madcowprod.com
“Newly-obtained FAA registration records reveal that the American “mystery plane” busted this July with 35 kilos of heroin at an airport outside Sydney, Australia was a CIA plane. At least, it had been when it rolled off the assembly line 40 years earlier, courtesy a CIA deal with the U.S. Forest Service. And the CIA never sells off its planes.
The American-registered ‘mystery plane’ in Australia was a Merlin III twin–engine turbo-prop ( tail number N224HR).
FAA registration records show it was commissioned in the early 70’s by the U.S. Forest Service from aircraft manufacturer Swearingen in San Antonio, part of an operation to “sheep-dip” CIA planes through the U.S. Forest Service.
“Sheep-dip” is spook-speak for concealing the source or true ownership of something, or, at the very least, hiding it from Congress. When the plane was ordered, the CIA was merely anticipating Congressional calls for reining in the CIA, through (tellingly) forcing the Agency to divest its proprietary airlines.
By the time the plane was delivered two years later, the calls had grown much louder. In another two years, they’d become successful. More on this in a moment.
Hmm. A “sophisticated” drug network…
The discovery of an American-registered plane delivering drugs at an Australian airport heralded, according to Australian law enforcement, a “sophisticated drug network” that had begun using the tiny Illawarra Regional Airport, 60 miles south of Sydney, to import guns and drugs.
The purchase in the U.S. of the Merlin III, and the plane’s subsequent two-month long saga on its journey “home” to Australia, an Australian law enforcement official told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, were actions undertaken at the behest of a “major international crime syndicate.”
Police were said to be “close-mouthed;”and “tight-lipped.” After revealing they had confiscated 35 kilos, they refused to identify the drug involved, which is heroin.
But Police prosecutor Sergeant Sean Thackray gave things away when he let slip, ‘‘We’re talking about the organization of a plane to import a large amount of a substance …. to the value of $9 million.’’
(Note: Price quotes per kilo for heroin in consuming countries vary widely, from a low of $100,000 to a high, in Australia, of all places, of $375,000. If we take a figure in the middle, $250,000, 35 kilos is worth $8.7 million, very close to Sgt. Thackray’s quote of $9 million.)
“Really? A major international syndicate?”
With the announcement that a global cartel was moving planes like chess pieces across a chessboard the size of the Outback, hope surged (in some circles) that a few American Drug Lords might finally achieve the recognition they deserve.
The twin-engine Merlin III was picked up in Punta Gorda, at the Charlotte County Airport, which is to general aviation what the Black Hole of Calcutta is to after-school detention.
A smart cop might have figured that pressing the flesh in Punta Gorda with a few American Drug Lords “might could” have provided folks living a little further off the beaten path some valuable networking opportunities.
Alas, smart cops are always the first to be let go. So the first well-publicized arrest in the Big Aussie-American Heroin Bust was a 43-year old Australian sky-diving instructor, Bernhard Stevermuer, charged with being part of a criminal organization and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
The discovery of an American-registered plane delivering drugs at an Australian airport heralded, according to Australian law enforcement, a “sophisticated drug network” that had begun using the tiny Illawarra Regional Airport, 60 miles south of Sydney, to import guns and drugs. 
With the announcement that a global cartel was moving planes like chess pieces across a chessboard the size of the Outback, hope surged (in some circles) that a few American Drug Lords might finally achieve the recognition they deserve.
Why were two Australian pilots picking up the Merlin III in Punta Gorda, Florida? The owner of the plane was a dentist in Colombia, Missouri.