Mystery Aircraft -- Duke? DeLay??? Who else? What else???
Obwon
OWNERS OF DC9 SEIZED WITH 5.5 TONS OF
COCAINE INCLUDE TOM DELAY APPOINTEE,
FLORIDA FIRM "ROYAL SONS LLC"
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"Congressman Tom Delay, Majority Leader, has
appointed Brent C Kovar to serve as the Honorary
Chairman, Business Advisory Council,” read the
headline of an August 7, 2003 release from
PrimeZone Media newswire and press
release service.
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Mystery Aircraft
http://www.madcowprod.com/05022006.html
Quote:
Mystery of 5.5 Ton Coke Flight Deepens
The CIA, 'Cocaine One' & Putting Planes in Suspense
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
May 2 2006--Venice,FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker
In the two weeks since an American DC9 airliner was
busted by Mexican troops at a small airport in the
Yucatan, carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine packed neatly
into 128 identical black suitcases (somewhat hilariously
marked 'private') the search for the true owners of the
plane has produced these startling new developments...
The busted DC9, dubbed "Cocaine One" in an earlier
story, had an identical twin, a second airliner painted
with the same distinctive blue-and-white-with-gold-trim
of official U.S. aircraft, the MadCowMorningNews can
reveal exclusively, and under the control of the same
company. Or Company.
SkyWay Aircraft was the only tangible asset of SkyWay
Communications Holding, a firm whose existence served
as nothing more than a meager excuse to run a penny
stock fraud scam, successfully relieving investors of
over $40 million dollars in only three years.
During 2003 and 2004, both DC9's controlled by the firm
(N-numbers N900SA & N120NE) boasted an official-looking
Seal beside the door bearing the familiar image of an
American eagle clutching olive branches and arrows
in its talons, around which were emblazoned the
words "SKYWAY AIRCRAFT, PROTECTION OF
AMERICA'S SKIES."
A cover story should at least provide a little, you
know...cover
The Seal and paint job made the planes look like they
belong to Homeland Security, specifically the TSA
(Transportation Security Administration.)
The tricked-out airliners were supposedly used to
perform in-flight demonstrations of the spiffy new
technology of SKYWAY AIRCRAFT and its corporate
parent SKYWAY COMMUNICATIONS HOLDING CORP.
That could not, however, have been the true purpose
of the planes.
SkyWay said it's patented technology promised to
protect airplanes from terrorism, and provide
high-speed Internet at 30,000 feet. To the shock
and anger of investors who lost 30-40 million dollars,
it did nothing of the kind.
Even a cursory inspection of the company and its
principals quickly reveals that SkyWay had no
products, no prospects, and nothing to
demonstrate.
What they did have, though... were a couple of
airliners masquerading as official U.S. Government
planes.
Imagine the possibilities.
Vancouver stock scams make a sudden appearance
in our tale
SkyWay Aircraft wasn't in the business of in-flight
entertainment or Homeland Security, we discovered.
They were in the business of putting out press
releases.
We wondered: were we being too harsh? Had the
company’s management merely been over-enthusiastic,
overly-optimistic, or mis-informed? Not a chance...
Glenn and Brent Kovar, a father-and-son pair of
scamsters and penny stock fraud specialists, "ran"
(we used the word advisedly) SkyWay. They had
run the same scam several years earlier with
similarly gratifying (for them) results.
The firm was called Satellite Access Systems, (SAS)
which, as best we can figure, ended up being worth
about three one-thousands of a penny per share.
The Vancouver Sun linked them to a Vancouver
stock promoter who was kicked off the Vancouver
Stock Exchange, Rene Hamouth, and a U.S. promoter
described by Forbes magazine as a "persuasive
scoundrel" found guilty of "awarding himself
millions in excessive compensation, siphoning off
company funds to cover personal expenses, and
diverting company assets."
But, as they say in TV-land: Here's the beauty
part...Chairman Glenn Kovar liked to boast about
his long-standing ties to the CIA.
We took the Seal off. Forget about the Seal.
Frederic Geffon from Royal Sons LLC, the Florida air
charter company which the FAA listed as the last
registered American owner of "Cocaine One," was
happy to talk about Brent and Glenn Kovar's most
recent (last year) bankruptcy.
"Their company is a scam and he’s a scammer. I
got sold a bill of goods about his stock. Everybody
out here at the (Clearwater-St. Pete International)
airport invested with him, and we all lost it all."
In an exclusive interview, Geffon was quick to point
out that the DC9 was no longer his concern when it
left the general aviation terminal at Clearwater-St.
Pete on April 5th heading for Caracas and its
ignominious rendezvous with destiny.
Moreover, he told us, the phony Homeland Security
Seal was no longer on it, a statement confirmed by
photos of the plane taken in Mexico after its interdiction
(see photo above.)
'N' numbers are like car registrations, only not as
precise It ranks as one of the Top Ten Drug Seizures
in World History.
But among the numerous mysteries surrounding
the case is the question of why a story of a mountain
of cocaine headed straight downhill towards the
American market had been received by U.S. officials
and the major media with such stony silence.
U.S. authorities have made no statements identifying
the organization involved in the massive drug move.
Nor have they addressed serious questions with
obvious national security implications.
Why was an airliner allowed to impersonate an official
Dept of Homeland Security aircraft? How did it then
end up being owned by crooks boasting of American
intelligence connections... and involved in drug
smuggling?
Most importantly... On whose behalf did all that
coke take wing?
Youth wants to know.
'Cocaine One' not a fit subject for polite company
Even the identity of the co-pilot arrested with the
plane (the pilot escaped, natch) remains a mystery,
though initial news reports confirmed his name as
one of the few actual known facts in the case.
A theory was being floated by Venezuelan officials
this week that the airliner had switched crews
somewhere after leaving Caracas but before being
busted in Ciudad del Carmen in Mexico's state of
Campeche.
You could almost hear the sound of creaking leather
on the shoes of officials back-pedaling away from the
case as fast as their little feet could carry them.
How is it that the owner of an airliner carrying 5.5 tons
of cocaine remains unidentified?
Nobody’s saying. Not the FAA. And not the former owner
of the plane, who could tell... but refuses to divulge to
whom it was sold.
According to FAA registration information available
online at the time the story broke 'Cocaine One' was
registered to Frederic Geffon's Royal Sons LLC.
That statement was rendered inoperative several days
later when the FAA announced the DC9 had been
retroactively “delisted and exported to Venezuela."
All the way from Oklahoma City, you could hear the
sound of little FAA feet, backpedaling furiously.
"The FAA been berry berry good to me"
An email from an FAA official did nothing to clear up
the confusion.
“Our records show Douglas DC9-15, serial number
45775, formerly N900SA, was cancelled 04/13/2006,
for export to Venezuela. The aircraft was last
registered in the name of Royal Sons Inc, 15875
Fairchild Dr, Clearwater FL. The file will not be
available to be sent out until it is updated in
approximately 2 weeks.”
Had someone been caught with their hand in a cookie
jar which the FAA was helping them extricate?
Did the FAA’s refusal to release ownership records
for at least several more weeks indicate that the
question of who owned 'Cocaine One' is fated to
never be answered? Would it end up being like
other questions about equally inconvenient subjects,
like, say, the one about who had walked off with the
half-trillion dollars that “disappeared” during
America’s S & L Scandal?
Out at the Clearwater-St. Pete International Airport,
Royal Son’s owner Frederic Geffon could not agree
more with the FAA’s recent statement. It cleared
Royals Sons LLC from any responsibility for the
plane hauling tons of cocaine across the Caribbean
from Caracas to Mexico.
Like the song says: "It wasn't me"
In an exclusive interview with the MadCowMorningNews,
Geffon claimed he sold the DC9 weeks ago...
“I had nothing at all to do with the plane by the time
it was busted,” Geffon told us. “I sold it three weeks
ago (in late March) to an aircraft broker, on behalf of
someone in Venezuela.”
“The airplane was out of my name,” he continued. “I
sent a blank form to the title company. Another
airplane broker was also involved. It was delisted on
the same day as the incident."
On other questions, however, Geffon proved less
helpful.
Asked the name of the Venezuelan buyer he sold the
plane to, he responded, “I’m not at liberty to say. I’ve
been asked not to say to whom the plane was sold.”
Who asked him not to say?
“I’ve been asked not to say who asked me not to
say,” he said.
Place all of our folders in "suspense" too, please
Could he could tell us, then, who was piloting the
plane when it flew out of Clearwater?
“No, because I wasn’t looking out the window,” he
replied. “I was focused on business.”
Could the confusion be deliberate? An aviation
executive in Venice thought so...
"When it comes to registering airplanes, it’s the
Wild West out there," he explained.
“An airplane is a mobile, big ticket item. Yet there
are no airport police doing ramp checks, or
checking N numbers at airports.”
“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.”
“Its 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.”
“That’s a tremendous inducement to anyone
with a chance of having a plane nabbed to
keep floating sales in progress. The CIA, for
example, is very adept at keeping files on its
planes “in suspense.”
Did somebody say… CIA?
An airliner mistaken for one belonging to the
U.S. Government, said our aviation source in
Venice with a smirk, would have definitely
advantages for a drug smuggler.
But wait. There's more...
"One of us cannot be wrong"
“Glenn Kovar told everybody he was with the
CIA,” Frederic Geffon said. “A lot of people at
the airport believed him, and became investors
in his scam.”
The question of whether there might be a Central
Intelligence Agency connection to a plane loaded
with 5.5 tons of cocaine is, to some (you know who
you are) like asking if the Pope might be Catholic.
One of two things must be true: We are looking at
a pattern of systematic ambiguity meant to protect
the privacy of the rich and famous. To keep their
options open... A pattern which plays right into
the hands of the unscrupulous, namely drug
dealers, and/or, worse yet, terrorists.
Or... we're fantasizing, and what the FAA is
saying is true... is true, and 'Cocaine One'
has passed through several owners since it
was owned by the scamsters at SkyWay Aircraft,
in which case nothing about SkyWay is germane
to a story about 128 suitcases filled with cocaine
baking in the heat on a runway in the Yucatan.
If the FAA is telling the truth, we've been wasting
your time. You could have had a V8. Or been surfing
for internet porn.
Still here? Okay, we'll continue... But, fair warning:
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here...
Break up the Yankees, FEMA, & the FAA
What first taught us to take the word of the federal
agency which regulates aviation with at least a few
pinches of salt were the numerous occasions during
the research for Welcome to TERRORLAND where we
learned of big-time corruption inside the FAA.
The FAA went out of its way to protect terror flight
school honcho Rudi Dekkers, for example. An aviation
mechanic who worked for Dekkers said he'd been forced
by law to report criminal acts which he witnessed Dekkers
commit.
"Dekkers did an import of an airplane," the mechanic
explained. "We found dents on the front of a wing and
replaced sheet metal, and then we found ribs that were
crushed, which renders an airplane un-airworthy. Yet
Dekkers still sold the plane!"
"And when I turned him in to the FAA, they didn’t do a
damn thing."
A second brief example should suffice. It also involved
Rudi Dekkers. He had forged another aviation executive’s
signature on a repair order to indicate required repair
work on a helicopter had been completed. When that
executive discovered it, he told us, he too was legally
compelled to report it to the FAA.
"I couldn’t believe it,” he said indignantly. "I called the
FAA to report a violation and was warned to leave
Dekkers alone. An FAA guy came out and sat me down
and said: ‘I suggest you back out of this.'"
Of course, as we reported earlier, Frederic Geffon's
Royal Sons was listed with an address which traced
to Huffman Aviation's hanger at the Venice Airport.
Geffon, however, denies any responsibility for the
listing.
Deconstructing the official story
To recap... The official explanation so far appears to
be as follows:
"A shadowy and still-unnamed-but-obviously-very-unlucky
Venezuelan company bought a DC9 airliner that used to
use camouflage to appear to be a U.S. Government plane,
and then got caught with 5 tons of cocaine."
Those crazy Venezuelans! Muy stupido, non?
On the off chance that things are not what they seem
we had decided to take a look at who had owned the
plane before its epic flight...
The two DC9’s were purchased several years ago by
a still-unexplained partnership between Frederic
Geffon’s Royal Sons LLC and SkyWay Aircraft, the
only subsidiary of SkyWay Communications Holdings
Corp.
Given the level of intrigue surrounding the case, the
revelation that we are no longer talking about the
ownership of just one airliner tricked out to resemble
a government plane, but two, comes as something
less than a shock.
Why do we believe that the sordid tale of Skyway
Aircraft will be shown to have relevance to that of
the DC9 with enough cocaine to cut a line all the
way to heaven? The answer is simple: SkyWay
was responsible for painting two DC9's to look
like they belong to the US Dept of Homeland
Security.
This does not appear to us to be an innocent act.
Moreover, the planes were parked at the general
aviation terminal at the Clearwater St. Petersburg
Airport, just a few hundred yards away from a major
U.S. Coast Guard facility housed at the airport.
Yet—despite America’s hyper-security conscious
post-9.11 aviation environment—two airliners
conspicuously painted to resemble government
planes sat beside a facility of a branch of the U.S.
military...and aroused no suspicion.
How strange is that? We wanted to ask the Coast Guard
that question. And other ones too: Have they ever heard
of elite deviance, or deep politics, or state-sponsored
crime?
Alas, although we remain hopeful, our calls for comment
to the Coast Guard Station at the Clearwater-St Petersburg
Airport have not yet been returned.
Perhaps someone else might have better luck.
Thursday: The rest of the story. It gets even weirder.
OWNERS OF DC9 SEIZED WITH 5.5 TONS OF
COCAINE INCLUDE TOM DELAY APPOINTEE,
FLORIDA FIRM "ROYAL SONS LLC"
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
APRIL 17 2006--Venice,FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker
One of the two owners of the DC9 (tail number N900SA) busted at an
airport in Ciudad del Carmen in the state of Campeche, Mexico last
week freighted 5.5 tons of cocaine had been appointed in 2003 to the
Business Advisory Council of the National Republican Congressional
Committee by then-Congressional Majority Leader Tom Delay, The
MadCowMorningNews can exclusively report.
The plane's registered owner, “Royal Sons LLC,” a Florida air charter
company, was at one time housed in a hanger at the Venice Fl. Airport
owned by infamous flight school Huffman Aviation.
Also of major significance is the fact that photos of the DC9, seized
last Monday in Ciudad del Carmen, reveal that the plane is painted
with the distinctive blue and white color color scheme of official
U.S. Government planes.
Moreover, to reinforce the effect, or subterfuge, the plane carries an
official-looking Seal painted on its side, which reads: SKY WAY
AIRCRAFT, PROTECTION OF AMERICA'S SKIES, around an image of a federal
eagle clutching the familiar olive branch in its talons. Many have
been fooled into concluding that the plane belongs to the U.S.
Transportation Security Administration.
This has obvious and highly serious national security implications,
which go well beyond the obvious glee involved in playing political
"gotcha" with people caught face-down with their noses buried, Tony
Montana-style, in over five tons of cocaine.
Who, exactly, are the "Royal Sons?"
The DC9 was purchased several years ago in a partnership between
"Royal Sons Motor Yacht Sales, Inc. DBA Royal Sons" and a company
owned by Brent Kovar called Skyway Communications Holding Corp, which
jointly signed a loan with United Bank and Trust Company in St.
Petersburg, FL. for $1.5 million.
Skyway Communication's principal Kovar must have been looking well
forward to justify the purchase; the company was then in the middle of
losing $40 million in less than three years, between 2002 and its last
annual report before bankruptcy in January 2005.
Not that Tom DeLay seemed to mind. He and buddy Brent Kovar's press
release deserves special mention.
"Congressman Tom Delay, Majority Leader, has appointed Brent C Kovar
to serve as the Honorary Chairman, Business Advisory Council,” read
the headline of an August 7, 2003 release from PrimeZone Media
newswire and press release service.
The Business Advisory Council, explained the release, was part of the
National Republican Congressional Committee, “dedicated to making sure
that small business has a voice in Washington.”
Kovar was appointed “in recognition of his valuable contributions and
dedication to the Republican Party,” and was "expected to play a
crucial role in the party's efforts to involve top businesspeople in
the process of government reform both at the state and federal
levels."
While the release left the specific nature of Kovar's "crucial role in
the GOP' efforts" a bit vague, a look at the other owner of the DC9,
dubbed "Cocaine One," offers clues which help fill in the blanks.
"Protection of America's Skies?"
But the "Royal Sons" connection may prove even more enlightening...
While Huffman Aviation's familiar blue-awning flight school was at 400
E Airport, its hangar (see picture below) was several hundred feet
down the runway, at 224 E Airport Ave. Royal Sons used this same
address, apparently during the same time frame that the flight school
was serving as the home-away-from-home of terrorist ringleader Mohamed
Atta.
A close look at Royal Sons reveals evidence indicating that the firm
is part of a cluster of related air charter firms being used as dummy
front companies to provide “cover” for CIA flights.
The companies involved include Royal Sons, Express One International,
Genesis Aviation and United Flite Inc.
All four companies appear to be engaged in an inter-locking and
time-honored Agency scheme going back 50 years: using frequent
cosmetic transfers of aircraft title to make positively identifying
the ownership of any one plane at any given time as difficult as
finding the pea under the shell in a game of three-card Monte.
While none of the firms has been identified as a CIA aviation
contractor, they have also not previously been the focus of the sort
of unwelcome attention that getting caught with five tons of cocaine
provides.
Tell us again...What happened to the pilot?
When the story first broke, observers immediately noted that it was
embarrassingly thin in certain crucial details. For example, initial
reports stated that the Mexican Army had been waiting for the plane
when it landed.
Yet when Mexican Gen. Carlos Gaytan held a news conference, he told
reporters that his soldiers had unfortunately been unable to apprehend
the plane’s pilot.
Somehow, Houdini-like, the slippery fellow had gotten away.
Amazingly, the “disappeared" DC9 pilot who slithered through a crack
in the line of Mexican troops ringing the airport had also had the
presence of mind to take his name with him when he fled. Almost ten
days later, the pilot remains unidentified.
To compensate, General Gaytan quickly pointed out that his men had, at
least, managed to arrest the plane's co-pilot. But suspicion had
already been aroused. It seemed almost exactly like what had happened
when terror flight school owner Wally Hilliard's Lear jet got busted
with 43 pounds of heroin aboard. Somehow, his pilot got off scot-free,
too.
"Being connected means never having to say you're sorry."
Could the reason involve some official sanction enjoyed by the drug
trafficking operation involved? This explanation would seem to be
ruled out, wouldn't it, if the traffickers get caught?
Maybe not...There's another major "anomaly" in the story, which points
towards a simpler explanation, which credits the sharpness and
dedication to their jobs of low-level agents or grunts, foot soldiers,
literally, in the drug war. The record is replete with examples of how
these people regularly stumble onto situations they were never meant
to see...like an illicit but 'protected' operation.
The result is that, sometimes, cases get made, and people get
arrested, by mistake...
While initial news accounts indicated the bust was the result of a tip
to Mexican authorities from U.S. officials, later reports from
reporters on the scene tell a far different tale, one indicating that
the chain of events was triggered, not by high-level contacts between
two vigilant drug-fighting governments, but by soldiers patrolling the
airport.
Only then did local army officials deploy troops to the airport.
Here's what the soldiers saw: two Mexican pilots arriving in a small
Falcon business jet and spending several days conspicuously slouching
around the airport. While they probably didn't say what for, they
didn't have to... Because they did offer to pay for the DC-9 to make
an emergency landing, at a time when the airport was officially
closed.
Du-uh. John Gotti would had called the two pilots "fucking dunskies."
Nobody knows what their bosses are calling them now, but the men would
be well-advised to consider how it was that they
got...literally...caught holding... while the gringo pilot got away.
Carrying water for somebody, sure. But who?
Both of the detained Mexican pilots, published reports at the end of
last week revealed, were employees of the Mexican government's Federal
Water Commission. But they may not be the only pilots drawing
government paychecks who participated in the massive drug move.
The pilot of the DC9 may also be cashing checks which--while not
stamped with Uncle Sam's name on the front--are still ultimately being
drawn from U.S. government funds.
Another anomaly reinforced this suspicion. While the Venice Airport is
a tiny facility with barely a dozen businesses strewn along the
runway, no one we spoke to at Royal Son's former Venice Airport
address could recall the company having been there. Nor did the names
of the firms two principals, Frederic Geffon and Ron Gregory, ring any
bells.
“Royal Sons” would not be the first phantom firm discovered hiding
inside Huffman Aviation. Britannia Aviation, once “housed” inside the
flight school, was later revealed to be all-but non-existent during a
major brouhaha in Jerry Falwell’s Lynchburg Virginia after being
awarded, for no apparent reason aviation observers were able to
fathom, a fat government aviation contract for which a local Lynchburg
firm was clearly much better qualified.
“Don’t touch my bags if you please, Mr. Custom's Man"
Of course, as the MadCowMorningNews has been pointing out to anyone
who'll listen, Huffman Aviation's owner Wally Hilliard had his own
Lear jet busted by DEA agents, during the same month Mohamed Atta
arrived at his flight school, unhappy to discover 43 pounds of heroin
aboard.
The Orlando Sentinel called it “the biggest heroin bust in Central
Florida history.”
Two surreal details of the 5-ton cocaine bust deserve mention...
Being connected to two such world-class drug busts in a matter of only
a few years does not by itself indicate that the sleepy retirement
community of blue-haired widows is about to replace Palermo or Caracas
as the place to see and be seen in the international narcotics trade,
it seems fair to say the tiny rural Venice Airport is clearly the
“Little Engine That Could.”
But the most surreal detail this side of the Salvador Dali museum is
that the cocaine was packed into 128 identical black suitcases...
Clearly every baggage handler's worst nightmare.
But the surreal part is this: stenciled on the side of each of the 128
pieces of identical black luggage is the word “Private."
We're at a loss to understand what this means. A libertarian battle
cry? Or an admonition to nosy Customs agents:
“Gentlemen do not search each other's luggage."
Stay tuned.