SURINAMESE OFFICIAL HELD IN DRUG DEAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940065-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 2011
• Sequence Number: 65
• Publication Date: April 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706940065-8
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WASHINGTGN POST
14 April 1986
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Surinamese Official Held in Drug Deal
e reported evidence last December that the
Marxist government of Suriname, the
former Dutch colony on the northeast coast
of South America, was engaged in drug trafficking.
Cocaine processed in a jungle factory guarded by
Surinamese troops was being shipped to
Amsterdam in diplomatic pouches, according to
Dutch intelligence sources.
Now the Drug Enforcement Administration has
confirmed our report. On March 24, federal agents
arrested three Surinamese citizens in Miami. DEA
agents, posing as smugglers, said the suspects
agreed to provide a safe place to refuel drug-laden
aircraft en route from Colombia to the United
States. The price: $1 million per plane.
The case has created an international scandal
thanks to the identity of one of those arrested:
Etienne Bcerenveen, a member of the five-man
military junta that.has ruled Suriname since Desi
Bouterse seized power in a 1980 coup. ~'he
Netherlands government is particularly
embarrassed because it had just secretly offered to
resume aid to Suriname-$25 million worth-in
exchange for a pledge to restore democracy in that
country. Dutch and American aid was abruptly
stopped when Bouterse executed 15 opposition
leaders in 1982.
Bcerenveen bragged to the undercover agent
that he was the No. 2 man in the Bouterse regime.
He entered the United States on a diplomatic
passport and has tried to claim diplomatic
immunity.
Before his arrest, "Bcerenveen offered
protection to ether and cocaine transshipment,"
court records state. "(HeJ would provide small
boats and trucks to transport ether" from freighters
to Surinamese refineries and back. He told the
DEA agents that he "controlled the police, the
military, the ports and security of all airfields" in
Suriname, according to the court records.
Suriname is concerned about Boerenveen's
arrest. Officials have threatened to break off
already tenuous diplomatic ties with the United
States if his diplomatic status is not recognized.
As we reported, Suriname has become a refuge
for Colombian drug lords forced out by President
Belisario Betancur in recent years. Sources told our
associate Donald Goldberg the Bouterse regime
invited the drug bosses into Suriname because of
its desperate need for hard currency after the
cutoff of Dutch and U.S. aid.
Bouterse's situation worsened in 1983. His
mentor had been Maurice Bishop, the Marxist
leader of Grenada who was deposed and murdered
by Cuban-backed rivals, leading to the U.S.
invasion. Fearful that Suriname might benext,
Bouterse expelled his Cuban military advisers-and
welcomed the Colombian cocaine lords.
Shortly after Boerenveen's arrest, Suriname
accused the United States of "setting up"
Bcerenveen because of its close ties to Libya. Our
intelligence sources say Libvan dictator Muammar
C~addafi sent more than 200 advisers to Suriname?
in return, he as ed for Surinamese passports for his
international assassmat~on squads.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706940065-8