Update on CIA drug plane owned by “Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc”

Here's an update on the strange story of the Gulfstream II jet filled with 3.7 tons of cocaine that crashed in the Yucatan last year. The Mexico City newspaper El Universal reports that European Parliament was investigating the circumstances surrounding the plane, which had previously been used by the CIA for "extraordinary rendition" flights.

The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which "show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects." It said the European Parliament was investigating the private Grumman Gulfstream II, registered by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, for suspected use in CIA "rendition" flights in which prisoners are covertly transferred to a third country or US-run detention centers.

Last October, the Austin American Statesman reported the plane had previously flown to Guantanamo Bay.

Here's a Chicago Public Radio story from October 31, 2007 about the crashed CIA drug plane.

The crashed drug plane also has been linked to a Bush fundraiser.

Mad Cow Morning news has been covering stories about the CIA and drug smuggling. The plane was owned by Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc.

Mad Cow visited Donna Blue's offices and took photos of what appears to be a sham company. Here's a photo of some unmarked police cars parked in front Donna Blue Aircraft's empty suite:

Drug plane used for US rendition flights

Is this a video of the plane? (from this German website)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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jimmitude

Re: the video. That’s not anything close to a G-II. Nose too short, wing not swept, and not a T tail.

This sounds too much like a deliberate spoof to me. If you don’t think the pros are good at what they do, (and they rely on that) you’ll never find the right rabbit hole. And a technology mall corporation with the initals DBA (doing business as….) is a dead give away that you ain’t on the right track. This is like registering at a hotel under the name Ford Honda. Only a journalist ‘hot on the trail’ won’t notice that the name is, ummm, odd.

I’m not saying that there isn’t something funny going on, but I’d bet it isn’t an Intel group doing it.
minTphresh

wow. a bush in the white house, and the c.i.a. is dealing coke. surprise, surprise, surprise.
mdhatter

Thanks for the update – y’all should read the first BB story linked to in the post as well.

Donna Blue’s website is priceless. “Call 555-1212″
Kaden

@37

British Columbia? Know it well. Live there, actually.

Not. A. Country.
Banksynergy

Donna Blue’s site appears to have disappeared (or maybe it’s just my work computer). Not suspicious at all.
dainel

#31 Christopher Kirk, … there’s a country called Colombia. With an O. There isn’t one named Columbia.

Actually, there *IS* a Columbia. It’s north of Washington. Oh, and you need to preceed the name with “British”. :)
Mark Frauenfelder

The site is gone. Archive.org’s copy doesn’t have any images:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://donnablueaircraft.com/
mdhatter

DBA’s website was priceless.

priceless!!
danegeld

I remember reading somewhere that the plane had crashed because it flew with no spare fuel (probably to stop the pilot stealing the drugs?)

Some unexpected problem on the ground prevented landing at the planned destination and the plane was told to fly to a different airport 50 miles away. would have been OK in normal circumstances, but this plane crashed en route.
jamesgyre

takuan,

no, i kept trying to preview or post it and the screen would refresh and no message…

thanks, james
Takuan

better now?
alphanon

You can check out the fleets of unmarked police cars on google street view & satellite @ Donna Blue’s address as well.

4811 LYONS TECHNOLOGY COCONUT CREEK FL 33073
Eater of beef

My bullshit detector is in the red!
calabanos

I’ve got a push-bar bumper, and hand operated spotlight and I’m not a cop. I just really enjoy cow tipping and rabbit golf.
Robert

@#6: I really did LOL. *Every* business needs someone who can relocate spiders outside! However, you also need the skill of catching mice alive and then showing people around the office how cute they are.
Ernst Gruengast

Thanks for putting this up on boingboing.

Madcowprod is the only place keeping up with this – and incidently all the other indications of many other similar incidents

So there’s nothing “strange” about the story at all – it’s an undercover institution that’s just had it’s cover blown because of an accident. The task of journalism here is to investigate just how pervasive an institution it is.

Of course because it’s undercover, highly compartmentalised, and designed so as to be under everybody’s radar, the machinations are designed to be as complicated and difficult to see through as possible. Therein lies the difficulty for investigators and journalists – how to get the evidance out there in a form people can easily comprehend.

Madcowprod is to be congratulated for picking up the gauntlet. I hope their exposure of this (and it’s invisibility everywhere else) helps people wake up.

Yours respectfully,

Ernst
Daemon

CIA plane being used to ship drugs? Colour me continually unsurprised with this story.
Marrz

Hey Cory, sounds like something out of little brother doesn’t it?
Fred Rated

Back in the 40′s and 50′s the OSS/CIA used to order planes (and other items) from private companies. Then they’d meticulously go through and scrub the serial numbers and other identifying data from certain sensitive parts. At some point in the 50′s, some genius in the Company decided the CIA could partner with certain businesses to create compartmentalized divisions within these manufacturing centers to make pre-scrubbed parts. Over time, logistics made this difficult to sustain (keeping workers segregated and such) and so the next step was taken. The CIA bought out some of these companies and made the parts themselves. This had the added bonus of generating “legitimate” income as well since they also sold to non-CIA customers. Some time in the 60′s the CIA went whole hog and bought out or acquired controlling interests in the plane manufacturers themselves. This is not just true of planes, but of many, many businesses from everything as mundane as dry cleaners to auto manufacturers.

Long story short, much (most?) of American aeronautics is majority owned and controlled by US Intel.

So…

A CIA plane carrying coke?

Sure.

Just like CIA dry cleaners press your shirts and CIA trucks deliver delicious baked goods to your local Dunkin’ Doughnuts. Is the CIA on a mission of mayhem when their trucks send doughnut holes to some Boston area Dunkin’ Donuts? No. The point is, they are so pervasive and so bloated with decades of illicit cash, they can’t invest their money fast enough.

Where do spooks like Frank Carlucci go after serving their country with Iran-Contra, the assassination of Lumumba, and other ancient tomfoolery?

Carlyle Group to name but one.

You name it. US Intel owns it. What do you think they do with all of that weapon, drug, and other off-the-books revenue?

Invest in everything from doughnuts to ice cream.

http://www.carlyle.com/Portfolio/item7440.html

Go through the portfolio of Carlyle. That’s just ONE sliver of US Intel. And that’s just the stuff they put on the books.

This nation was built on slavery and rum. Why would cocaine cause these people to blink? It’s just another commodity.
freeyourcrt

Wait, governments run drugs (cough, cough, opium wars, cough , cough)? What will they think of next.
Phikus

Just remember folks, you can’t spell “politician” without CIA in the middle of it (ok, actually off to the right, appropriately.)
Fred Rated

>> With an O.

Oops.

My bad.
Phikus

And what shall be done about this new smoking gun? Probably nothing, just like the others.
Christopher Kirk

To be pedantic for a second, there’s a country called Colombia. With an O. There isn’t one named Columbia.

Seems like a small thing, but I live in Colombia, and it’s a constant little irritating rash to read Americans spelling it with a U. C’mon. It’s not hard.
zarniwooporiginal

Please don’t link to videos which start automatically.
Mark Frauenfelder

yeah sorry about that
Fred Rated

The business of America is business.

Cocaine generates revenue.

That’s how the CIA sees it.

(BTW, “CIA” is just shorthand for the entire US intel network. That thing has grown like kudzu since the days of the OSS. Now there are dozens of private security and intel divisions that answer to specific interest groups, none of whom are the American people. Most incoming administrations, realizing they can’t come to grips with the CIA in their four short years, simply create their own private CIA and thus perpetuate the system.)

Not only does the CIA use planes to facilitate the distribution of cocaine for its own profit, American corporations own the fields outright on which the coca is grown. And CIA airbases and surveillance stations have been operating in the heart of Bolivia, Peru, Columbia for decades. To say that America cooperates with the drug cartels is inaccurate. America IS the drug cartels.

Mouthbreathers who still subscribe to the Don’t Do Drugs/Beacon on a Hill PSAs cannot wrap their heads around this despite decades of hard data. In fact, they deliberately choose NOT to come to terms with the evidence.

Remaining blissfully ignorant of American atrocities is hard work.

They say the United States cannot violate the integrity of Bolivia or Columbia to destroy the coca fields. Can anyone who has paid attention during the past eight years believe the US is restrained from eradicating every last coca plant because they are loathe to violate the sanctity of some South American banana republic? National sovereignty and the rule of law is toilet humor to the US.

If Bush thought one of his daughters misplaced her cellphone on a weekend in Venice, he’d unleash shock and awe and 100,000 troops on Italy. And he’d send another 10,000 into Austria just because he got a hankering for pretzels.

And the argument that we can’t find the fields?

Our satellite network can count the grains of sugar on a churro, but we can’t find acres of coca? The US asserts with a straight face that Star Wars defense technology can intercept hundreds of ICBMs, but we can’t seem to locate coca fields that have covered the same stretch of terrain for centuries?

This is akin to being able to find bin Laden, but not New York City.

Bitch, get OnStar!

General Smith: “OnStar? Hello. This is General Smith. Where are the coca fields?”

OnStar: “Oh shit. That’s easy. Start at LA City Hall. Take Wilshire to the 110. Go southeast for 3,500 miles. Ask around.”

Finally, don’t bother reading the smears against Gary Webb. Read his book. Dark Alliance. Good luck finding it.

Also, Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press which has a piece on Webb.
thievedrelic

i can has conspyratoreal iynklyngs.

this country makes me a sad panda.
Johnny Cat

” Chicago Public Radio story from October 31, 2008 about the crashed CIA drug plane.”

Wow, BB. You’re good!
Any tips on lottery numbers? Baseball scores?
Banksynergy

Firstly – “Here’s a Chicago Public Radio story from October 31, 2008…” Oh, really? So cool how we get those transmissions from the future.

Secondly – Can I work for BoingBoing? Please? I can relocate spiders outside. Everyone needs a colleague for that.
Banksynergy

Damn you Johnny Cat! In with the editor’s eye before me! Now I’ll never get hired.
Takuan

s’ok you were both pre-fired anyway.
Banksynergy

Fine, but when the spider revolution begins, you’ll come crawling back to me, and I’ll just LAUGH!

Then once I’m done laughing I will graciously accept your offer.
jamesgyre

i’m having weird problems commenting on the story below… this is just a test.
Takuan

there’s a great script here, new business jet rolls off the line, legitimate owners start flying it, get into trouble with blackmailing coke runners becasue they trusted a corrupt DEA agent (any of them), trace the path of a kilo from Columbia to Bush’s personal stash, include a vignette about some innocent schmuck shanghaied to be proxy tortured, yeah… easy to write, all revolving around the innocent little plane and all the uses the Cheney/Halliburton/Blackwater cartel put it to.
themindfantastic

Im glad someone is keeping on this story, because something like this is so EASILY swept under the rug after the usual cooling off period.
Takuan

did you get a comment error message?
sonny p fontaine

what a shockingly flagrant misuse of a drug plane