Federal public defender for the Southern District of Florida, John Mattes, claims that contra arms suppliers appear to have had a carte blanche to smuggle drugs and to load and unload planeloads of weapons at Florida airports without interference from customs officials or officials from a host of other law enforcement agencies. Steven Carr, who claims to have been an operative for the contra network, told Mattes and Ron Rosenblith, an aide to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), that on March 6, 1985, he loaded a shipment of arms headed for Costa Rica in broad daylight at the Ft. Lauderdale airport.  

But customs officials suggested to In These Times that the arms could have slipped through because the agency doesn't have the necessary personnel to go through every private plane and check every box. "There's no possible way we can surveil every aircraft and every body," Cliff Stallings, U .S. Customs public information officer for the Southeast region, told In These Times. We would have to hire half the population of the U.S. in order to examine every item of cargo and every container."  

But Carr told Mattes and Rosenblith that the weapons -- which included mortar tubes and M-16s -- were not packed in boxes. In one instance, a 14-foot 20mm cannon had to be loaded onto the plane with a forklift.  

George Morales, who identified himself to In These Times as a contra supporter and a network operative, is currently in Miami's Metropolitan Correctional Center and is being held without bond on charges that he conspired to smuggle as much as 1,500 kilograms of cocaine into south Florida. In an interview he said that he was "supplying aircraft and training pilots" for the contra network as well as flying supplies and materiel to the contras in Costa Rica. Morales said that he had "no comment" when asked if he was on the alleged March 6, 1985, contra flight to Ilopango airport in El Salvador, but that "on some particular days we were loading the planes for two days and there were U.S. officials around and aware of it and never the planed were touched. Never."  

Former Dade County Deputy Sheriff Jesus Garcia, who also claims to have been an operative in the contra supply network, said that on March 6, 1985, he helped Carr load into vans the shipment of loose weapons that were destined for the contras' southern front in Costa Rica. Garcia, who is currently serving a three-year jail term for illegal possession of a firearm (see story on page 10), said that not only did customs know about the arms shipments, but they assisted the contra supporters loading the plane.  

Said Garcia, "Customs agents came out to help load the arms right underneath the tower at Ft. Lauderdale airport." John Mattes, Garcia's attorney during his trial, said he is highly skeptical of assertions by customs agents that they were too busy to make the necessary search. "It's not as if they were trying to slip an envelope onto the plane in the dead of the night," said Mattes. "You tell me that any customs agent within 100 yards, within 200 yards, couldn't notice that they were loading artillery?  

"The presence at south Florida airports of law enforcement is incredible," he said. "If you or I wanted to leave Florida on a flight where you wouldn't file a flight plan, where you didn't have your plane scrutinized upon leaving and where you paid for the flight in cash, you or I would probably be hit by four or five law enforcement agencies before we got off the ground."  

Yet Carr told Mattes and Rosenblith that this was exactly the situation on March 6 when he and Rene Corbo, another alleged pro-contra operative, loaded large amounts of weapons on a plane bound for Ilopango airport in El Salvador. Mattes said the plane was owned by Florida Air Transport, a private charter service, and was paid for in cash.  

Said Mattes, "To say that you can take a flight out of south Florida, load cannons in broad daylight and not have anyone come and ask you what you have been doing, or if you have the proper papers and clearance, leads me to the conclusion that someone is allowing this to go on."