Carlos Lehder's Bahamian Legacy

by Larry Smith

Recently, a Bahamian political weblog posted a claim that Carlos Lehder - the notorious Colombian drug lord sentenced to life imprisonment in Florida in 1988 - was living comfortably with his wife on Paradise Island.

How could this be? Well it turns out that Lehder cut a deal with the US government in 1992 to help convict former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. Noriega was part of Lehder's cocaine cartel in the 1980s.

That much is true, and there doesn't seem to be any doubt that Noriega remains in a federal prison in Miami (although he is due for release next year). But some are convinced that the US government freed Lehder in the 1990s.

According to the Internet conspiracy site, Rumour Mill News, "Lehder is an employee of the US Treasury while his wife has told a veteran DEA agent that Lehder has been selling drugs to Russia for the CIA."

And our Bahamian bloggers demanded to know how Lehder - the 'king of cocaine' - could get into the country these days: "last year and earlier this year, he was lunching and partying with Sol Kerzner at Atlantis."

A spokesman for Kerzner International said he wouldn't even consider responding, but US Embassy sources insisted that Lehder was still safely in prison, although they would not say exactly where:

"Mr Lehder has not been released from prison. Mr Lehder continues to serve the remainder of his lengthy prison sentence in US custody, though in deliberate obscurity. Lehder was not on Paradise Island and was not partying with Sol Kerzner."

These rumours reportedly drew laughter from representatives of the Drug Enforcement Administration - the US agency that made strenuous efforts during the 1980s to stop large-scale drug trafficking through the Bahamas and bring Lehder to heel.

The facts are that from 1978 to 1982 Lehder operated one of the world's biggest cocaine rings from Norman's Cay in the Exumas. One of Lehder's associates, interviewed in the 1990s on the PBS news magazine Frontline, put it this way:

"He operated on the island from the beginning because he had the blessing of the Bahamian government. They were funneling tons of money...The Bahamian government gave Carlos a promise. We will advise you. You will get a wink from us, a signal, when things are getting too hot and you need to move out of there."

Well, things did eventually get hot - for the Bahamian government as much as for Lehder. And those activities forever tarnished the reputation of Sir Lynden Pindling, severely damaged our national psyche and almost brought down the entire government in disgrace.

Heavy pressure from the US led to the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry in November 1983. And the following year its 500-page report published the unpleasant details of widespread official corruption and described the enormous social problems the drug trade had spawned.

The son of a German father and a Colombian mother, Lehder started out as a small-time car thief and pot dealer. But his notoriety as one of the founders of the Medellin Cartel, and his eventual megalomania, made him a legendary and feared figure much like Blackbeard - an earlier international rogue who once had free rein in the Bahamas.

At the time of his arrest in 1987 Lehder, then 37, was reported to be worth more than $2 billion. Throughout the early 1980s his airstrip at Norman's Cay was receiving cocaine flights from Colombia on a daily if not hourly basis, transferring the loads to smaller planes for distribution throughout the US.

To begin with he bought as much property on the island as he could and then chased off the remaining residents. Armed guards patrolled day and night and former Member of Parliament Norman Solomon was once threatened at gunpoint on the beach.

Lehder's social activities were also legendary: "Orgies," his one-time associate told Frontline. "Five males, 10 females and everybody runs naked and everybody switch partners and everybody drinks and smokes marijuana, and alcohol, and three days of Sodom and Gomorrah."

And he was also a Nazi, dressing in military fatiques and comparing himself to Hitler. According to Tamara Inscoe-Johnson, who has written a book on Lehder: "He spent untold hours plotting a political career, aiming at the Colombian presidency. As his goals expanded, so did his fascination with Nazism; after all, Hitler’s goal was to take over the world, and it was the same with Lehder."

Before Lehder, Norman's Cay was a popular anchorage for visiting yachts. It was developed in the early 1970s as a small residential community with a clubhouse and marina. But in 1978 a Bahamian company called International Dutch Resources began buying up land there. IDR was set up for Lehder by a regular trust company in Nassau, which conveniently managed his working capital.

According to the New York Times, Lehder was responsible for 80 per cent of the Colombian cocaine reaching the United States, mostly through the Bahamas. And the interest in his current whereabouts is ironic in view of the recent renaming of Nassau international Airport after Sir Lynden Pindling, "the father of the nation".

Lehder's Bahamian empire collapsed in mid-1983, when NBC television broke the news that Bahamian officials were on the payroll of Colombian drug lords. At first the story generated howls of protest (and some lawsuits) from top Bahamian officials, including the prime minister.

But soon afterwards, they began singing a different tune. In 1985, after the Commission report was published, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Hanna called on Sir Lynden to resign and opposition Free National Movement leader Kendal Isaacs condemned the 'nation for sale' scandal as the worst in modern Bahamian history.

"The greatest shocks we have had to suffer in 1984 have been the twin revelations of epidemic drug use among our people, and the incredible corruption in the PLP as a government and as a party," Isaacs said at the time.

A series of hard-hitting Miami Herald articles on "corruption in the Bahamas", noted that foreign investors had channelled millions of dollars to the prime minister or to companies in which he had a secret interest: "The money took various forms - gifts, unorthodox bank loans, direct payments to Pindling creditors, unusual stock deals or generous home mortgages."

A review of Sir Lynden's personal finances by the Commission of Inquiry found that he had spent eight times his reported total earnings from 1977 to 1984. According to the Inquiry report: "The prime minister and Lady Pindling have received at least $57.3 million in cash. Explanations for some of these deposits were given... but could not be verified."

Senior police and defence force officers were forced to resign in disgrace. Lawyers were condemned for bribing public officials. One top cabinet minister was found to be fronting for the mafia. A magistrate was fired for collusion. Parliamentarians were found to have accepted bribes from traffickers, and cronies were charged with perjury.

According to the Inquiry report: "We were alarmed by the extent to which persons in the public service have been corrupted by money derived from the illegal drug trade...We were particularly concerned to discover that these corrupting influences made their presence felt at the level of permanent secretary and minister.

"We have also noted with some concern the contribution made by...the legal profession and the banking industry...In our opinion, the whole nation must accept responsibility."

At one time Lehder was put on the stop list, but that did not prevent him from entering the country. The Commission quoted a 1980 police report that Lehder and fugitive financier Robert Vesco (who lived in Nassau at the time) were both engaged in drug running and that Lehder visited the Exumas frequently.

To realise the degree of freedom which Lehder had in the Bahamas, we have only to consider the incident that occurred in July 1982. An aircraft took off from Norman's Cay with two Colombians on board and dumped leaflets on the Clifford Park Independence celebrations calling for the expulsion of the DEA. The leaflets had dollar bills attached to them.

And all of this was in spite of the serious social, psychological and economic ills being created by widespread and growing drug addiction among Bahamians - many of which are still with us today.

In other words, the entire response of our governmental, law enforcement and judicial systems to what had become a clear and destructive threat to Bahamian society and sovereignty was nothing more than a sham.

Nevertheless, Pindling's charisma was such that the PLP were able to weather the storm and he went on to win the 1987 election - his last and most pyrrhic victory. The bottom line was that one of the world's biggest criminal enterprises, managed by one of the world's highest-profile crooks, was able to operate with impunity on a Bahamian resort island for years - while the government looked the other way.

Lehder moved back to Colombia in 1983 where he was eventually captured and extradited to the US.

He and others were responsible for assassinating Colombia's justice minister in 1984; for the 1985 attack on Colombia's Supreme Court that killed 11 justices and 84 others; for assassinating two newspaper editors and 26 other journalists; for shooting the Colombian ambassador to Hungary; and for a long list of other murders.

We doubt that he would be a very attractive dinner guest for Sol Kerzner.

Comments

[tb]

Even today some 20 odd years ago...the message of the Inquiry has yet to be heard.

Just because you doubt that he had lunch with Solly, that doesnt mean it didnt happen. ;)

[LS]

No - and just because NASA says they landed men on the moon doesn't mean they actually did..

[Thomas Charlton]

It is my hope that in this 40th anniversary of majority rule in the Bahamas, that we as a people will remember not only the good intentions of the PLP in the earily days, but also the bad that occured when greed and power corrupted our then leader and the corruption that still haunts us as a country today.

It is time for us to stand up for what is right and say no to corruption,and crooked politicians and demand that our elected officials to do the same.

We must let the international community know that The Bahamas is no longer a nation for sale, we will no longer be a safe haven for morden day pirates to use our islands as jump-off points to expand their illicit empire.

As the Pindling days came to an end so shall the days of the remaining crooked PLP's.

[Ian]

To me the only thing I Remember and want to remember was That the RT. Hon L.O.Pindling Dame Lady PIndling was "Great" Prime Minister / Leader.

The PLP has and will continue too Produce "GOOD FRUIT."

May GOD bless the PLP's and may they have the Victory on Election day (07).

I'm A Born Pindling / PLP baby.
A firm supporter for life.
get on the nite train!

Love all y'll Bahamians PLP and FNM but PLP all the way!

Christie Supporter 100%
Bahamian American 100%

[robertodemara-gonzalez]

Ithinkthe U.Shasitsnosein everybodysbusiness and shouldstopbuggingothercountriesandtakecareofthereown ,and leavethecartels !!!alone!!

[James Cane]

Carlos Lehder was a remarkably smart man who ran an entire island for at least four years. With the ammount of money he is worth I would not be surprised if he has cut a deal with the US Government. 2 billion dollars is more than enough to pull off basically anything. His story is scandalously amazing.

[Nicolas Fernandez]

Carlos Lehder was a remarkably smart man who ran an entire island for at least four years. With the ammount of money he is worth I would not be surprised if he has cut a deal with the US Government. 2 billion dollars is more than enough to pull off basically anything. His story is scandalously amazing.

[Michael]

Does anyone know how I can get in touch with Tamara Inscoe-Johnson? Thank you.