before Kennedy was to testify against Occhipinti, that Kennedy was concerned that he was being forced to testify for political reasons. He added that he was being used to prejudice the jury, and that he had never heard of the Occhipinti case. Occhipinti’s defense team had the witness undergo a polygraph examination, which he passed for his truthfulness. The article stated in part: 

He testified that Kennedy bemoaned the fact that the next day he would have to testify against an innocent man. According to J.R., Kennedy stated that he was being “forced” to testify for political reasons and that he was being “used” to prejudice the jury. 

Dominican Republic Diplomat 

Supported Occhipinti 

A New American article (February 21, 1994) described a witness, identified as “R.A.G,” who held several diplomatic positions for the Dominican Republic, including that of Consul General and Ambassador to Jamaica, who gave two highly sensitive affidavits (August 19, 1993) that provided more details about the conspiracy against Occhipinti. One affidavit stated in part: 

On or about the end of 1989, I was personally told by Dominican businessmen Jose Delio Marte, Silvio Sanchez, Pedro Allegria, and Ernesto Farbege that they needed my political assistance in eliminating former Immigration officer Joseph Occhipinti. They explained to me that Occhipinti was a threat to their illegal businesses, which included loan sharking, gambling, drug distribution, and the employment of illegal aliens. 

In his second affidavit, he stated in part: 

I have confirmed why government witness Jose Liberato, a complainant against Mr. Occhipinti at trial, had falsely testified against Mr. Occhipinti and participated in the conspiracy. Mr. Liberato, a bodega owner, is a major participant of Sea Crest Trading Company and its illegal activities.

In his affidavit he also named the person who delivered drug-related money from the Federation and Sea Crest to the Dinkins political campaign. 

DOJ Witnesses Arrested Again 

Most of the witnesses used by DOJ prosecutors against Occhipinti had criminal records. After the trial, they continued to engage in criminal activities and continued to be arrested. An example: New York Daily News headline (June 17, 1993) read: 

Vice Cops Bag 3 in Bribes. Two of the people named were brothers, Jose and Joaquin Checo, who had filed charges against Occhipinti and had been arrested by the New York Police Department for gambling and bribery offenses at their bodega. In the same article, New York Police Department spokesman, Raymond O’Donnell, referred to the two brothers as members of a Dominican organized crime organization known as The Federation. 

“We’re going to do to you 

like we did Occhipinti !” 

The immigrants learn fast. As the brothers were being handcuffed, one of the police officers, Sgt. Frank Perez, heard an employee holler, “You can’t get away with this. We’re going to do to you like we did to Occhipinti !” 

Occhipinti Describes what Happened 

Occhipinti described during an October 11, 1997, telephone conversation the findings of his multi-agency task force while investigating criminal activities in New York while working with AUSA Louis Freeh : 

Let me explain to you why things happened, in connection with my case. I had the connections, and why I think they prematurely fired Jim Fox, the FBI Director. There is a company called Sea Crest Trading Company in Greenwich, Connecticut. Now we know, and its been established that they’ve been the target of as many as ten federal and local investigations. And in each and every case, the investigations were ordered terminated by the Justice Department. 

[CIA, Capitol National Bank, 

and Dominican Organized Crime] 

The company was being run by certain Cubans who were involved in the Bay of Pigs. And they had, as part of their money laundering operations, they were dealing with Capitol National Bank in New York, being run by Carlos Cordoba, another CIA operative. I understand that, in Dominican organized crime, it’s probably one of the most vicious ethnic crime groups in the United States. 

 [Sea Crest, Dominican Federation, 

and Organized Crime] 

And what they do is, they basically intermingle and usually work hand in hand with the Cuban organized crime network, particularly in the gambling operations. So what happens, without realizing it, I stumbled into this Operation Bodega, never realizing that the Dominican bodegas that I was hurting was part of this Dominican Federation which is actually the front of an established Dominican cartel and that the fact that they were using in their money laundering operation, the Sea Crest Trading Company. 

 [Top Expert on Dominican Organized Crime] 

I was the Chief of Immigration and Naturalization Service. I was working mostly drug cases, and I was probably the most expert on Dominican organized crime. Nevertheless, all in all, I thought that I was being set up simply because I was hurting Dominican organized crime and that I knew the federation was a very politically powerful organization. And I just believed the time that they went to Mayor David Dinkins, convinced him that I was a racist and that I was hurting their operations, and Dinkins, who attributed his win in the 1988 election due to the Dominican Federation which is a front, called for a federal civil rights investigation. 

 [Attorney for Organized Crime 

Network Former AUSA] 

Now what happened, I uncovered evidence into this cartel that I was investigating, that their chief legal counsel was a former Assistant United States Attorney in the southern district of New York, and that according to my source who is a credible informant and who was willing to wear a wire, she alleged that this former Assistant U.S. Attorney was the legal counsel for the Dominican Federation. 

And he said to me, this guy’s name was David Lawrence, who was chief of the criminal division. David Lawrence said to me,’ I want to interview this woman.” So I brought her in. Not only was she credible, she actually had documents in her possession that could put this guy, this former Assistant U.S. Attorney and his partner, away in jail for a variety of drug trafficking, money laundering violations. 

[Prosecutor Leaking Evidence 

to Organized Crime] 

What happened is, a week after I brought her in, her information was leaked to this former assistant for whom she worked in that law firm saying, “I know what you did; my people told me, and the U.S. Attorney is trying to set me up, and he said he put a contract on Camarena.” It’s clear I went to the U.S. Attorney with viable evidence and he refused to work on it. What they actually told me was, “Leave the investigation alone; leave it alone.” Now at the time I simply said, well, you know what it is; the U.S. Attorney is very much concerned about their prestige. What happened was, in the southern district a year earlier, FBI had arrested an assistant U.S. Attorney for drug possession, and his name was Pearlmuttan. 

 [DOJ Blocking Exposure of Crime 

Activities in New York] 

What I thought at the time was, well, they’re blowing New York simply because they had a scandal two years earlier and they’re trying to avoid a potential scandal, and they’re only concerned about their image. But when David Lawrence told me to leave this investigation alone, I was angry. A New York City police officer was murdered and I’m on the trail of a major Dominican cartel. That’s when I started my Operation Bodega, knowing that I wasn’t going to get any support from the Justice Department. 

 [NYC Prosecutor Circumventing 

DOJ Obstruction Of Justice] 

So I went over to Morgenthau office and he was convinced that Operation Bodega not only would net the cartel but expose the money laundering operations as well as the alleged corruption. He assigned three assistant district attorneys to my case and within a ten-month period we began to develop substantial evidence not only on the Dominican federation but Sea Crest Trading Company. 

[Receiving Bribery Offers] 

And I knew I was getting close to the operation because two, actually three bribery offers were made to me and immediately I went back to the FBI, the supervisor in the corruption unit. And I told him everything I uncovered on Sea Crest and on this former federal prosecutor. And he was convinced; he wanted to do an undercover investigation. He was so convinced that he actually assigned a case agent. And the goal was for me to accept bribes, set them up and take them down and squeeze them and find out who’s corrupt. 

What happened is, when we get to my meeting in the southern district of New York, which is the criminal division, I get told by them that the southern district would not go with the undercover operation. He said to me specifically, he said, “Something smells.” 

So I realized that several months before that they told me they didn’t want to do Operation Esquire. 

 [Drug Cartels Demanding Shutdown 

of Drug Investigating Unit] 

I had worked previously in the corruption unit and I had some confidence in them, so when the Dominican Federation held their press conference on the steps of City Hall demanding that my operation be closed down and that I be investigated for federal civil rights investigation, at the time I didn’t have knowledge of all the facts; 

I just simply thought I was hurting a drug cartel; they needed to try to make it into a racial issue with politicians, with the Republican thing, and that’s what happened. So at that the pieces to the puzzle weren’t being put together. What happened was, they simply thought that I would be prosecuted and convicted and be taken away. And no one would even listen to me. But what would ultimately happen was that I was a credible person, and every time the media investigated my case, they found out that I was innocent and that I had been set up by drug lords. 

 [Drug Lords Controlling 

U.S. Attorney’s Office] 

And that the drug lords influenced the U.S. Attorney’s office to selectively prosecute me. Now we know that because several PD undercover operations were done where they went actually into the same bodegas who testified I conducted unlawful searches and capture them on national TV involved in criminal activity. What happened was, I was in prison, and the pressure was so much on the White House that they had to do something. My case was getting a lot of notoriety. 

I asked, “What charges did they make?” 

They charged me for federal civil rights violations. The first officer in American history to be charged under the federal civil rights with illegal consent search. The claim was, yes his signature was on the consent, but they claimed they didn’t sign the consent form until after the search. The first officer to be caught; it’s an administrative violation under the exclusionary rule. If a judge thought a search was illegal, they’d just throw the case out of court. I was the first one to ever be prosecuted.

The bottom line was, President George Bush, under intense pressure and because of his relationship with Staten Island president Molinari told him there was so much evidence for my innocence, he gave me clemency— he didn’t give me a full pardon but he gave me clemency and got me out of jail. 

What happened was, in January I get my retirement because I had 22 years in the government, and I’m a credible witness. Very credible, and what everyone basically puts it up to is, this is an illustration of how powerful the struggles are in our United States, and secondly how they’re able to manipulate the civil rights to their advantage. 

At that point I became not only hero to American law enforcement but even some of the civil rights groups have been convinced that my case was a clear case of how the drug cartel was using civil rights laws to their advantage. Right now I have a lot of friends, a lot of credibility. What I thought I could put together was the following. 

 [Occhipinti Supported by FBI SAC Jim Fox ] 

I started to realize when witnesses came forward that Jim Fox was one of my biggest supporters. While I was in jail, Jim Fox publicly stated that there was evidence of my innocence despite the fact that the FBI was refusing to release the evidence. What we believe happened was the following: 

We believe, while I was in jail, the Justice Department conducted an investigation. And they cut Jim Fox out of the loop for one reason or another. We believe Jim Fox realized that I was being framed and he asked one of the agents who conducted the investigation what happened. We believe when he saw what happened he publicly announced he was to retire in a couple of months. 

 [Motion for New Trial] 

Now when these public statements were made, we made an application for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence from the drug cartel. We specifically made mention that Jim Fox made public statements, and I know that the U.S. Attorney was very upset with him. Cause they called him down and they asked him to give a deposition saying that his public statements were taken out of context. He refused to do it, and he was fired; he was terminated about three months before his retirement. 

“What’s the status of that? Has he taken any legal action?” 

Basically he left and became one of the heads of security for a major bank; he passed away about 3-4 months ago. Let me tell you what we uncovered. A major investigator for a clearing house that deals in food coupons; you know those coupons when you go shopping. He brought to my attention that terrorist groups were using coupons as a way to front international terrorism. He explained that it was a 200 million-dollar-a-year operation. And they were using bodega supermarkets. Sea Crest Trade Company was to do the money laundering.

[Bodegas as Clearing House 

for Criminal Activities] 

Most of your Middle East terrorist groups were using several ways to raise money for terrorism. One was food stamp fraud, the second was food coupons, and the third was pirating of films that was sold out of supermarket bodegas that was controlled by the Federation. And they were using the bodegas as a clearinghouse for Sea Crest Trading Company, which explains why I was getting them a little nervous. But he said to me, “Joe, you’re missing the picture here. The Dominicans are involved with the Cubans, but don’t you realize what really happened here?” And this is what he explained. 

 [Bodega Money to Terrorist Groups] 

When Ben Jacobson began his investigation into the food stamp fraud and coupon fraud, he was the chief investigator for E. C. Nielsen Company that administers food stamps in the coupon program. In his investigation he said that what really was happening was that much of the coupon redemption would be concentrated at a little grocery store. And when he became suspicious that the monies were going to terrorist groups, he reported his findings to the FBI. 

But what happened was, the President had given me clemency, and I knew that I had been set up. The evidence clearly showed it. We believed I had been set up solely by the Dominican drug lords and that I was easily prosecuted because I wasn’t perceived as a team player because I was attempting to expose corruption. So what happened was, Ben Jacobson opened my eyes and he explained to me what happened. And he’s a credible guy. Not only is Ben Jacobson a retired New York City detective; he’s also a college professor that teaches at Rutgers University. He is also the chief investigator for E. C. Nielsen Company. And this is what he proceeded to explain: 

 [IRS Retaliation] 

Ever since he started his investigation at Sea Crest, he became the focus for retaliation by the IRS and others; he was basically told to leave the investigation alone. He couldn’t understand why. What he was able to connect was that Sea Crest, based on documents he obtained, they’re called UCC’s; Universal Commercial Code. Let me explain; if I lend you a thousand dollars I fill out a promissory note that you registered with the county clerk on a form that’s called the CC. 

With this investigation he started to notice that many of the people who were tied into Sea Crest were from the Middle East, managing stores that he suspected, supermarkets, mini-markets, that he suspected had ties to terrorism. And he reported his findings to the FBI. He provided them evidence of the funding for terrorism. What happened was, the FBI, just like the other investigations by the IRS, were ordered by the Justice Department to terminate it. And this is why he believed that happened. 

They needed a way, a mechanism to launder the money. So it was decided that they would bring in the Mujahedeen principals into the United States, set them up in mini-markets and supermarkets and utilize Sea Crest Trading Company as a way to funnel money to the Dominican Republic, and then back. And the money was earmarked for arms. 

 [Coalition of Sea Crest, CIA, 

and Terrorist Groups] 

What happened, he thinks, is while the government may have had a legitimate reason for using Sea Crest Trading Company, which was being run by former CIA operatives, Cuban Nationals, they never realized that the terrorist groups were using the money. And when Ben Jacobson provides them with that intelligence and they closed it down because they were told to, we believe, the bombing of the World Trade Center resulted.  

[Trade Center Bombing Funded 

by DOJ-Protected Groups] 

Now if you look at the convicted people on the World Trade Center Bombing, one fellow is Salan Abdel-Rahman. He owned a mini-market in Jersey City. If you pull the UCC [report], it comes back “Crest Trading Company.” So what happened was, the Justice Department and the CIA were afraid that if this information was ever exposed, it would show that the FBI was alerted that these monies through the food and coupon fraud actually funded the bombing of the World Trade Center, and that the FBI failed to take any action. 

There would be a major scandal. Now we believe this is one of the reasons why Jim Fox knew what was happening. He was the one who spearheaded the entire FBI investigation into the bombing of the World Trade Center. So listen to this very carefully. 

[DOJ Shuts Down 

Congressional Investigation] 

Congressman Traficant begins a series of inquiries into Sea Crest under the Freedom of Information Act, and almost immediately they close it down. They refuse to give any information, quoting national security. So what I think we have here, the real scandal is, the CIA realized the federal agency was being set up in order to protect their operation, they allowed me to go to jail. 

 [CIA Funding World Trade Center Terrorists] 

But the real story was that the CIA used Sea Crest Trading in order to facilitate money for Mujahideen during which time it inadvertently got into the hands of suspected terrorists. They were alerted of that fact; they failed to take any action; the bombing occurred, and they’ve got to do damage control. They were afraid if the American public learned about this it would be a major scandal. 

 [Drug Cartels Funded Clinton’s 

Election Campaign] 

To further compound this now, what’s been happening with the White House? We’ve now learned that the Dominican Federation is a front for cartels and Sea Crest Trading Company was behind many, many fund raisers for the Clinton-Gore campaign. Now this is published in the New American magazine. What I’m saying here is published also in the Congressional Record. I think this guy Richard Taus, and what he says, was accurate and what was happening in the New York FBI office. 

 [CIA Influence Over the Media] 

Now the guy who broke the story, the guy who came up with the evidence, is a reporter for the New York Post by the name of Al Guart. But the paper refused to print it; apparently the CIA must have a lot of influence in the media. The Post refused to allow him to break the story. There’s another guy, Karl Ross.

He does investigative reports for some of the largest magazines and newspapers, and also the Washington Post. And they’re refusing to allow him to break his story on Sea Crest. The point I’m trying to make here is, this is what was happening. This is what we could prove. That viable local and federal investigations into the Sea Crest Trading Company have been suspiciously terminated by the Justice Department. Why? 

I just wanted to let you know that the Sea Crest Trading Company appears to have been a CIA operation; it was being run by the Cuban mob that was involved in the Bay of Pigs. We know their connection with the Colombian and Dominican cartels. But as I said, apparently that was used as a front to money launder the money for the Mujahideen when, during that process, monies were actually diverted to actual terrorist groups and the FBI knew about it, was told not to do anything and then, when the bombing occurred, there was a big scandal there. 

Occhipinti Today 

And how did Occhipinti fare after his many years of dedicated government service? After 22 years of federal service, after receiving many awards, he was forced to retire on a disability pension. He suffered from post-stress trauma, hypertension, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders, surely brought on or worsened by his years of fighting crime and government cover-ups. Occhipinti wrote: 

I will always cherish my many law enforcement accomplishments and my efforts to protect our borders from drugs. Unfortunately, I realize now that my dedication to duty was in vain. I was very naive. I believed in the criminal justice system and the alleged war against drugs.I realize now that we have lost the war against drugs. 

Moreover, how politically powerful foreign drug lords are in the United States. I was getting too close to the major players in the drug world and had to be eliminated. Fortunately, I wasn’t murdered like journalist Manuel De Dios. Instead, the drug lords sent a more powerful threat to law enforcement; they can now manipulate and misuse to their advantage, important civil rights laws that can imprison and intimidate dedicated law enforcement officers. 

At present, due to my landmark civil rights prosecution, which never involved police brutality, racial bias or corruption, drug interdiction in many jurisdictions has been terminated. The police assigned to drug interdiction often rely upon consent searches and will not subject themselves to possible imprisonment and loss of a career due to an allegation of an unlawful search and seizure. My only regret is that I took away precious time from my family and subjected my loved ones to tremendous hardships simply because I wanted to do my sworn duty.

Nostalgia Writing of 

Occhipinti‘s Tragic Downfall 

It has been sad to write about what powerful and corrupt people have inflicted upon Occhipinti and his family. It reminded me of what I went through, first as a highly qualified FAA inspector assigned to the most senior program at United Airlines while it experienced a series of major air disasters, and then later what I experienced as I sought to expose other forms of government corruption. It is very probable that Occhipinti and I, and others like us, were fools, trying to protect a public who didn’t care to get informed or show any responsibility. 

IRS After Those who Wrote 

Stories About Occhipinti‘s Case 

During a discussion with Occhipinti in March 1999, he said that almost every reporter who exposed the DOJ corruption has had the IRS after him. 

Radio and Television Appearances 

to Inform the People 

Upon being released from prison, Occhipinti appeared as guest on several hundred radio and television shows, exposing the crime and drug cartels and their political influence. His grueling schedule caused him to collapse on board an airliner (November 21, 1993) followed by four days of hospitalization. Since 1978, I had appeared as guest on over 3000 radio and television shows and it can be especially tiring, especially when on a tour and doing seven or more shows a day. Worse, discovering that no one does anything with the information. Like talking to sheep. 

Protection of Ethnic Crime Groups 

In one of his writings, Occhipinti explained some of the problems associated with the United States’ attempts to fights powerful ethnic crime groups: 

I have seen dozens of viable federal and local investigations into Dominican organized crime groups prematurely terminated by federal authorities. Why? In July 1997, the FBI published a confidential intelligence report on Dominican organized crime operations in the United States, which confirm what I have known for the past twenty years. There has been much speculation that many of these investigations were prematurely terminated due to possible national security reasons, or maybe, the principals were government informants that had to be protected. 

It is important to note that the biggest crime threat facing the American public is the growth of international drug syndicates in the United States. Foreign drug lords and organized crime have adapted very well in setting up criminal operations in the United States for a variety of reasons. Foreign drug lords and ethnic organized crime groups have learned the essence of American politics and know how to manipulate the political and criminal justice systems.

[Dominican Cartels Principal 

Distributor of Colombian Drugs] 

For instance, U.S. law enforcement sources have developed convincing evidence that the Dominican drug cartel is the principal distributors of narcotics in the United States on behalf of the Colombian drug cartel. In addition, they are credited for laundering billions of dollars in drug proceeds both here and abroad. Yet, we rarely see media reports that publicize Dominican organized crime. Why?

[Dominican Drug Cartels 

Politically Powerful] 

Many ask me why the Dominican cartel has become so politically powerful in the United States. I explain that they will often operate as a legitimate political action group, often making unlawful political contributions to elected officials and having become successful in conducting widespread election fraud. Clearly, the ability to deliver campaign contributions and needed votes to win an election can understandably influence most political candidates.

[Organized Ethnic Crime Groups]

Hopefully, you can better understand why foreign drug cartels have become politically powerful in the United States. It also explains that when ethnic organized crime groups become the targets of law enforcement scrutiny, they seek immediate political intervention in hopes of terminating a criminal investigation or inquiry. In many cases, elected officials are successful in influencing authorities to terminate a criminal investigation by often alleging officer misconduct, or that the investigation was racially motivated.

[Most Drug Crimes Committed 

by Ethnic Crime Groups]

In the United States, statistics will show that the majority of organized crime activity in the United States is being committed by organized ethnic crime groups. Yet, the Justice Department’s “Organized Crime Strike Forces” continues to target and prosecute traditional Italian organized crime groups, which represent less than one percent of organized crime activity in the United States. Why? Is it because it has become “politically” incorrect to target these other ethnic crime groups? Or, are these foreign drug lords being protected by elected officials or the intelligence community? 

Ethnic Groups Taking over Drug 

and other Criminal Activities 

Partly because of naïveté, partly because of American’s gullibility, partly because of Americans who are willing to sabotage America’s interest for money from special groups, ethnic groups are taking over all types of criminal activities that make all of America suffer. Even the Japanese version of the U.S. Mafia: “yakuza.” has taken advantage of America’s love affair with drugs. Many Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers, and the yakuza, set up businesses along the Mexican-U.S. border after NAFTA came into being. Little is known in the United States about yakuza activities, or even its existence. Years ago, CIA agent Gunther Russbacher described his dealings in the Midwest with the yakuza, most of which I left out of my books for another day. It was reported to me that a company with packinghouses in Mexico along the U.S. border, Fruitiko, is associated with the Japanese yakuza. 

CIA-DOJ Funding, Training, 

Arming, and Protecting Terrorists 

Evidence not publicized by the Justice Department, Congress, or the mainstream media shows a relationship between the World Trade Center bombing and the criminal activities government agents sought to report, which DOJ employees blocked. 

Money to fund the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center came from the very same criminal activities that Occhipinti and other government agents sought to halt: and DOJ employees protected! This conduct by the people and culture in the Department of Justice made possible the bombing of the Center, and these acts included the shutdown of various investigations, the sham charges against Occhipinti, the aiding and abetting of crime groups that I have documented in all of my books.

Financing World Trade Center 

Bombing With Bodega Food 

Coupon Fraud and Drug Money 

A New Jersey news service, Golden State News Service, distributed to newspapers on October 1995 the following in-depth interview with several key New York area law enforcement officers relating to the bombing of the World Trade Center : 

The terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center was financed with drug and other racket money laundered and leveraged through small ethnic grocery stores. What’s more, terrorists even now are siphoning off more such funds. The real leader in the World Trade Center bombing has been allowed to flee capture, and all this is happening under the apparent protection of the Center Intelligence Agency... 

According to Jacobson, it was the monies generated from the Sea Crest food coupon redemption fraud scheme that financed the bombing of the World Trade Center according to Jacobson, Sea Crest is suspected of being the source of a two hundred-million-dollar a year food coupon redemption scheme... Jacobson alleges that Sea Crest has been protected by the Justice Department because of an alleged CIA operation that utilized that firm.... 

Occhipinti says he and Jacobson, acting independently of each other, have tried repeatedly to interest various federal state and even local law enforcement authorities to follow through on investigations of Sea Crest. “But always the investigations go nowhere.” Lenny Lemmer, a detective sergeant with the New York City Police Department, said recently in a sworn statement that he has encountered similar dead-ends in probing Sea Crest and its alleged drug cartel connections... 

Lemmer said he was called to meet several times with FBI agents and federal prosecutors, who tried to intimidate him into abandoning any leads he might uncover about Sea Crest or anything exculpatory about Occhipinti. Lemmer said he was aware of “concrete evidence” about alleged Sea Crest money laundering activities in Bogota, Colombia, and conveyed this information to an FBI agent. 

In a recent interview, Jacobson confirmed that proceeds from coupon fraud paid for the World Trade Center bombing, and that Sea Crest had received redemption checks signed over by Middle Eastern and Dominican grocers suspected of participating in such fraud. The conspiracy is so loose that money may be siphoned off to terrorists without all parties involved in the original loan-shark-coupon scams being aware of it, according to investigators. 

History of Funding Terrorists and 

Paying the Price Afterwards 

The United States funneled over three billion dollars to the Mujahedeen in the 1980s, and provided training in the use of weapons and terrorist activities. This was done despite the known hatred of the Mujahedeen for the United States due to its one-sided support for Israel. The knowledge that these acquired terrorist tactics and weapons would eventually be used against the United States was ignored. 

CIA Fronts in the United States 

Funneled Money to Terrorists 

Since 1990, my CIA sources explained how Sea Crest— a CIA front— laundered money to obtain military equipment and provide training for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Occhipinti‘s task force discovered that the funding of terrorists existed in the 1990s, and that some of the money was going to terrorists in the United States. 

A key figure in one of the terrorist groups was Sheik Omar Abdel -Rahman, who was convicted by a New York jury for his role in planning the bombing of the World Trade Center building. He was sentenced to life in prison and nine co-conspirators were sentenced to long prison terms.  

CIA Granting Visa to Known Terrorist 

Despite his known terrorist activities, including his involvement in the plot to assassinate Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, a CIA agent in the U.S. Consulate office in Khartoum, Sudan, issued a one-year visa for Sheik Omar to enter the United States in May 1990. He arrived in New York in July, and a few months later the State Department revoked the visa, advising the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) of this fact. However, high-level pressure caused the INS to issue a green card to Sheik Omar several months later. 

The people who funded Sheik Omar’s entry into the United States included Mustafa Shalabi (Director of Alkifah, a support fund for Mujahideen fighters based in Brooklyn); Muslim Brotherhood member and CIA asset from Afghanistan, Mahmud Abouhalima, and El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian. They had received training, funding, and arms from the CIA. 

Besides receiving CIA training, Nosair and Abouhalima had been earlier trained by the terrorist, Abu Nidal. The U.S. Army in 1989 sent Sergeant Ali A. Mohammed to Jersey City to give training to recruits for the Mujahideen. Among those receiving this training were Abouhalima and Nosair. Nosair, Abouhalima, and Omar were later convicted of waging terrorist warfare in the United States. 

FBI Cover-Up of Terrorist Activities 

Nosair was suspected of the 1990 murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a Jewish militant in New York City. Following this murder, the FBI obtained a search warrant and seized terrorist material from his Jersey City apartment. Included in this material were bomb-making materials, a list of people marked for death, including Rabbi Kahane, bomb-making instructions, and pictures of targeted buildings, including the World Trade Center ! 

The FBI made no arrests, and withheld this information from New York City prosecutors seeking to arrest those responsible for Kahane murder. This withholding of evidence played a key role in his December 20, 1991, acquittal. 

DOJ Cover-Up Helped 

Plan Airliner Bombings 

Funding Nosair’s defense were funds from criminal activities associated with Sea Crest Trading Company, the same CIA-related operation that funded the bomb components and their assembly. Many of these activities were under the supervision of Ramzi Yousef, an Afghan terrorist who came to the United States into Sheik Omar‘s group in 1992. 

While working with explosives in his Manila apartment in 1994, a fire occurred, causing Yousef to flee before police arrived. After the police searched the apartment and examined his computer files they found plans to place bombs on eleven U.S. airliners departing Far East locations. 

Although Yousef fled, police arrested his roommate, Abdul Hakim Murad, a pilot who had received his pilot training in the United States. Hakim provided further information on the plan to place bombs on U.S. airliners. If that plan had succeeded it could have killed several thousand air travelers. Hakim also revealed that al Qaeda cells planned to crash U.S. airliners into buildings in the nation’s capital at Washington. 

Yousef was convicted in late 1996 of involvement in the conspiracy to place bombs on U.S. aircraft in the Far East. New York judge William Schlesinger granted the terrorist’s attorney William Kunstler extraordinary latitude while hamstringing the prosecution. 

World Trade Center Bombing Made 

Possible by DOJ Cover-ups 

Without funding from Sea Crest Trading Company, and without Justice Department personnel blocking prosecution of Dominicans drug traffickers and Sea Crest, it is very probable there would not have been the money to fund the terrorists. The bomb blast killed six people, injured over a thousand others, and did over $500 million in damage in the February 26, 1993, World Trade Center bombing. 

The imprisonment of Sheik Omar, following the World Trade Center bombing, did not destroy the group’s ability to conduct further terrorist acts in the United States. This became apparent on September 11, 2001. 

“Dominican Drug Money May Have 

Helped Elect our President” 

Reports indicated that U.S. and Dominican Republic politicians were receiving substantial money from Capital National Bank, Sea Crest Trading Company, and the Dominican Federation. An in-depth The New American article (April 28, 1997) was titled: “Dominican drug money may have helped elect our President,” and said in part: 

A report from Puerto Rico suggests that the Clinton White House has accepted drug-tainted contributions linked to the Dominican Republic’s radical Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). PRD members... made campaign donations last September during a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser at Coogan’s Irish Pub in Washington Heights [in New York City]. PRD members Simon Diaz and Pablo Espinal supported the campaign of U.S. President Clinton.... 

Both Diaz and Espinal reportedly posed for pictures with Vice President Al Gore, according to PRD leaders. Diaz is vice president of a New York City chapter of the PRD and president of a group of party-affiliated businesses. He is also currently under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and various other anti-narcotics agencies with regard to the PRD’s “alleged nexus with international drug cartels” as El Vocero reported.... 

Furthermore, although U.S. federal officials were aware of the links between PRD and the drug cartels, “for reasons that remain unclear, these officials exerted pressure to derail active investigations in the matter.” 

Despite his known drug and crime connections, Jose Francisco Pena-Gomez, the PRD’ s leader and Dominican Republic presidential candidate was President Bill Clinton’ s choice in the Dominican elections held in 1994 and 1996. This recommendation followed the campaign contributions received by Clinton and Gore. 

Luck of President Bill Clinton and Al Gore 

On May 10, 1998, another potential witness and threat against President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore died. Former Dominican Republic presidential candidate Jose Pena-Gomez was a potential threat to them because of the drug money Gomez and his drug-related groups gave to the Clinton-Gore campaign and because of the Clinton administration’s protection of Dominican drug trafficking and other crimes. Pena-Gomez died from pulmonary edema. 

Parallel Discoveries in Pennsylvania 

Four agents from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Narcotics Investigation office (BNI) were experiencing similar problems with Dominican drug traffickers, high-level cover-ups, and retaliation. Agents John R. McLaughlin, Charles A. Micewski, Dennis J. McKeefery, and Edward Eggles, were working as a team, discovered evidence of widespread criminal activities by the Dominican Revolutionary Party and Dominican crime figures. They also suffered retaliation that insured the continuation of the drugs and related crimes. 

The BNI narcotic agents discovered that drug money was gathered and distributed at fund raisers held in Pennsylvania and that various government agencies were actively aware of these facts. They also discovered drug money funneled to U.S. politicians and to the U.S.-backed candidate for the presidency of the Dominican Republic, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, who was being supported by the Clinton Administration. 

Ties to Colombian Drug Traffickers 

McLaughlin described what he found about Colombian connections: 

While at an intelligence meeting, I received a document from Interpol that described an organization of Dominican drug traffickers with ties to the Cali cartel in Colombia dating back to at least 1991 and also documents hundreds of kilos of cocaine seized as well as approximately 100 people either arrested or having outstanding arrest warrants. This organization has ties to the Dominican Revolutionary Party headed by Jose Francisco Pena-Gomez who was being backed by the U.S. Department of State in the last election. 

Pennsylvania Attorney General 

Protecting Drug Traffickers 

On May 10, 1996, McLaughlin notified the Deputy Attorney General of a major heroin shipment due to arrive from New York and a large amount of drug-money being laundered. Harrisburg Attorney General’s office refused to allow a bust to occur. The surveillance team was called off and the heroin sale occurred that evening at 7:45 p.m., with Dominicans taking back to New York over $100,000. Shortly thereafter, over 116 overdoses from heroin were reported from using the heroin brand, “Dead Presidents.” Numerous drug overdoses and deaths were reported from using another form of Dominican heroin called “Super Buck.” BNI agents were ordered not to interfere with these sales that were occurring at various Philadelphia street corners. 

Dropping Charges Against 

85 Drug Traffickers 

McLaughlin was told that from April 16 to November 19, 1996, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office dismissed 85 defendants who were caught with $879,000 worth of heroin, $47,000 worth of crack, $148,000 worth of cocaine, and the confiscation of large sums of money, vehicles and weapons. 

In addition to protecting the major drug trafficking, this sent a message to other government agents that they should not investigate any of the Dominican drug traffickers, drug-money launderers, or drug-money-related political contributions. 

Retaliatory Removal that 

Protected Drug Crimes 

Shortly thereafter, on April 16, 1996, Arnold Gordon, First Deputy District Attorney for Philadelphia, met with the Attorney General and charged that there was a problem with the BNI agents in the Philadelphia office. This was followed by a series of adverse actions against the four agents that halted their drug investigations into the politically connected drug traffickers. 

The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office took McLaughlin off drug cases on the sham excuse that McLaughlin made a grammatical error on an affidavit. McLaughlin referred in an affidavit to “the” informant instead of “an” informant, an error that was meaningless in light of the details in the report, and could be made by anyone without any unfavorable results. It was clear; the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office was protecting drug traffickers from arrest by state police officers! 

Another Example of Legal 

Fraternity Misconduct 

On January 13, 1997, a confidential informant (CI 902-96) told BNI agents that a prominent defense attorney, Guy Sciolla, was telling his Dominican clients to falsely report that BNI narcotic agents skimmed money from them when they were arrested. This was the same as one of the two charges Dominican drug traffickers made against Occhipinti. They must have learned from that to use the same tactic against other government agents. McLaughlin reported this to the District Attorney’s office. Again, the Pennsylvania prosecutor refused to act against the attorney. 

Fearing for the Life of an Informant 

During a March 27, 1996 BNI meeting at Philadelphia headquarters attended by CIA Agent Dave Lawrence, McLaughlin and Regional Director John Sunderhauf, Lawrence wanted the name of one of BNI’s key inside informants who was disclosing highly sensitive information about Dominican drug trafficking. Recognizing that the state attorney general’s office was blocking the investigation and prosecution of known drug traffickers, McLaughlin, fearing for the life of the informant, refused to reveal the informant’s identity. 

FBI Pressuring Informant to 

File False Affidavit 

McLaughlin reported (July 8, 1997) that a Confidential Informant (Nr. 910- 95) called BNI agents about FBI agents from the Federal Corruption Probe Task Force pressuring him to sign an affidavit containing derogatory statements about BNI agents that weren’t true. 

Retaliatory Reassignment 

In May 1996, State Attorney General Tom Corbett announced that McLaughlin and the three other BNI agents working on Dominican-related cases would be reassigned and would not get their regular jobs back. Despite the agents’ request for information as to what they had done wrong, no reason was given. They were reassigned and given menial and often degrading tasks. 

I know the tactic; while I was with the FAA, reporting very serious air safety and criminal violations and a culture of corruption among its mid-management personnel, related to a series of fatal airline crashes, I was transferred to an undesirable assignment. My predecessor on that same problem, who reported similar air safety and criminal violations associated with crashes at United Airlines —one of which was the world’s worst—was also transferred. His destination was Puerto Rico, a not very desirable location. In both cases, United Airlines management personnel bragged that they were responsible for our transfers. 

On June 3, 1996, the BNI agents were told that they could no longer get information from the New York DEA office, thereby depriving the BNI of important drug-related information. On July 18, 1996, the Pennsylvania district attorney’s office advised the narcotic agents that the office would accept no more cases from them. On August 21, 1997, U.S. Customs agent John Malandros told McLaughlin that he was ordered to drop the investigation into the Revolutionary Dominican Party. 

Media Aiding and Abetting Drug 

Traffickers and Cover-Ups 

Within a few days, the media started printing and airing a series of stories critical of the narcotic agents and protective of the drug traffickers and government retaliation and cover-ups. On April 23, 1996, Philadelphia’s Channel 3 News did a lead story comparing the BNI agents to a group of Philadelphia police officers who created false crimes and wrongfully accused people in the 39th Precinct. That misleading television story was followed by others, including derogatory stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. 

For reasons unknown to the agents, Supervisor Lou Gentile in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s headquarters in Philadelphia, ordered the narcotic agents not to correct the false media stories. These media sources had enough access to insiders to know the true story. They chose to mouth the official government line. Former Attorney General Tom Corbett told agents to “take it on the chin,” and that he wouldn’t correct the false media stories. 

ACLU Protecting the Criminals 

ACLU attorneys stated that they intended to seek monetary damages for the Dominicans arrested by the BNI agents. State Senator Vince Fumo from Philadelphia, urged convicted Dominican drug dealer Felix Torres to seek vengeance against the BNI agents: “Sue them, bankrupt them, take their houses from them. That’s the only time they’re going to get the message.” 

Reporting the Problems 

to Senate Investigators 

McLaughlin described these activities to investigators from the Senate Intelligence Committee, including chief counsel John Bellinger, Janice Kephart, and Al Cummings. He informed Randy Scheunemann on the staff of the National Security Advisor. 

McLaughlin called Senator Arlen Specter’ s office on October 15, 1996 concerning the Dominican Republic drug trafficking and the Justice Department’s protection of their drug activities. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked McLaughlin to testify behind closed doors about the drug trafficking and other criminal activities, and the obstruction of justice at the state and federal levels. 

Obstructing Congressional Investigation 

into Drug Trafficking 

Seeking to prevent McLaughlin from testifying about the criminal activities and their cover-ups to Congress, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office sent him a memo on November 7, 1966, barring him from testifying. The attorney general also sent a fax to Senator Specter that McLaughlin was not to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee. No reaction from Specter. 

Threats if He Testified Before Congress 

John Kelly, Regional Director for the Pennsylvania Attorney General office, threatened McLaughlin with termination if he testified before Congress. Under federal law, this threat was a criminal act. (Title 18 USC Section 1505, 1512, 1513 and the related obstruction of justice statutes) 

McLaughlin did testify in executive session (secret from the public) to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on January 29, 1997. No action was taken, despite the serious implications of the testimony. 

Congress took no actions when Occhipinti and his group described the serious problems, after testimony by the Pennsylvania agents, or the many other government insiders described within these pages and in my other books. Members of Congress had years earlier become implicated in the underlying crimes, including drug trafficking, by their repeated pattern of cover-ups. 

Earlier Reports of Drug-Related 

In Pennsylvania Attorney General‘s Office 

Corruption and obstruction of justice in Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement agency existed for years. Reference is made to a friend of many years, Darlene Novinger, who is described elsewhere within these pages. She was an undercover operative working with several government agencies investigating drug-related crimes in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. 

Filing A Civil Rights Complaint Against 

Government Officials and Drug Traffickers 

In response to the obstruction of justice and retaliatory actions by Pennsylvania and federal officials, the four agents filed a lawsuit in late 1997 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania under the Civil Rights Act and as a Bivens complaint. The complaints, filed by Pennsylvania attorneys Don Bailey from Harrisburg and Samuel Stretton from West Chester, charged the defendants with conduct that was criminal, subversive, and related to aiding and abetting the smuggling of drugs into the United States. The introductory statement in the Complaint stated in part: 

This is a civil rights complaint brought to redress, inter alia, the deprivation of the plaintiffs’ federally guaranteed interests in free speech and property. This is also a Bivens’ complaint, the gravamen of which is that a Dominican drug organization, through the protection of certain persons in the State Department and the CIA, was effective in having the plaintiffs’ law enforcement efforts stopped and their careers destroyed. 

The plaintiffs... began gathering evidence on the PRD, a Dominican political party supported by the United States, which indicated that illegal drugs were being prolifically sold at will in the United States to our Black and Hispanic populations. This money was being put into American elections.... Plaintiffs contend that they discovered a highly organized Dominican group organized as the Revolutionary Dominican Party (PRD), a political party seeking power in the Dominican Republic, that was, and is, protected and sanctioned, unlawfully, by agencies of the United States government, to include the CIA and the State Department, enabling the Dominicans to distribute illegal drugs at will to the Black and Hispanic populations of the Eastern Seaboard. 

Plaintiffs also allege that in furtherance of the unlawful policy of protecting the large-scale distributors of illegal narcotics to largely captive center city populations, the defendants have utilized the offices of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the FBI, to pursue an oppressive threatening investigation of the plaintiffs in an effort to destroy their Credibility and silence them. 

These tactics include the ferreting out of plaintiffs’ information sources so that they may be silenced [killed] through the mechanism of a federal grand jury. They ask this Court to appoint, or urgently request, a special prosecutor, independent of the Justice Department and either political party, to investigate the cover-up they allege in order that they and some of their sources can be saved from more abuses... ask this court to issue an order forcing federal authorities to protect Confidential Informant “PMan,” 902-96, who is now known to them, immediately. 

General Allegations 

In the Complaint, the four narcotic agents charged that the defendants in various combinations engaged in conspiracies to: 

• Block government agents from halting the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. 
• Allow the flow of illegally procured money from the sale and distribution of drugs in the United States into the political coffers of Francisco Pena Gomez of the PDR in the Dominican. 
• Prevent disclosure and/or further discovery by the plaintiffs of the flow of illegally procured money from the sale and distribution of drugs by the PRD to black and Hispanic Americans. 
• Discredit the plaintiffs in order to destroy their credibility and thus their ability to participate in the prosecution of drug traffickers. 
• Protect the proceeds (money) of Dominican drug dealers and traffickers from exposure and prosecution. 
• Protect the government conspirators, both named and unnamed, from criminal prosecution for their role in aiding and abetting the illegal sale and distribution of drugs in the United States. 

“Dominicans Now Dominant 

in East Coast Drug Trade” 

A mid-1998 New York Times article was titled, “Dominicans Now Dominant in East Coast Drug Trade.” Department of Justice personnel have played a major role in bringing this about. 

Undercover Agent Speaks 

Out On December 12, 1994, James Ridgway de Szigethy executed an affidavit admitting that Sea Crest had been a CIA operation, a fact that he had learned from his activities as an informant for the Naval Intelligence Service, as well as from his CIA associates. 

De Szigethy also revealed that the assassination of Prince Chitresh “Teddy” Khedker in New York City was committed by CIA operative George Cobo. According to De Szigethy, the prince was a CIA operative involved in the Sea Crest operation in Canada. He said that Cobo was a Cuban national trained by the CIA. De Szigethy provided Congressman Traficant with other affidavits and documents regarding Sea Crest and the Occhipinti conspiracy. De Szigethy was previously polygraphed with respect to another affidavit he executed and  found to be truthful. 

DOJ Drops Criminal Investigation 

of Drug Fighters 

U.S. Attorney Michael R. Stiles issued a statement on February 18, 1999 announcing the closing of its investigation into suspected criminal activities against the four Pennsylvania narcotic agents! No mention of any investigation into the drug traffickers and the evidence accumulated against them. 

Gravity of the Implications 

The Occhipinti and McLaughlin cases provide prima facie evidence of widespread drug and other criminal activities involving a segment of the population largely composed of immigrants to the United States. Key people in this group have connections to the CIA. There were repeated cover-ups and obstruction of justice by almost every level of the state and federal criminal justice system, and a pattern of retaliation against those few government agents with the courage and integrity to carry out the responsibilities of their jobs. 

Government Agents Form Group to Protect Against High-Level Retaliation and Right 

to Perform Their Legal Responsibilities 

A group was formed to bring together government agents who suffered the type of retaliation suffered by Occhipinti, McLaughlin and others, called the National Police Defense Foundation, with its home office in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the association is to protect the rights of law-enforcement personnel and the public and to provide assistance, services, and counseling for law-enforcement personnel. Occhipinti is the executive director of the foundation. (National Police Defense Foundation, 1422 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005.) 

Catastrophic National Consequences 

This attitude of New York politicians and Justice Department personnel protecting terrorists and their funding from drug activities, and retaliating against government agents seeking to meet their responsibilities, would have catastrophic consequences and again involve the World Trade Center buildings. 

The Fallout from This Widespread 

Corruption Would Be Catastrophic, 

Especially in Their Backyard 

The protection of the drug operations, part of which funded terrorist cells in New Jersey, were be felt shortly with the bombing of the World Trade Center. But on September 11, 2001, the continued funding of terrorist cells through the protection of the drug operations and the prosecution of government agents played a role in the successful hijacking of four airliners by four groups of terrorists. 

Their success would have been blocked if the corruption I discovered as a federal air safety inspector (and write about in Unfriendly Skies) did not exist; if the corruption in the Justice Department did not exist; if the felony cover-ups by members of Congress and many others did not exist; all of which I have documented for the past 40 years. Again and again the public—that never seems to respond to any of these revelations—pays the price. And they surely did on September 11! 

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DEA Complicity in Drugging America