THE PRISONER' S SECRET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010032-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: August 7, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010032-6
c kPPEA ED "
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
7 August 1983
Spy rnyste
N ^_ Ems' LATE 1970s, -Paul John =-
Arthur owned -a. fledgling-zn-
vestigations firm in Croydon, 'Eng-
-land. Although he'had few clients and
lived in a tinytlat, he masoueraded.as.a
top-flight -detective -with a lavish -ex-
- pense_.account. _:
For years, Arthur led a- faceless
'Walter Mitty existence. That changed
in 1980 when -he met a dapperintelli
gence' -operative from Belgium who
were expensive suits and paid -his
checks w:th.big bills, according;.o law
enforcement sources.'Under the tutel-
age of the operative, Casimi Taviera,
Arthur got -the chance to act out his
James -Bond- fantasies and travel
throughout Europe, the Middle East
and -:finally _to the. united States with
T:=viera. -
Tne international travels ended-on a
nondescr:N: street jr the Gravesend
section. _o Brooklyn Jan. 2E, 1982, when
A-thur was a: ,, ested while sitting in z
rented O~d_::rnobue on Avenue X. An
s ;:, h! ! gun war hi5 lzpZ
4~ caliber revolver and high-powered
.:noculars were within reach and there
were burlap bags covering his license
p fates.
Arthur is serving a three-year sen-
tence 'for weapons possession and
Could be free as early as next January.
He has refused to talk with authorities,
a:-id has become the most mysterious
ir:mate in state history.
,WILE HIS target may. never
be known, the Daily.News
dd has learned that investiga-
u,rs believe Arthur was hired by
T avie'ra to hill a spy here-a spy who
may still be operating.
We are not toying with amateurs.
V~ e're talking about professional peo-
pie who materialize rorr time to time,"
said a source close to the investigation.
"You -only read about people like this
in --spy - novels but -they =do ex-
ist.. . in a strata above the -one we
laiow.^
Since Arthur's arrest, law officers
from three federal agencies---the.FBI,
the Secret Service and the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms--and
representatives. of the 'Brooklyn dis-
trict *attorney's office have unearthed
what they say is one of the most
fascinating, and most frustrating, cases
in years. They have traced Arthur and
Taviera along the East Coast and
across two continents.
And yet this intriguing tale .had a
-humble beginning. -
LAW ENFORCEMENT sources
close to the case gave this
account:.
Arthur cruised Gravesend for sev-
eral days before an elderly woman
spotted his car on Avenue X. near W.
11th St.. became--suspicious and called
police. At the Bath Ave. station. Arthur
later said -only that the cops who
arrested him, Officers Ralph Chattier
and Edward Seliig, "had their guns in
their holsters and were mine if I
wanted them"
Within hours, officers searched
A.-thur's room at the Holiday Inn near
Kennedy Airport and found 51.500 in
cash, his heavily used passport and a
photo of a man reaching for -z -banana
on a tree. The man was Arthur's late
father. ?
The next morning. agents and detec-
tives fanned out in Gravesend to trey to
determine Arthur's target They came..
up with Angelo Sepe, a suspect in the
S5.8 million Lufthansa heist at Ken-
nedy Airport in 1978. Investigators
went to Sepe's home near Avenue X
and W. 12th St and told him, about
.Arthur. Sepe all but laughed that the
mob would hire a foreigner to kill him.
if he wanted to hit one, he had-two
good chances," Sepe said, explaining
that be twice walked with _ his dog past
.Arthur.
"When my-time- tomes, my ox'a_
people will kill -men" Sepe said. --My--
people would notso out of the country., and hire a stringer -to --do. the job.
They'll hire someone ? close to -me."
Sepe already has survived one attemp-
ted hit.
S THE =771 iANISA suspect
was being interviewed, author-
ities traced Arthur's weapons
and Holiday - -Ian- phone calls to
Richard Porv n., a Canadian tugboat
pilot and suspected international gun-
runner living in Florida.
On Jan. 29, the day after. Sepe was
interviewed, Detective William Majes- -
ki, of the Brooklyn district attorney's
office, and three federal agems, WiL-_
Barn Sedleclds of the FBI, Charles
Hudson of the fire-ms bureau and
Bur-, St-eves of the Secret Service, went
to Porvin's mobile home at 5909 S.W.-_
29th Court in Fort Lauderdale.
Potvin catapulted the investigation
into 2 w07 1t of espionage and spies by
introducing to the plot the mysterious
French national, Taviera, whom he
also knew as "Yvan." -
Potvin said Taviera was""a former
F'ren- ch commando who traveled exten-
sively, and lavishly, and that Taviera
often boasted of smuggling guns to the
Middle East and -doing intelligence
work Investigators have since con-
firmed that Taviera is an intelligence
operative for NATO countries. A war-
rant has been issued for his arrest on
weapons charges. -
IyQ.,TL`ZLD
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010032-6