Celerino "Cele" Castillo is a former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Special Agent stationed in Central America during the 1980s. During his years in El Salvador and Guatemala, Castillo was an eye-witness to drug and arms trafficking operations supervised by the CIA on behalf of the FDN -- the Nicaraguan Contras. C-123 transports regularly flew into El Salvador's Ilopango Air Base; weapons from the U.S. were exchanged for vast quantities of cocaine, a cozy arrangement with profits for all.
TARPLEY: What did George Bush know, and when did he know it?
CASTILLO: Before my arrival in Guatemala, we had received intelligence that the Contras were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Basically, I was forewarned by the country attache' in Guatemala, Bob Stia, upon my arrival, that there was a covert operation being conducted by the White House, and run by Oliver North at Ilopango in El Salvador.
TARPLEY: So this was your official superior in the DEA?
CASTILLO: That's correct.
TARPLEY: And the first thing he did when you arrived in the country was to tell you: Look, this is now the scene of a covert operation with Oliver North, and they're running drugs.
CASTILLO: That's correct, and since we had obtained intelligence already about the Contras being heavily involved in narcotics trafficking, he advised me to stay away from it and not to get involved in the investigation, because that would mean that if I started reporting that information to Washington, I would be kicked out of El Salvador and Guatemala very quickly.
TARPLEY: Now, when you say the "Contras," does that mean “all” the Contras? Were there groups that were more into it, that were less into it? Was there Calero, were there others in that group?
CASTILLO: It was a universal thing. The DEA refused to accept that answer, but we had intelligence gathered from all parts of Central and South America in regard to the narcotics trafficking going on. We had cables from the country attache', Bobby Nieves in Costa Rica, advising us to look into Hangars 4 and 5 at Ilopango. And of course, Hangars 4 and 5 were bought and paid for by the U.S. government -- the CIA and the National Security Council.
TARPLEY: Ilopango Airport: What is that? Is that a large commercial airport?
CASTILLO: No. Ilopango Airport is the military airport with civilian small planes that arrive at Ilopango. And it's a military base, but most international pilots who fly small planes get to arrive at Ilopango.
TARPLEY: Tell us what the atmosphere was at Ilopango in the middle of this Contra dirty war, 1985, '86, '87.
CASTILLO: We had major narcotics trafficking going through Ilopango from Costa Rica, which is further south. We had obtained a lot of intelligence. We had an informant placed at Ilopango who actually did the flight plans for the Contra pilots, and everybody spoke freely about the loads that they carried, the monies that they took to the Bahamas and to Panama for laundering.
All this was reported to the U.S. Embassy, to the CIA, to Washington, DEA headquarters; and nobody wanted to do anything about it.
TARPLEY: Tell me just briefly: what kinds of planes were these, where were they coming from, where were they going?
CASTILLO: The cable that we received from Costa Rica in April of 1986 came in from the country attache', Bobby Nieves, like I stated before, and was for us to check Hangars 4 and 5, that they had very reliable information pertaining to the trafficking from around Central and South America into those two hangars.
It turned out that of those two hangars, one was run by the CIA, and the other one was run by Felix Rodriguez, who ran the Contra operation at Ilopango.
TARPLEY: These, then, were not jets that you would see at an American airfield, but these were smaller planes?
CASTILLO: Yes, smaller planes, like Caravans, Pipers, Cessnas. They were coming in without being inspected by the Customs officials, or anybody else.
As it turned out, the informant who did the flight plans actually gave us copies of all the flight plans of all these Contra pilots, and when we ran checks on the names of all these pilots, they were all documented in DEA files as narco-traffickers. Yet they were being hired by the CIA, Felix Rodriguez, and everybody else, who were trying to obtain U.S. visas for them to go to the U.S. -- even though they were documented traffickers.
TARPLEY: So, these planes would then fly north. Could they make it all the way to Miami?
CASTILLO: They would go to Miami, they would go to Texas. They were going to California; anywhere that they were able.
For example, a Contra pilot was arrested in late '85 in south Texas with five-and-a-half million dollars cash. It was Contra money. You know, you carry credentials from the President of El Salvador, from the Chief of Staffs in El Salvador, the Chief of the Air Force and so forth; they were all very well protected, and every single pilot talked about how they had permission to run narcotics, because they were working for the Oliver North Contra operation.
TARPLEY: Now, you've mentioned Felix Rodriguez, Max Gomez... Certainly, Felix Rodriguez has been with George Bush for a very, very long time, and what you can see in that book is, he's got a signed photograph from George Bush telling him what a great patriot he is. Would you agree with that judgement on Felix Rodriguez/Max Gomez?
CASTILLO: No, sir. If you go back to the Vietnam War, we have intelligence where the CIA and those individuals were heavily involved in trafficking heroin into the U.S. in bodybags and so forth.
So, Felix Rodriguez was documented, in our DEA files, as a trafficker. He was a retired CIA agent, and they brought all these people who were heavily involved. If you go back, most of these Bay of Pigs operatives were all documented traffickers, who all served time for narcotics trafficking, for gun-running. They were all criminals; yet, they were being hired by the Oliver North Contra operation to run the illegal narcotics trafficking out of Ilopango [Airport].
TARPLEY: Now, Felix Rodriguez has a DEA file.
CASTILLO: That's correct, sir. I myself documented him involved in trafficking with the Contras, and so forth.
TARPLEY: Does Oliver North have a DEA file?
CASTILLO: That's correct, sir. As a matter of fact, there's a 1991 file on Oliver North for smuggling weapons from the U.S. into the Philippines with known narcotics traffickers, and I'm talking about a 1991 case. I'm not going back to the Contra issue.
TARPLEY: This is “after” the television appearance, after the great 1987 celebrity parade?
CASTILLO: That's correct, sir. Absolutely.
TARPLEY: Can you make a Freedom of Information Act request, to get hold of Oliver North's DEA file?
CASTILLO: I tried that already, and they cited the privacy act. I asked for my own files, that I wrote on the Contras and different individuals, and these requests were denied.
http://www.wethepeople.la/castillo.htm
DRAFT INDICTMENT PAPERS filed against President George H.W Bush
by DEA AGENT CERELINO CASTILLO
********************************************************
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
__________________________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
vs.
GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH
INDICTMENT
Racketeering 18 USC ? 1961et seq.
Conspiracy to Import Narcotics 21 USC ?? 952 & 963
Continuing Criminal Enterprise 21 USC ? 848
Conspiracy To Obstruct Justice 18 USC ? 1503
Conspiracy To Obstruct Congress 18 USC ? 1505
THE ENTERPRISE
1. At all times relevant to this Indictment, there existed an Enterprise, within the meaning of Title 18, USC, Section 1961 (4), that is, a group of individuals associated in fact which utilized the official positions of defendant GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH in the Government of the United States of American to facilitate the transfer, importation, and distribution of large quantities of illegal narcotics within the United States.
2. The members of the Enterprise consisted of the defendant herein named and others, including international drug traffickers, who utilized the Enterprise and the official positions of GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, DONALD P. GREGG, and OLIVER L. NORTH to facilitate their narcotics and money-laundering operations.
ROLE IN THE ENTERPRISE
1. From January 1981 to January 1989, George Bush was Vice President of the United States, and from January 1989 to January 1993, Bush was President of the United States.
2. Beginning in 1981 and up until 1989, while he was Vice President of the United States, Bush assumed extraordinary power over U.S. intelligence and covert operations. This was done through a series of Executives Orders and National Security Decision Directives (NSDDs) signed by President Ronald Reagan.
3. On Dec. 14, 1981, President Reagan signed NSDD-3 on ?Crisis Management,? which designated the Vice President chairman of the Special Situation Group (SSG), responsible for crisis management.
4. On January 12, 1982, President Reagan signed NSDD-2, which reaffirmed the existence of various interagency groups to deal with intelligence and covert operations. Under the interpretation of this document promoted by Bush, the SSG superseded and pre-empted the powers of the National Security Council in areas of ?crisis management,? which encompassed covert operations and counter-terrorism.
5. On Jan. 28, 1982, Bush was put in charge of the South Florida Task Force on drugs.
6. On May 14, 1982, a standing Crisis Pre-Planning Group (CPPG 1 and 2) was established under the SSG. The SSG-CPPG, under Bush, was given responsibility for any area in which a ?potential crisis? could emerge, and was charged with developing ?preemptive policy options? for dealing with such a potential crisis.
7. On April 10, 1982, NSDD-30, on ?Managing Terrorist Incidents,? was issued, giving the Vice President control over the convening of the SSG, and creating the ?Terrorist Incident Working Group? (TIWG) to support the SSG.
8. On March 23, 1983, Bush took charge of the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System (NNBIS).
9. In July 1985, the Vice President?s Terrorism Task Force was created, headed by Bush.
10. In Feb. 1986, the Terrorism Task Force issued its report, creating the Operations Sub-Group, officially a sub-group of the TIWG, and also creating a permanent counter-terrorism office located in the NSC staff, headed by Oliver North, but ultimately controlled and directed by Bush.
11. In August 1986, Bush became the chief of ?Operation Alliance,? an anti-narcotics effort to be conducted in cooperation with Mexico.
Thus from Dec. 1981 to August 1986, Bush had consolidated his control over virtually aspect of U.S. covert operations, as well as every agency dealing with drug interdiction. Never before in peacetime in our country?s history had one man assumed as much power as Bush exercised while Vice President.
PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE ENTERPRISE
1. In 1982, the first in a series of "Boland Amendments" was passed by the U.S. Congress sharply curtailing the available funding from the U.S. government to the Nicaraguan Contras (hereafter "The Contras"). To make up for this loss of funding, defendant BUSH entered into an agreement with the Columbian drug cartels to exhange guns for drugs. The proceeds of the drug sales in turn were used to secretly fund the Contras. In order to accomplish this, the Enterprise, through its vast connections, made arrangements to make the cocaine it received for guns affordable and readily available to the ghettos across America. This would come in the form of "rock," which is more commonly known as crack cocaine.
OVERT ACTS
1. In the summer of 1981, Norwin Meneses and Oscar Blandon traveled to Honduras to meet with contra leader Enrique Bermudez, and Bermudez instructed Meneses and Blandon to establish a funding mechanism for the Contras on the West Coast of the United States.
2. During 1981, Meneses and Blandon imported and sold over 2000 pounds of cocaine in California.
3. During 1983, Blandon, Meneses, and others began to sell and distribute crack cocaine in Los Angeles, derived from cocaine imported from Colombia via El Salvador and Costa Rica. Much of this cocaine was flown into the U.S. by Marcos Aquado, operating from Ilopango air base in El Salvador.
4. On or about March 6, 1984, George Morales was indicted for drug smuggling. A few weeks after that, Morales met with certain Contra leaders in south Florida, Popo Chomorro and Octaviano Ceasar, whom he identified as CIA agents. They told Morales they would help him with his legal problems if he helped them with weapons and explosives and other items. The Contra leaders agreed to supply Morales with drugs, which he would sell then purchase supplies for the Contras.
5. In March 1984, ***** ****, who had been rejected as an informant by local agencies, traveled to Washington to the offices of the Vice President?s Task Force on Drugs. The Task Force directed the DEA to retain **** as an informant and to allow him to keep his property and assets, and to allow him to continue to smuggle drugs from Central America into Louisiana and Arkansas, among other places.
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Former DEA Agent speaks on George H.W Bush ,Iran Contra affair , Ricky Ross affair...
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