Pilot fined for hiding firearms: American caught in Halifax has alleged ties to drug lord

[struggle4progress]

Source: Chronicle-Herald (Halifax)

By DAVENE JEFFREY Staff Reporter
Sat. Oct 13 - 5:22 AM

An American pilot with alleged ties to a notorious Mexican drug lord was fined $1,500 Thursday for not declaring two handguns when he touched down in Halifax to refuel. And he had to fork over another $2,000 to get his plane back.

Clyde Stewart O’Connor, 42, of Florida landed his Cessna 210 at Halifax Stanfield International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, said Laurie Gillmore, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency ...

The Florida resident’s name made international news last month when a Gulfstream II jet he co-owned crashed in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula carrying more than three tonnes of cocaine.

According to the Miami Herald, Mr. O’Connor and another American pilot, Greg Smith, had bought the plane from two Brazilians eight days before the Sept. 24 crash ...


Read more: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/952043.html

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Was Crashed Gulfstream II Drug Plane Owned By CIA?
Fri, 12 Oct '07
Registered 'Owner' Appears To Be A Front

... The Associated Press reports the crashed plane's flight logs listed several visits to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; once from Oxford, CT, and once from Washington, DC.

Some news reports wonder what the aircraft, with tail number N987SA, was doing flying into highly restricted airspace. They also pondered whether there's a link to "rendition," as the feds call it: the transport of suspected terrorists to the island's US detention center ...

And speaking of 'suspense'... curiosity over the aircraft's true identity and owners only deepened when reporters visited registered owner "Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc. " of Coconut Beach FL. They were greeted by an "empty office suite with a blank sign out front."

Adding to the strangeness at the offices on 4811 Lyons Technology Parkway #8 in Coconut Beach, were the six unmarked police cars parked directly out front. Butters Development, the industrial park's leasing agent, did not return calls, according to the report ...

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=a1703b3a-3003-4d1e-8775-f0f33e267df4

[monktonman]

1. So were safer since 9-11?

I like this part from the link:
"The FAA system for registering airplanes is little-changed from when it was started back in the good ol boy days of the 1930's. Each plane has a paper folder, for example, stuffed with all correspondence regarding airworthiness and ownership relating to that plane," the source notes.

"It's an antiquated system which some feel is kept deliberately in place to encourage a certain ambiguity when a plane is interdicted. When a change of registration is mailed in, the FAA places a plane's folder in what they call 'suspense.'"

So we've got planes flying around major American cities and nobody really knows who owns them??
Hows that right?

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Are we to assume this is a CIA plane?

As in, the CIA is drug running to raise cash?

You know, if I some kid caught selling drugs on the street, I'd make a case, based on the 14th Amendment. Is that the one that says you can't create two sets of laws and discriminate against people? Well, I would say that if they dragged my ass to jail, they would have to do the same to the CIA.

[DemoTex]

3. Was Gulfstream N987SA "kin" to DC-9-15 N900SA involved in 2006 Mexico cocaine bust?

Both registered to Florida addresses. Natch. My guess is that the "SA" portion of the both aircrafts' US registration refers to Southern Air Transport, the CIA-linked operation most famous for shady flights supporting Iran-Contra.

CIA smuggling drugs? Would there be a precedent for that? Ummm? Oh, I remember! Laos in the 1970s by Air America airlines, a CIA front (George H.W. Bu$h was head of the CIA during some of that period).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Air_Transport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N900SA




Busted DC-9-15 N900SA, in pseudo-government livery.

[DemoTex]

4. Kick for this find

:kick: