Jeremy Renner Ready To ‘Kill The Messenger’ In Film About CIA-Smeared Journo Gary Webb

[777man]

134. Senator John Kerry: US Government Knowingly Hired Drug Traffickers for CONTRA Aid

FOR THOSE OF YOU STILL IN DENIAL- HERE ARE THE DOLLAR AMOUNTS PAID TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS ON THE STATE DEPARTMENT PAYROLL

-ACCORDING TO DEA INVESTIGATOR HECTOR BERRELLEZ, A SETCO/CIA CONTRACTOR PILOT HELPED RAFAEL CARO QUINTERO- MURDERER OF DEA AGENT ENRIQUE "KIKI" CAMARENA DURING HIS ESCAPE. SETCO WAS OWNED BY JUAN MATTA BALLESTEROS, ONE OF THE LARGEST NARCO TRAFFICKERS IN HISTORY.

FROM THE KERRY REPORT:
(EXCERPT)
http://www.pinknoiz.com/covert/contracoke.html#VI

The full report is here:
"Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy"
a/k/a the Kerry Report Transcripts

https://web.archive.org/web/20070104000306/http://www.thememoryhole.com/kerry/



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VI. U.S. GOVERNMENT FUNDS AND COMPANIES WITH DRUG CONNECTIONS

The State Department selected four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras. The companies were:--SETCO Air, a company established by Honduran drug trafficker Ramon Matta Ballesteros;

--DIACSA, a Miami-based air company operated as the headquarters of a drug trafficker enterprise for convicted drug traffickers Floyd Carlton and Alfredo Caballero;

--Frigorificos de Puntarenas, a firm owned and operated by Cuban-American drug traffickers;

--Vortex, an air service and supply company partly owned by admitted drug trafficker Michael Palmer.

In each case, prior to the time that the State Department entered into contracts with the company, federal law enforcement had received information that the individuals controlling these companies were involved in narcotics.

Officials at NHAO told GAO investigators that all the supply contractors were to have been screened by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies prior to their receiving funds from State Department on behalf of the Contras to insure that they were not involved with criminal activity.[33] Neither the GAO nor the NHAO were certain whether or not that had actually been done.[34]

The payments made by the State Department to these four companies between January and August 1986, were as follows:


SETCO, for air transport service.......................$186,924.25
DIACSA, for airplane engine parts........................41,120.90
Frigorificos De Puntarenas, as a broker/supplier for various serv-
ices to Contras on the Southern Front..................261,932.00
VORTEX, for air transport services......................317,425.17

Total [35] .............................................806,401.20
A number of questions arise as a result of the selection of these four companies by the State Department for the provision of humanitarian assistance to the contras, to which the Subcommittee has been unable to obtain clear answers:

--Who selected these firms to provide services to the Contras, paid for with public funds, and what criteria were used for selecting them?

--Were any U.S. officials in the CIA, NSC, or State Department aware of the narcotics allegations associated with any of these companies? If so, why were these firms permitted to receive public funds on behalf of the Contras?

--Why were Contra suppliers not checked against federal law enforcement records that would have shown them to be either under active investigation as drug traffickers, or in the case of DIACSA, actually under indictment?

Ambassador Robert Duemling, Director of the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Organization (NHAO), who was responsible for the operation of the program, was unable to recall how these companies were selected, when questioned by Senator Kerry in April, 1988.[36] Ambassador Duemling also could not recall whetheror not the contractors had in fact been checked against law enforcement records prior to receiving funds from the State Department. In previous testimony before the Iran/Contra Committees, Ambassador Duemling had recalled that NHAO had been directed by Lt. Col. Oliver North to continue "the existing arrangements of the resistance movement" in choosing contractors.[37]

At best, these incidents represent negligence on the part of U.S. government officials responsible for providing support to the Contras. At worst it was a matter of turning a blind eye to the activities of companies who use legitimate activities as a cover for their narcotics trafficking.
A. SETCO/HONDU CARIB

Before being chosen by the State Department to transport goods on behalf of the Contras from late 1985 through mid-1986, SETCO had a long-standing relationship with the largest of the Contra groups, the Honduras-based FDN. Beginning in 1984, SETCO was the principal company used by the Contras in Honduras to transport supplies and personnel for the FDN, carrying at least a million rounds of ammunition, food, uniforms and other military supplies for the Contras from 1983 through 1985. According to testimony before the Iran/Contra Committees by FDN leader Adolfo Calero, SETCO received funds for Contra supply operations from the contra accounts established by Oliver North.[38]

U.S. law enforcement records state that SETCO was established by Honduran cocaine trafficker Juan Matta Ballesteros, whose April 1988 extradition from Honduras to the United States in connection with drug trafficking charges caused riots outside the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

For example, a 1983 Customs Investigative Report states that "SETCO stands for Services Ejectutivos Turistas Commander and is headed by Juan Ramon Mata Ballestros, a class I DEA violator." The same report states that according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, "SETCO aviation is a corporation formed by American businessmen who are dealing with Matta and are smuggling narcotics into the United States."[39]

One of the pilots selected to fly Contra supply missions for the FDN for SETCO was Frank Moss, who has been under investigation as an alleged drug trafficker since 1979. Moss has been investigated, although never indicted, for narcotics offenses by ten different law enforcement agencies.[40]

In addition to flying Contra supply missions through SETCO, Moss formed his own company in 1985, Hondu Carib, which also flew supplies to the Contras, including weapons and ammunition purchased from R.M. Equipment, an arms company controlled by Ronald Martin and James McCoy.[41]The FDN's arrangement with Moss and Hondu Carib was pursuant to a commercial agreement between the FDN's chief supply officer, Mario Calero, and Moss, under which Calero was to receive an ownership interest in Moss' company. The Subcommittee received documentation that one Moss plane, a DC-4, N90201, was used to move Contra goods from the United States to Honduras.[42] On the basis of information alleging that the plane was being used for drug smuggling, the Customs Service obtained a court order to place a concealed transponder on the plane.[43]

A second DC-4 controlled by Moss was chased off the west coast of Florida by the Customs Service while it was dumping what appeared to be a load of drugs, according to law enforcement personnel. When the plane landed at Port Charlotte no drugs were found on board, but the plane's registration was not in order and its last known owners were drug traffickers. Law enforcement personnel also found an address book aboard the plane, containing among other references the telephone numbers of some Contra officials and the Virginia telephone number of Robert Owen, Oliver North's courier.[44] A law enforcement inspection of the plane revealed the presence of significant marijuana residue.[45] DEA seized the aircraft on March 16, 1987.
B. FRIGORIFICOS DE PUNTARENAS

Frigorificos de Puntarenas is a Costa Rican seafood company which was created as a cover for the laundering of drug money, according to grand jury testimony by one of its partners, and testimony by Ramon Milian Rodriguez, the convicted money launderer who established the company.[46]

From its creation, it was operated and owned by Luis Rodriguez of Miami, Florida, and Carlos Soto and Ubaldo Fernandez, two convicted drug traffickers, to launder drug money.[47] Luis Rodriguez, who according to Massachusetts law enforcement officials directed the largest marijuana smuggling ring in the history of the state, was indicted on drug trafficking charges by the federal government on September 30, 1987 and on tax evasion in connection with the laundering of money through Ocean Hunter on April 5,1988.[48]

Luis Rodriguez controlled the bank account held in the name of Frigorificos which received $261,937 in humanitarian assistance funds from the State Department in 1986. Rodriguez signed most of the orders to transfer the funds for the Contras out of that ac-count.[49] Rodriguez was also president of Ocean Hunter, an American seafood company created for him by Ramon Milian-Rodriguez.[50] Ocean Hunter imported seafood it bought from Frigorificos and used the intercompany transactions to launder drug money.[51]

In statements before a Florida federal grand jury in connection with a narcotics trafficking prosecution of Luis Rodriguez, Soto testified that he knew Luis Rodriguez as a narcotics trafficker who had been smuggling drugs into the U.S. since 1979. Soto also testified that they were partners in the shipment of 35,000 pounds of marijuana to Massachusetts in 1982.[52]

Milian-Rodriguez told Federal authorities about Luis Rodriguez' narcotics trafficking prior to Milian-Rodriguez' arrest in May 1983. In March and April 1984, IRS agents interviewed Luis Rodriguez regarding Ocean Hunter, drug trafficking and money laundering, and he took the Fifth Amendment in response to every question.[53] In September, 1984, Miami police officials advised the FBI of information they had received that Ocean Hunter was funding contra activities through "narcotics transactions," and noting that Luis Rodriguez was its president. This information confirmed previous accounts the FBI had received concerning the involvement of Ocean Hunter and its officers in Contra supply operations involving the Cuban American community.[54]

Despite the information possessed by the FBI, Customs and other law enforcement agencies documenting Luis Rodriguez' involvement in narcotics trafficking and money laundering, the State Department used Frigorificos, which he owned and operated, to deliver humanitarian assistance funds to the Contras in late 1985. Official funds for the Contras from the United States began to be deposited into the Frigorificos account in early 1986, and continued until mid-1986.[55]

In May 1986, Senator Kerry advised the Justice Department, Drug Enforcement Agency, State Department, NHAO and CIA of allegations he had received involving Luis Rodriguez and his companies in drug trafficking and money laundering. In August 1986, the Foreign Relations Committee asked Justice whether the allegations about Luis Rodriguez were true, and requested documents to determine whether the State Department might have in fact provided funds to a company controlled by drug traffickers. Justice refused to answer the inquiry.

The indictment of Luis Rodriguez on drug charges 18 months later demonstrated that the concerns raised by Senator Kerry to the Justice Department and other agencies in May 1986 concerning his companies were well founded, as the State Department had infact chosen companies operated by drug traffickers to supply the Contras.[56]
C. DIACSA

DIACSA was an aircraft dealership and parts supply company partly owned by the Guerra family of Costa Rica. DIACSA's president, Alfredo Caballero, was under DEA investigation for cocaine trafficking and money laundering when the State Department chose the company to be an NHAO supplier. Caballero was at that time a business associate of Floyd Carlton--the pilot who flew cocaine for Panama's General Noriega.

In an affidavit filed in federal court in January, 1985, DEA Special Agent Daniel E. Moritz described working as an undercover money launderer "for the purpose of introducing myself into a criminal organization involved in importing substantial quantities of cocaine into the United States from South America."[57] That organization was the Carlton/Caballero partnership. According to Agent Moritz, the cocaine traffickers used DIACSA offices "as a location for planning smuggling ventures, for assembling and distributing large cash proceeds of narcotics transactions, and for placing telephone calls in furtherance of the smuggling ventures."[58]

From March 1985 until January 1986, Moritz received approximately $3.8 million in U.S. currency from members of this organization "to be distributed, primarily in the form of wire transfers around the world." Most of the $3.8 million was delivered in DIACSA's offices.

Moritz met both Alfredo Caballero and Floyd Carlton in March of 1985. Moritz had previously learned from a confidential informant that Carlton was a "major cocaine trafficker from Panama who frequented DIACSA and was a close associate of Alfredo Caballero." The informant added that "Caballero provided aircraft for Floyd Carlton Caceres' cocaine smuggling ventures" and that Caballero allowed Carlton and "members of his organization to use DIACSA offices as a location for planning smuggling ventures, for assembling and distributing large cash proceeds of narcotics transactions and for placing telephone calls in furtherance of the smuggling ventures." Alfredo Caballero was described by the informant "as the man in charge of operations for Floyd Carlton Caceres' cocaine transportation organization."[59]

Other members of the group were Miguel Alemany-Soto, who recruited pilots and selected aircraft and landing strips, and Cecilia Saenz-Barria. The confidential informant said that Saenz was a Panamanian "in charge of supervising the landing and refueling of the organization's aircraft at airstrips on the Panama/Costa Rica border" and that he "arranges for bribe payments for certain Costa Rican officials to ensure the protection of these aircraft as they head north loaded with cocaine."[60] During 1984 and 1985, the principal Contra organization, the FDN, chose DIACSA for "intra-account transfers." The laundering of money through DIACSA concealed the fact that some funds for the Contras were through deposits arranged by Lt. Col. Oliver North.[61]

The indictments of Carlton, Caballero and five other defendants, including Alfred Caballero's son Luis, were handed down on January 23, 1985. The indictment charged the defendants with bringing into the United States on or about September 23, 1985, 900 pounds of cocaine. In addition, the indictment charged the defendants with laundering $2.6 million between March 25, 1985 and January 13, 1986.[62]

Despite the indictments, the State Department made payments on May 14, 1986 and September 3, 1986, totaling $41,120.90 to DIACSA to provide services to the Contras.[63]

In addition, the State Department was still doing business with DIACSA on its own behalf six months after the company's principals had been indicted. Court papers filed in the case in July 1986, show that the U.S. Embassies of Panama and Costa Rica were clients of DIACSA. While DIACSA and its principals were engaged in plea bargaining negotiations with the Justice Department regarding the cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges, U.S. Embassy personnel in Panama and Costa Rica were meeting with one of the defendants to discuss purchasing Cessna planes from the company.[64]

Each of the defendants in the DIACSA case was ultimately convicted on charges of importing cocaine into the United States. The sentences they received ranged from ten years for one non-cooperating defendant, to nine years for Floyd Carlton, to three years probation for Luis Caballero and five years probation for his father, DIACSA's owner, Alfredo Caballero, as a consequence of their cooperation with the government.[65]
D. VORTEX

When the State Department signed a contract with Vortex to handle Contra supplies, Michael B. Palmer, then the company's Executive Vice-President signed for Vortex. At the time, Palmer was under active investigation by the FBI in three jurisdictions in connection with his decade-long activity as a drug smuggler, and a federal grand jury was preparing to indict him in Detroit.[66]

The contract required Vortex to receive goods for the Contras, store, pack and inventory them. At the time the contract was signed, Vortex's principal assets were two airplanes which Palmer previously used for drug smuggling.[67]Vortex was selected by NHAO assistant director Philip Buechler, following calls among Buechler, Palmer, and Pat Foley, the president of Summit Aviation.[68]
VII. THE CASE OF GEORGE MORALES AND FRS/ARDE

In 1984, the Contra forces under Eden Pastora were in an increasingly hopeless situation. On May 30,1984, Pastora was wounded by a bomb at his base camp at La Penca, Nicaragua, close to the Costa Rica border. That same day, according to ARDE officer Karol Prado, aid to ARDE from the United States was cut off.[69]

Despite continued pressure from the United States, Pastora refused to place his ARDE forces under a unified command with the largest of the Contra organizations--the Honduras-based FDN. The CIA considered Pastora to be "disruptive and unpredictable."[70] By the time the Boland Amendment cut off legal military aid to the Contras, the CIA had seen to it that Pastora did not receive any assistance, and his forces were experiencing "desperate conditions."[71]

Although there are discrepancies among the parties as to when the initial meeting took place, Pastora's organization was approached by George Morales, a Colombian drug trafficker living in Miami who had been indicted on narcotics trafficking charges.

According to the State Department report to the Congress of July 26, 1986:

Information developed by the intelligence community indicates that a senior member of Eden Pastora's Sandino Revolutionary Front (FRS) agreed in late 1984 with (Morales) that FRS pilots would aid in transporting narcotics in exchange for financial assistance...the FRS official agreed to use FRS operational facilities in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to facilitate transportation of narcotics. (Morales) agreed to provide financial support to the FRS, in addition to aircraft and training for FRS pilots. After undergoing flight training, the FRS pilots were to continue to work for the FRS, but would also fly narcotics shipments from South America to sites in Costa Rica and Nicaragua for later transport to the United States. Shortly thereafter (Morales) reportedly provided the FRS one C-47 aircraft and two crated helicopters. He is reported to have paid the sum of $100,000 to the FRS, but there was no information available on who actually received the money.[72]

The State Department said it was aware of only one incident of drug trafficking resulting from this agreement between the Contras and Morales and that was the case of Contra pilot Gerardo Duran. Duran was arrested in January 1986, in Costa Rica for his involvement in transporting cocaine to the United States.[73] Duranwas an FRS pilot from 1982 to 1985 and operated an air taxi service in Costa Rica. According to Marco Aguado and Karol Prado, Duran would fly supplies to the Contras on the Southern Front and he would charge for each flight.[74]

Robert Owen, courier for Lt. Col. Oliver North, testified to the Iran/Contra Committees that he told North he thought Karol Prado was involved in trafficking drugs out of Panama, and that Pastora's pilot, Marco Aguado, was also involved.[75] The Subcommittee was unable to validate Owen's claims. Prado vehemently denied these allegations stating that he believed the drug trafficking allegations against Pastora were the result of a CIA effort to discredit him.[76]

Morales testified that his involvement with the Contras started in 1984 at the urging of Marta Healey, the widow of one of his drug pilots, Richard Healey.[77] Marta Healey's first husband was Adolfo "Popo" Chamorro, the second in command to Eden Pastora in the FRS. She came from a prominent Nicaraguan family.

At the time of his first contract, Morales was under indictment for marijuana smuggling. He testified that he thought by assisting the Contra cause his indictment would be dropped. Marta Healey introduced Morales to Popo Chamorro, Marco Aguado and Octaviano Cesar at a meeting in Miami. According to Morales, he wanted to make a deal: He would help the Contras with their needs, and "they in exchange would help me with my objective, which was solving my indictment." Morales believed the Contra leaders would help him solve his legal problems because of their contacts with the CIA.[78]

On October 31, 1987 in San Jose, Costa Rica, the Subcommittee videotaped the depositions of three Contra leaders with intimate knowledge of the Morales relationship with Pastora's organization in video depositions. The three were Karol Prado, Pastora's head of communications; Marco Aguado, Pastora's air force chief; and Octaviano Cesar who, along with his brother Alfredo, were political allies of Pastora's at the time. A fourth, Adolfo "Popo" Chamorro, who was Pastora's second in command in ARDE, testified in closed session of the Subcommittee in April 1988. Chamorro's testimony was taken in closed session by the consent of the Subcommittee at his request. Dick McCall, of Senator Kerry's personal staff, in an arrangement worked out with Chamorro and his attorneys, subsequently interviewed him in Miami.

Each denied knowing that Morales was under indictment for drug trafficking when they first met him at Marta Healey's house in Miami. Popo Chamorro said that as far as he knew Morales was just another rich Miami resident with strong anti-Communist feelings.[79]

In addition, all three denied receiving more than $10,000 in cash from Morales. The Subcommittee found that $10,000 was given to Popo Chamorro to cover the cost of transporting a C-47 owned byMorales, which he donated to ARDE, from Haiti to Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador.[80]

While denying receiving funds personally, Prado, Aguado and Cesar each confirmed elements of Morales' story.

According to Prado, Octaviano Cesar and his brother Adolfo allied themselves politically with Pastora in the Summer of 1984. A decision was then made to send Popo Chamorro and Octaviano Cesar to the United States to look for funds.[81] In September, Popo Chamorro returned to Costa Rica with photographs of a DC-4 and a Howard plane, and told Pastora that they would get six more planes, including a Navajo Panther from George Morales.[82]

Pastora told Chamorro that the C-47 was the most practical plane for the Contras at the time and Popo returned to Miami to arrange for its transfer. Chamorro provided the Subcommittee with an aircraft purchase order, dated October 1, 1984. The notarized purchase order provided that for the sum of one dollar, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-3, the civilian designation for a C-47, would be transferred to Marco Aguado. The order was signed by George Morales, as the seller, and by Marco Aguado, as the purchaser.

In addition, Chamorro gave the Subcommittee a list of flights made by that C-47 to ferry arms from Ilopango to Costa Rica and La Penca. Between October 18, 1984 and February 12, 1986, some 156,000 pounds of material were moved from Ilopango to air fields in Costa Rica. Of the 24 flights during this period, eleven were to La Penca on the Nicaraguan side of the Rio San Juan.[83]

The Subcommittee substantiated key elements of the Morales story, although it did not find evidence that Cesar, Chamorro, or Prado were personally involved in drug trafficking. First, all witnesses agreed that Morales gave ARDE a C-47. Evidence of an association between them is also provided by a Customs document. This document, provided to the Committee by the U.S. Customs Service, shows that Morales entered the United States from the Bahamas on October 13, 1984, with Marco Aguado, Octaviano Cesar and Popo Chamorro. They carried $400,000 in cash and checks which were declared by Aguado, Chamorro and Cesar. They claimed that the checks and money were returned to Morales after clearing Customs.[84]

Aguado summarized the relationship between the Southern Front Contras and the drug traffickers in terms of the exploitation of the Contra movement by individuals involved in narcotics smuggling. According to Aguado, the trafficking organizations, "took advantage of the anti-communist sentiment which existed in Central America ... and they undoubtedly used it for drug trafficking." Referring to the Contra resupply operations, Aguado said the traffickers used "the same connections, the same air strips, the same people. And maybe they said that it was weapons for Eden Pastora, and it was actually drugs that would later on go to the U.S.... They fooled people ... Unfortunately, this kind of ac-tivity, which is for the freeing of a people, is quite similar to the activities of the drug traffickers."[85]

Octaviano Cesar testified that when he dealt with Morales he was:

Thinking in terms of the security of my country. It just didn't enter my mind that I would become involved in such a mess, because it never entered into my mind to get in that [drug] business ...

I went a couple of times inside in Nicaragua and I saw people there. Young kids 15, 16 years old, they were carrying 30, 40 rounds of ammunition against the Sandinistas ... And that's why I did it. I'm not proud of it, but I just didn't have any choice. I mean, the U.S. Congress didn't give us any choice. They got these people into a war. The people went inside of Nicaragua, 80 miles inside. They had thousands of supporters, campesinos there helping them ... Now, when those people retreat, those campesinos were murdered by the Sandinistas. I don't want that, but that's the reality of life.[86]

In addition, Cesar told the Subcommittee that he told a CIA officer about Morales and his offer to help the Contras.

Senator KERRY. Did you have occasion to say to someone in the CIA that you were getting money from him and you were concerned he was a drug dealer? Did you pass that information on to somebody?

Mr. CESAR. Yes, I passed the information on about the--not the relations--well, it was the relations and the airplanes; yes. And the CIA people at the American military attache's office that were [sic] based at Ilopango also, and any person or any plane landed there, they had to go----

Senator KERRY. And they basically said to you that it was all right as long as you don't deal in the powder; is that correct? Is that a fair quote?

Mr. CESAR. Yes.[87]

After the La Penca bombing of May 30, 1984, all assistance was cut off by the CIA to ARDE, while other Contra groups on both fronts continued to receive support from the U.S. government through a variety of channels. The United States stated that the cut-off of ARDE was related to the involvement of its personnel in drug trafficking. Yet many of the same drug traffickers who had assisted ARDE were also assisting other Contra groups that continued to receive funding. Morales, for example, used Gerardo Duran as one of his drug pilots, and Duran worked for Alfonso Robello and Fernando "el Negro" Chamorro, who were associated with other Contra groups, as well as for ARDE.[88]

In a sworn deposition which was taken in San Jose Costa Rica by the Subcommittee on October 31, 1987, Karol Prado, Pastora's treasurer and procurement officer, vehemently denied allegationsconcerning the personal involvement of ARDE leadership in drug trafficking. Prado said that because of Pastora's problems with the U.S. government, it was his belief that the CIA was attempting to discredit the former Sandinista Commandante and his supporters in ARDE with allegations that they were involved in drug trafficking.[89]

Thomas Castillo, the former CIA station chief in Costa Rica, who was indicted in connection with the Iran/Contra affair, testified before the Iran/Contra Committees that when the CIA became aware of narcotics trafficking by Pastora's supporters and lieutenants, those individuals' activities were reported to law enforcement officials.[90] However, Morales continued to work with the Contras until January 1986. He was indicted for a second time in the Southern District of Florida for a January 1986 cocaine flight to Bahamas and was arrested on June 12, 1986.

Morales testified that he offered to cooperate with the government soon after he was arrested, and that he was willing to take a lie detector test. He said his attorneys repeated the offer on his behalf several times, but on each occasion the U.S. Attorney, Leon Kellner, refused.[91]

Leon Kellner and Richard Gregorie, then the head of the criminal division of the Miami U.S. Attorney's office, met with the staff of the Committee in November 1986. They said that Morales' story was not credible and that Morales was trying to get his sentence reduced by cooperating with a Senate committee. As Morales had not yet been sentenced, both Kellner and Gregorie discouraged the staff from meeting with Morales at that time, and the staff respected their request. Kellner and Gregorie said that Morales was like the many Miami cocaine traffickers who use the "I was working for the CIA" defense.[92]

Following his testimony before the Subcommittee, Morales renewed his offer to work with the government. This time, federal law enforcement officials decided to accept the offer. Morales provided the government with leads that were used by law enforcement authorities in connection with matters remaining under investigation. In November 1988, the DEA gave Morales a lengthy polygraph examination on his testimony before the Subcommittee and he was considered truthful.[93]