OVERDOSE SUSPECTED IN DEATH OF KEY CONTRA PROBE WITNESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504570002-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 16, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504570002-2
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WASHINGTON TIMES
16 December 1986
Overdose suspected in death of key
Contra witness "He said L' S government probe dais had gotten him out of La
Reformat' Mr Berry said in a tele-
v'- By James Morr,son
-4 . A5- NG'CN -ME5
Steven Carr -Na key witness in
T efforts o prove Nicaragua's anti-
communist rebels smuggled drugs,
plotted to assassinate a U.S. ambas-
sador and illegally smuggled guns
from the United States - has died of
a "possible drug overdose," accord-
ing to Los Angeles Police.
His death is a "blow" to a Senate
investigation into the charges and to
a related civil lawsuit filed in Miami
federal court against 29 defendants,
including many now implicated in
the Iran arms scandal, a source
close to the investigation said.
Carr. 27. of Naples, Fla., collapsed
outside a home in Van Nuys near Los
Angeles at 4 a.m. Saturday, said po-
lice Officer Rodney Manning. The
Los Angeles coroner's office was
still examining the results of toxicol-
ogy tests late yesterday to determine
the exact cause of death.
One source said Carr had ex-
pressed fear for his life and claimed
the CIA was trying to kill him. But
his death is being investigated as a
cocaine overdose, a police spokes-
man said.
Los Angeles Police Detective Mel-
vin Arnold has interviewed several
of Carr's friends who said he had
ingested "a bag of cocaine" at a
party.
Carr, a convicted felon, claimed to
have first-hand knowledge of U.S.
government involvement in a private
network to arm the Nicaraguan reb-
els during a time when it was out-
lawed by Congress.
But in letters written during a
year-long incarceration in a Costa
Rican prison. he retracted many of
those statements and said two Amer-
ican journalists, who filed the Miami
lawsuit. bribed him to implicate oth-
ers in illegal activities
F,,llowing his release from Costa
Rica's La Reforma prison and return
to Florida, where be was arrested for
a orohation violation, he gave inter-
views and appeared on television
news shows in which he repeated
many of the statements he had re-
tracted before.
Despite his conflicting state-
ments,. Daniel Sheehan, an attorney
r for journalists Martha ano
Tony Avirgan, panne to use Carr as
a kev_ witness in a $22.4 million Mi-
ami lawsuit. It alleges a wide-
ranging conspiracy, which Mr.
Sheehan has said is proven by daily
revelations of the administration-
backed Iran arms sales that alleg-
edly diverted proceeds to the rebels.
The lawsuit charges the defen-
dants with smuggling drugs to pay
for arms shipments to the resistance
and with plotting to kill U.S. Ambas-
sador to Costa Rica Lewis Tambs to
collect a S1 million bounty offered
by South American cocaine king-
pins.
Carr identified Rob Owen as a key
figure in the arms shipments. Mr.
Owen privately has denied any in-
volvement in gun-running, although
he has admitted helping to raise non-
lethal aid for the resistance, a source
close to Mr. Owen said.
Rebel sources have identified Mr.
Owen as their link to Lt. Col. Oliver
North, the alleged mastermind of
the scheme to divert profits from
Iranian arms sales to the rebels. Col.
North was fired from his National
Security Council post Nov. 25 for his
role in the covert operation.
Mr. Owen is also one of the defen.
dants named in the Avirgan-Honey
suit. Others named in the suit in-
clude retired Air Force Maj. Gen.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim,
identified as playing key roles in the
Iran-Contra connection, and retired
Army Gen. John Sing[aub, who
raised money for the Nicaraguan re-
sistance.
Carr earlier admitted loading and
escorting a shipment of arms from
Florida to El Salvador in March
1985. A month later he was arrested
along with four other adventurers
during a police raid on a rebel camp
in Costa Rica.
In a prison interview soon after
his arrest. he told FBI agents that he
never actually saw the weapons, only
boxes that he was told contained the
arms.
Carr was released from prison
under mysterious conditions and re-
turned to Naples, where he surren-
dered to police in June and began
serving a five-month jail term for
violating probation. He was con-
victed in 1984 on forgery and grand
theft charges.
His Florida attorney. Gerald
Berry. said Carr never fully ex-
plained how he was released from
prison in Costa Rica.
phone interview
Mr. Sheehan, an attorney for the
liberal Christie Institute of Washing-
ton, said Carr "knew about the pri-
vate suppliers, from the small guys
all the way up to Owen, which puts
you on Ollie North's doorstep."
He said Carr's testimony in the
Miami lawsuit would have focu,cd
on his participation in a rebel supply
mission on March 6, 1985, that began
in Florida and involved unloading
weapons at El Salvador's Ilapongo
air base.
Mr. Sheehan characterized Carr
as "a mercenary, a right-wing, ad-
venturous character ... with a his-
tory of drug abuse, but who was very
educated about it."
/'l
In several letters from prison and
in an affidavit filed in Costa Rica.
Carr repeatedly claimed he had lied
to the two journalists in exchange
for their promises of money and help
in getting him out of prison.
Some of the letters were written
to John HulLan American rancher
in Costa Rica who the lawsuit
charges was a CIA contact over-
seeing the conspiracy. Mr. Hull has
denied working for the CIA, saying
he has provided only emergency
medical assistance for wounded
Nicaraguan rebels.
In one letter, he wrote, "I have
unknowingly lied" about charges of
Mr. Hull's involvement in the alleged
conspiracy. He added that "extreme
leftist organizations have manip-
ulated me into giving a totally dis-
'orted view of my involvement."
In another letter, he claims, "I can
Mill destroy Martha Honey] and
prove we were fed information and
bribed. in a small way."
He wrote to Mr. Hull for"financial
assistance to get to France to join the
Legion:' And. in another letter, he
says. -'Most of my life I've done
wrong and lived off hurting other
people. 'ince I've been in jail this
time ... I've been able to read a story
of Jesus Christ in the Bible and
!earned much I didn't want to learn
because it had shown me of all the
hurt and evil I've done."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504570002-2