Registered 'Owner' Appears To Be A Front
Quiz: what's the connection between the CIA... a dummy front
company... and a cocaine-packed, Gulfstream II business jet that
crashed in the Yucatan jungle several weeks ago?
The Associated Press reports the crashed plane's flight logs
listed several visits to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; once from
Oxford, CT, and once from Washington, DC.
Some news reports wonder what the aircraft, with tail number
N987SA, was doing flying into highly restricted airspace. They also
pondered whether there's a link to "rendition," as the feds call
it: the transport of suspected terrorists to the island's US
detention center.
Back south of the border, Mexican officials seized 132 bags of
cocaine weighing 3.7 tons from the blue and white jet, which
reportedly belongs to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Some Mexicans
reportedly revere Guzman, viewing him as a local Robin Hood,
divvying up some of the drug cash to the poor.
"The cocaine was to be delivered to El Chapo," an official in
the Mexican attorney general's office charges. Speaking on
condition of anonymity, he admits, "We do know it was from
Colombia."
The Mexican pilot and two other suspects are in custody, Mexican
authorities say. Officials add that two of the suspects even tried
bribing their way out of the hoosegow, offering to cut a deal
giving them back the cocaine and freeing any crewmembers.
Meanwhile, the Mad Cow Morning News wonders if the jet might
have been used by "The Boys" at Langley.
"When it comes to registering airplanes, it's the Wild West out
there," an aviation executive in Venice, FL said.
"The FAA system for registering airplanes is little-changed from
when it was started back in the good ol boy days of the 1930's.
Each plane has a paper folder, for example, stuffed with all
correspondence regarding airworthiness and ownership relating to
that plane," the source notes.
"It's an antiquated system which some feel is kept deliberately
in place to encourage a certain ambiguity when a plane is
interdicted. When a change of registration is mailed in, the FAA
places a plane's folder in what they call 'suspense.'"
And speaking of 'suspense'... curiosity over the aircraft's true
identity and owners only deepened when reporters visited registered
owner "Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc. " of Coconut Beach FL. They were
greeted by an "empty office suite with a blank sign out front."
Adding to the strangeness at the offices on 4811 Lyons
Technology Parkway #8 in Coconut Beach, were the six unmarked
police cars parked directly out front. Butters Development, the
industrial park's leasing agent, did not return calls, according to
the report.
And the topper? Donna Blue's Internet page appears to be only a
roughed-out mock-up, with no clear identifying details... save a
dubious "testimonial" by a satisfied customer, named -- get this --
"John Doe." Listed phone number: 415-555-5555.
But, save your dime. You can be sure that it's not a real
number.