Categories
· Cross-Border/Crime
non-USA, by Country
· Aruba
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Jump to full article: Montreal Gazette (ca), 2001-03-05
Author: WILLIAM MARSDEN / of The Gazette and The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Intro: [This reprise of a part of the CPI report contains graphics of some of the documents--gb]
The chief purveyors of tobacco through Colombia's "backdoor ports" were two powerful Aruba families by the names of Mansur and Harms.
For more than 50 years, Philip Morris's main distributor in Latin America was the Mansur Free Zone Trading Co. NV. (The company's name changed to Glossco in 1999 after years of unwelcome scrutiny. U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1996 publicly identified Aruba "as a major drug-transit country" and noted: "A substantial portion of the free zone's businesses in Aruba are owned and operated by members of the Mansur family, who have been indicted in the United States on charges of conspiracy to launder trafficking proceeds.")
British American Tobacco, in the meantime, used the services of Roy Harms's Romar Free Zone Trading Co. NV as its distributor for parts of Latin America, and RJ Reynolds worked with cousin Bryan Harms, who figured in the Canadian smuggling in the early 1990s.
In August 1994, the United States indicted cousins Eric and Alex Mansur along with 52 others allegedly involved in a massive drug-money laundering enterprise. The investigation, dubbed Operation Golden Trash, targeted an alleged conspiracy that used narco dollars to purchase cigarettes, alcohol and household electronics, which were sold to individuals and businesses in Colombia. The proceeds flowed to cocaine barons.
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