Mr. HUBBARD. Now we call Mr. Eugene W. Gleason, investigator for the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. He previously was an investigator for the House Judiciary Committee on Crime; and for 11 years was an investigator for the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. Mr. Gleason, thank you for your testimony, and please proceed. STATEMENT OF EUGENE W. GLEASON, INVESTIGATOR, COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES Mr. GLEASON. After a number of inquiries to the committee concerning the accuracy of news reports about gun smuggling between the United States and Panama, the chairman directed the investigative staff of the committee to undertake a review of the available public information for the express purpose of informing the committee of the accuracy of those reports. Carrying out that directive, I have visited Miami, Fla., on two occasions. Along with other members of the staff, we have interviewed officials of the Department of the Treasury including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; Customs; State Department officials, including the Munitions Control Agency; spokesmen for the Department of Justice. We referred to CIA documents and talked to media representatives and others. The news stories in question-which have been supplied to the members of the committee-concern the indictment and arrest of five men in Miami, Fla., in early May, for the illegal purchase and export of firearms to Panama. They include an official of the Panamanian Government. The second case involved four men indicted on April 24, by a Federal grand jury in Brownsville, Tex., on firearms conspiracy charges involving the purchase and transfer of 1,000 machine guns. One man in that case was held on $1 million bail. Both of these gunrunning conspiracy cases were the result of outstanding police work by agents of a half-dozen or more Federal agencies including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; Customs; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the U.S. Coast Guard; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and the State Department's Munitions Control Division; along with the close cooperation of the Department of Justice. I want to point out here we will take every precaution not to prejudice pending prosecutions that might be involved in this matter. All this material has been assembled from public records. So the question was put this way: Question. Was there a conspiracy to illegally purchase and transport arms to Panama? Answer. Yes, and the Government has so charged. Question. Were arms successfully and illegally smuggled into Panama? Question. Is there evidence that at least some of these weapons were subsequently transferred from Panama to Nicaragua? Answer. Yes. The Government has traced a large quantity of M-1 carbines, a standard World War II Army weapon, from the manufacturer and distributor in the United States to the Government of Panama. Within a matter of weeks after that transaction, the weapons were captured inside Nicaragua and the serial numbers were matched up with those sold to Panama and reported in connection with an export permit issued by the Munitions Control Agency of the State Department. You have before you a copy of the indictment from the U.S. District Court of the southern district of Florida which outlines that conspiracy and names five defendants in the case-two of which are identified as agents of the Panamanian Government. They are: Carlos Wittgreen and Jose Antonio Alvarez. Alvarez has been arrested and charged. Wittgreen was arrested but fled to Panama. A third unindicted coconspirator was Edgardo Lopez, a Consul of Panama, stationed in Miami, who has also fled to Panama. When questioned by Donald R. Kimbler, special agent, A.T. & F., last November 10, Edgardo Lopez stated to Kimbler that he had been involved in at least seven firearms purchases involving over 200 weapons which have been illegally exported from the United States. Agent Kimber's statement on file with the court in which he outlines the investigation and the conspiracy is in the file before you. The indictment before you details the illegal purchases and/or transfer-this is in the indictment-of at least 817 M-1 carbines which went to Panama. A number of those weapons have been taken from Sandinista insurgents by the Nicaraguan National Guard. Some of those captured weapons have been returned to the United States and are in the hearing room today. The particular weapons I refer to were sold by Southern Gun Distributors in Miami, Fla., to Public Safety Associates, of Fort Lauderdale, and sold to Caza y Pesca, S.A., of Panama. The sale was authorized by the State Department and the export permit for that sale is among the documents you have before you. The permit was issued January 24, 1979. More than 70 of the weapons were captured in Nicaragua in mid-April after their delivery to Caza y Pesca via Air Panama-a government-controlled corporation. The second case before you, the Brownsville, Tex., indictment, is detailed in a public statement by ATF Director G. R. Dickerson. It is a conspiracy case involving one thousand military-type machine guns, $100,000 worth of parts. That document is a part of your file. Four men were named in the indictment which was handed up this past April 24. Other witnesses scheduled to appear before this committee are prepared to discuss both of these cases in more detail. I should point out that in pursuing this inquiry we have had excellent cooperation from the administration and its agencies. The indictments are the result of outstanding law enforcement work by the Government agencies. In the files prepared for each member are news stories comprehensively prepared by Joe Crankshaw and Sam Jacobs, of the Miami Herald, columnist Walter Reilly and television reporter Carl Lazenby. So the question is, was there any truth in these rumors, and particularly, the news reports about guns being smuggled from the United States into Panama, and presumably then on into Mexico? Material you have before you and comments I made substantially verifies that that is true. That is about it. Mr. HUBBARD. Thank you very much, Mr. Gleason, for your excellent testimony and work as our committee investigator. Do you have knowledge as to the whereabouts of Edgardo Lopez, the Panamanian Consul stationed in Miami? Mr. GLEASON. I have been told that he is back in Panama. If I were him, having talked like that, I would be a little concerned about going back, having admitted making illegal purchases, so forth. Mr. HUBBARD. Say that again? Mr. GLEASON. If I were Mr. Lopez, I would be concerned about going back to Panama, having admitted to Federal agents the existance of a conspiracy. But I am told that is where he is, back in Panama. Mr. HUBBARD. Mr. Bauman. [No response.] Mr. HUBBARD. Mr. Wyatt. [No response.] Mr. HUBBARD. Mr. Carney. [No response.] Mr. HUBBARD. Mr. Hansen. Mr. HANSEN. When did you start your investigation? Mr. GLEASON. I am trying to think. About a month ago. Mr. HANSEN. Would you say that you needed even more time to investigate, or do you feel you have completed- Mr. GLEASON. In view of the pending cases, it will be hard to go further and discuss it publicly. But we can always use more time. Mr. HANSEN. Is this the only discovery you fully developed of agents? Mr. GLEASON. There was a statement in the newspapers by an ATF agent, who presumably is a lot more knowledgeable than I, agent Lee Waldrop, a supervisor in the Miami office of the ATF. He said: "We are supplying all of the Panama runs with the instruments of war.' The newspapers quote Lee Waldrup, Chief of the Government's Bureau of ATF in Miami. Mr. HANSEN. Thank you. Mr. WYATT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Gleason, one thing I am confused about, and that is the question of exchange of parts in Brownsville. Has there been a tiein between those purchases and the fact that parts have gotten to either Mexico or Panama? Mr. GLEASON. You mean, has there been enough time for them to get there? Mr. WYATT. No. What is the relevance of the machinegun parts in Brownsville? Mr. GLEASON. Well, there were a 1,000 machineguns, plus $100,000 worth of machinegun replacement parts involved in that Brownsville conspiracy. And they were shipped by, I am told, men who were not American. And they were going to Latin America. Mr. WYATT. Somewhere in Latin America? Mr. WYATT. And the principals involved were Mexicans? Mr. GLEASON. Yes. Mr. WYATT. All of them? Mr. GLEASON. I don't know. I believe the principals were. However, in the Miami case, some of the principals were Panamanians, and many of them were Americans. Mr. WYATT. Has there been any kind of connection between that and the Brownsville situation? Mr. GLEASON. I don't have enough information to state that to be true. Mr. WYATT. Do you have any idea where the machineguns were going? Mr. GLEASON. It is my understanding that they were going to Latin America. Mr. WYATT. Just to Latin America? Mr. GLEASON. That is correct, and that they left on Panamanian freighter. Mr. WYATT. Where was the first stop? Mr. GLEASON. I have no idea. Mr. WYATT. It had to have a first destination. Mr. GLEASON. It sure did. Mr. WYATT. And the guns were intercepted on this ship? Mr. GLEASON. No, unfortunately-I gather the ship left port, and the guns themselves have never been retrieved in that case. Mr. WYATT. They were removed from this country? Mr. GLEASON. Yes, they are out of the country. They are gone. Mr. WYATT. And removed on a ship bearing a Panamanian flag? Mr. GLEASON. That is my understanding, sir. Mr. WYATT. There has been no attempt to determine where that ship stopped? Mr. GLEASON. I am sure there were attempts made. I am confident there were attempts made by the Government. Customs or ATF, or somebody, may know. I don't know. Mr. HUBBARD. Thank you, Congressman Wyatt. Mr. Bauman? Mr. BAUMAN. No questions. Mr. HUBBARD. Mr. Larry O'Brien, our counsel. Mr. O'BRIEN. In addition to this Panamanian freighter, were there other modes of transport for weapons out of the United States? Specifically, were these weapons transported by air? Mr. GLEASON. Air Panama, it has been established that Air Panama I don't know how much-but I guess certainly thousands of them flown from Miami without permits on Air Panama. One of the principals involved, Antonio Alvarez, as the air freight officer for Air Panama, and he routinely loaded them on the plane and dropped them off in Panama. Mr. O'BRIEN. It is my understanding-correct me if I am wrong-Air Panama is 70 percent owned by Banco Nina. Mr. GLEASON. That is correct. Mr. O'BRIEN. And I understand there are 30-percent shareholders, two citizens of Panama and five U.S. citizens. Mr. GLEASON. That is correct. Mr. O'BRIEN. One of the four was assassinated inside Panama? Mr. GLEASON. Yes. I understand there was a meeting in Panama that had to do with the ownership of Air Panama. In the meeting there subject was called out to take a phone call, and when taking it, was shot in the head. Mr. O'BRIEN. With respect to Mr. Crankshaw, did you interview him? Mr. GLEASON. Yes. Mr. O'BRIEN. Did he provide you with additional background information you have not provided us with? Mr. GLEASON. There is a great deal of material in some of these stories, which I believe ought to be submitted for the record. Mr. O'BRIEN. Could you summarize that for the record? These articles are in print? Mr. GLEASON. Yes. Mr. Crankshaw's experience in these matters as a reporter with some considerable experience and he has military experience. He said some clerks had been caught sneaking out guns concealed in refrigerators, air conditioners, boxes, automobile transmissions, and rubber gloves. It is like a sieve, in his words. He was also very complimentary to the Federal agent involved with people with the experience in the enforcement of the gun laws, and particularly knowing they have limited resources. And the problem is similar to the one with narcotics. We have a wide open border. If the same is true where firearms are concerned, if the situation is the same with firearms as it is with narcotics-and I believe it is-they don't catch any more than 10 percent of what is now being smuggled out. Mr. O'BRIEN. Did you have occasion to learn anything about the operations of Garcia National Gun Shop in Miami? Mr. GLEASON. Yes, the Garcia Gun Shop, I did not get a chance to visit that myself. It is in a place called Little Cuba, and I understand that it was during examination of the records, a routine examination of the records of the Garcia Gun Shop, and the Tamiami Gun Shop, and others, by Federal agents, that they noticed a large number of handguns, and ammunition being sold to individuals. Unusually large amounts, 50,000 rounds. That is how the investigation began. The same is true where long guns are concerned, which are not nearly as strictly watched. They went to check the same places, and long guns were going to the same two individuals. I do not know from the comments that have been made by the people at Garcia Gun Shop, they are cooperating with the Government, it would suggest to me that their records were somewhat less than complete when examined. Not all of the records required under the 1968 gun control law were being kept, or were not being kept accurately. I have talked to a former salesman from the Garcia Gun Shop, he is a licensed gun dealer, a Federal licensee, and apparently experienced these things, and he observed some of these large sales being made, raised some questions about them, and was detailed to a clerk's job. When he asked further questions about them, he was dismissed. However, he was there, and was present in the shop when a number of these transactions involving Pujol, however it is pro |