Drug king's copter hints at scope of his empire
Aircraft seized in Seattle opens crack in secrecy
By DANE SCHILLER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 20, 2010, 9:42AM

In his deal with the U.S. government, imprisoned Mexican drug cartel king Osiel Cardenas Guillen surrendered a $1.3 million helicopter dubiously parked in Washington state — the first public clue his massive syndicate shuttles cocaine into the Great White North.

A judge in Houston ordered the AS350 B3 helicopter — the same type to land for the first time on Mount Everest's summit — be forfeited, part of a deal in which former Gulf Cartel boss Cardenas must hand over $50 million and tell what he knows about drug crimes.

Unlike millions in cash he's forked over in the Texas-Mexico border city of Brownsville — the heart of the cartel's home turf — the helicopter was seized in Spokane close to Canada, and it provides yet more evidence that Cardenas is offering up information on people who did business with his empire.

According to court records, Cardenas concedes buying the aircraft with drug proceeds and keeping it in other people's names, even though when it was imported and purchased from Japan, he was in a maximum security prison in Mexico.

He never set eyes on the aircraft with tail number N61EH.

Agents interviewed people coast to coast, and likely in Canada and Guatemala.

Eurocopter calls the copter a high-performance craft for hot climate and high altitude.

"As the matter is still under investigation, we are unable to confirm or discuss any other details of the case," said Lloyd Easterling, spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, which has the bird.

The same goes for the $27 million in cash Cardenas gave up in 10 installments.

Keeping silent
Secrecy is the standard in the Cardenas prosecution. He privately pleaded guilty and was sentenced behind locked courtroom doors in Houston. Prosecutors have not granted a single interview about the case since he was extradited from Mexico in 2007.

"They are looking for all the people, all the assets, and they don't want them to suddenly disappear," said Larry Karson, a retired Customs Service agent, now a criminal justice lecturer at the University of Houston Downtown.

"The feds don't want to talk about it, because the moment they do the chances of assets disappearing increases exponentially," he said.

A Houston Chronicle review shows that until February, the helicopter was registered to a Canadian company .

U.S. agents interviewed people associated with the helicopter as recently as last month in Washington and as far back as four years ago in New York, where they questioned people about why the aircraft was making unauthorized fights into Mexico.

Staff Sgt. David Goddard, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Mexican cartels do business with Canadian traffickers that use helicopters. Cocaine goes north and potent Canada-grown marijuana goes south to be sold in the United States, he said.

"We have gangs that will deal with the Mexican cartels, but they will go down there and deal with them," he said.

Last year, a Canadian helicopter pilot hanged himself in a Spokane, Wash., jail rather than face prison for trafficking.

Not in his name
None of the helicopter documents is in Cardenas' name, though the aircraft blazes quite a paperwork trail. Interviews and records indicate it was quickly owned or operated by at least five companies in the United States and has been based out of Canada, Guatemala and perhaps the Bahamas.

A helicopter salesman, speaking on the condition his name not be printed, said he spoke with agents in Washington a few weeks ago. He said that in 2006, the aircraft was sold by his firm to a brokerage company.

"We were only told it was going to Texas," he recalled. "It was a strange sale, I'll tell you that."

"When you sell a helicopter or an airplane, you kind of know who is buying it and what they'll use it for; that was not the case with that helo. In this case, it was very vague."

Paper trail
Eagle Helicopters of Spokane imported the helicopter, which sold it to Allied Aircraft Sales and Leasing, registered in Delaware, according to records. From there it went to Paradise Island Helicopters, which did business in Florida before being exported to Guatemala, a refuge for cartel figures fleeing Mexico's military. Then, in 2008, it was registered in Canada, again to a company named Allied.

At one point, federal agents came to Serge Gasparini's home in New York. They were looking for his daughter, owner of Paradise Island Helicopters.

"So all of a sudden, these FBI agents happened to come to the door," he recalled. "They had these questions about this helicopter making unscheduled flights to Mexico," he continued. "She said, 'I know nothing about it.' "

Her now ex-husband had put the business and helicopter in her name, Gasparini said.

Reached by the Chronicle, Trevor Moore said it was "effectively sold years and years ago, leased" to a man from McAllen, and he hadn't seen it since. He couldn't immediately recall the man's name.

Karson, the retired customs agent, said smugglers will go to extremes to cover their tracks.

"One of their problems is the paper trail of aircraft, so they'll play Three Card Monte with purchases and sales trying to conceal true ownership," he said.

dane.schiller@chron.com
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A CHOPPER'S LIFE
The fast life of Helicopter N61EH:

• February 2006: Sold by Japanese company to Eagle Helicopter, of Spokane, WA

• March 2006: Sold by Eagle to Allied Aircraft Sales and Leasing, Delaware

• April 2006 : Sold by Allied to Paradise Island Helicopter, Florida

• December 2007: Exported to Guatemala

• December 2009: Registered to Allied Aircraft Sales Inc, Canada

• April 2010: Seized by U.S. government in Spokane

• June 2010: Houston judge issues order to forfeit helicopter

Sources: FAA, Canadian government records, U.S. court documents
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