Pinochet Accused of Coke Trafficking

In a new twist in the Pinochet news front last week the Santiago daily La Nación, published that the jailed former head of Chile’s secret police during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, Manuel Contreras, has reportedly told a investigating judge that the former dictator’s millions of dollars came from drug trafficking.

Contreras, who is serving a number of life sentences, told an investigating judge that Pinochet, orchestrated a drug trafficking scheme with his youngest son Marco Antonio; secret police chemist Eugenio Berríos, who was found dead in 1995 in Uruguay; and the slain Colonel Gerardo Huber, the former head of the Army’s military factory FAMAE.

Contreras says in the 1980s Pinochet ordered the processing and trafficking of something called black cocaine; that is where chemicals are added to make cocaine difficult for detection by chemical tests and drug-sniffing dogs.

Court documents show that Pinochet’s wealth came from arms trafficking and that millions of dollars ended up in secret accounts in numerous banks including the Washington based Riggs Bank.

Huber who was found dead in 1992 -initially ruled by the military justice as a suicide- was involved in an illegal arms trafficking scheme to Croatia and Ecuador under Pinochet -according to court documents- orders, who at the time was the Army head.

Berríos is believed to have been killed by three Uruguay Army officers, now under arrest in Chile, following Pinochet’s orders. The investigation has shown that Pinochet wanted to develop chemical weapons and Berríos was responsible for the development of sarin gas.

On Tuesday, Marco Antonio Pinochet filed slander suit against Contreras. He says the claims are outrageous and called them the attack of a bitter man.

However, the judge investigating Huber’s murder says he passed the information to the judge who is investigating the source of Pinochet’s wealth.