211 lines
42 KiB
Markdown
211 lines
42 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Celerino Castillo
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aliases:
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- Celerino Castillo
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- Celerino Castillo III
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- Cellerino Castillo
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- Cele
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created: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-10-12
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category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
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tags:
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- Person
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- LawEnforcement
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- DEA
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- ElSalvador
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- Guatemala
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- Ilopango
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- ContraWar
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- CIAContraDrugs
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- DarkAllianceInvestigation
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- Powderburns
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- FirearmsConviction
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summary: "DEA agent whose reports of drug flights from Ilopango Air Base were closed, in his account, by CIA and Embassy pressure, and whose core claims the 1997 Justice Department Inspector General wrote were not substantiated."
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born: 1949-01-01
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location: "Edinburg, Texas"
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relations:
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[DEA]]"
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start: 1979
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end: 1992
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role: "special agent in New York, Peru and the Guatemala City regional office; left in 1992 on disability retirement after a proposed removal"
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fn: 1
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[DEA]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1991-12
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end: 1992
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role: "proposed removal on six charges, including misappropriation of funds and the sale of firearms to an informant; resolved by disability retirement"
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fn: 21
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Walter Grasheim]]"
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start: 1986-10-27
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end: 1986-11-21
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role: "DEA case on Grasheim opened by Castillo and closed by Country Attache Robert Stia"
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fn: 8
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- type: reported_to
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with: "[[Edwin Corr]]"
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start: 1986
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end: 1988
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role: "briefed the ambassador on the Grasheim investigation and on Ilopango drug allegations"
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fn: 11
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1997-06
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role: "declined an interview on conditions he set; the Inspector General's chapter X reviewed his allegations"
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fn: 1
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- type: prosecuted
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with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2008-03
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end: 2012-07
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role: "charged in March 2008 in the Western District of Texas; pleaded guilty October 1, 2008 to two counts of a superseding information; sentenced October 22, 2008 to 37 months; Fifth Circuit affirmed in 2009; motion to vacate denied July 2012"
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fn: 29
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---
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[[DEA]] special agent Celerino Castillo III served with the agency from 1979 to 1992, in [[New York City]], in [[Peru]] and in the regional office in [[Guatemala City]], which covered [[El Salvador]]. From that office he reported that pilots flying [[Contras|Contra]] resupply aircraft out of [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango Air Force Base]] were trafficking cocaine to the United States, and he alleged that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and the U.S. Embassy shut his investigation down. He set out those allegations in the 1994 book *Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War*, co-written with [[Dave Harmon]], and in interviews and a 1996 protest at DEA headquarters. The [[Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General]] reviewed the allegations in 1997 and wrote that the core of them was not substantiated. The CIA Inspector General's 1998 report records CIA denials and records that bear on parts of his account. In 2008 he was charged in the Western District of Texas with conspiracy to sell firearms without a license and selling them without a license, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 37 months, as set out below.[^1]
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### Assignment to Guatemala City
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Castillo had been a police officer in [[Edinburg, Texas]] from 1973 to 1979, when he joined the DEA as a special agent. His first posting was New York City, where he remained until 1984, when he was sent to Peru.[^1] DEA records confirm that in October 1985 he was transferred from Peru to the Guatemala City office, which covered [[Guatemala]], El Salvador, [[Belize]] and [[Honduras]], with Castillo responsible for El Salvador.[^1] Castillo told [[High Times]] that a supervisor who did not speak Spanish felt threatened by him and moved him to Central America without the promotion he had been promised. According to DEA Special Agent [[Russell Reina]], the transfer followed a photograph of Castillo posing in camouflage clothing with two machine guns that appeared on the front page of a Peruvian daily, which the DEA believed compromised his identity for undercover work.[^1]
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The Guatemala office had two agents, Reina and Castillo, under Country Attache [[Robert Stia]].[^2] Castillo's account, as set out in his book and in the reconstruction by [[Gary Webb]], is that Stia warned him two days after he arrived that the U.S. government was running a covert operation at Ilopango and that he should not interfere with it. Castillo also wrote that at the time El Salvador produced no drugs and the DEA had never opened an office there.[^3] The DEA opened an office in El Salvador in 1992, after Castillo had left the region.[^4]
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### Informants and the first Ilopango reports
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On March 20, 1986, the DEA office in [[Costa Rica]] cabled the Guatemala office that a source said [[Carlos Amador]] intended to fly an aircraft from Costa Rica through El Salvador to [[Miami]] with cocaine, possibly picking it up at "Hangar No. 4" in San Salvador. The Costa Rica office asked the Guatemala office to have the Salvadoran police investigate Amador and any persons or companies associated with Hangar No. 4. The Inspector General found no written response from the Guatemala office to that cable.[^5]
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On June 23, 1986, Castillo filed a debriefing report on an informant designated STG6, who worked at the airport, listing alleged traffickers in El Salvador. The informant identified [[Walter Grasheim]] as the "head of smuggling operations at the Illopango [sic] Military International Airport" and said that "Grasheim owns and operates Hangar #4 at said airport." The report named thirteen other documented narcotics traffickers who used hangars four and five, and it was filed in a general "Air Intelligence" file.[^5] Castillo's book gives the Ilopango informant the name "Hugo Martinez," as the CIA report records.[^6] Webb's account names an informant known as "Murga," who wrote flight plans for private aircraft on the civilian side of the base.[^3] The Inspector General chapter identifies the informant only by the designation STG6. Webb wrote that Castillo's informant Murga "was indeed working for the CIA and had been for quite some time," citing the Inspector General's section on STG6.[^3][^5] Castillo's informants also included [[Socrates Sofi-Perez]], a Cuban whom Webb identifies as a [[Bay of Pigs]] veteran.[^3]
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Webb wrote that Murga told Castillo the Contra pilots were flying cocaine to the United States and money to [[Panama]], sometimes leaving with kilos in plain view or arriving with boxloads of cash, and that when Castillo ran the pilots' names through DEA computers nearly all returned as documented narcotics traffickers. One was [[Francisco Guirola Beeche]]; Webb quotes Castillo's memoir: "When I ran Guirola's name in the computer, it popped up in 11 DEA files, detailing his South America-to-United States cocaine, arms and money laundering." Webb wrote that Castillo and his informants watched Guirola move in and out of Ilopango hauling drugs in and carrying cash to the [[Bahamas]]. Webb also wrote that Castillo began sending reports on the pilots to DEA headquarters in January 1986 and received no replies.[^3]
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The Inspector General listed the DEA case and informant files that Castillo gave the DEA in October 1996. They include an "Air Intelligence" file (GFTF-86-9999) holding the March 20, 1986 cable on Amador, a Grasheim case file (TG-87-0003), a general aircraft file (GFTG-85-9999) and a file on the Pozo-Aparicio cocaine organization (TG-86-0001). The Inspector General reported that few of the files mention the Contras, and that most of the files it described make no mention of Contra or CIA involvement in drug trafficking.[^7]
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### The Grasheim investigation
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The earliest DEA reference to Grasheim that the Inspector General found was a March 10, 1986 cable from Panama. It reported that Grasheim and an Israeli national had flown into Panama from El Salvador and, when questioned, had claimed to be DEA agents. The cable also reported that the U.S. Customs Service in New York was investigating Grasheim for arms smuggling.[^8]
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Castillo's case opening report of October 27, 1986 said that two informants had linked Grasheim to air smuggling of cocaine by subjects believed to be associated with the Contra movement. It said that Salvadoran armed forces Chief of Staff General Adolfo Blandon had limited the Salvadoran investigation "for security reasons." It also reported that on May 3, 1986 Grasheim had crash-landed an aircraft near Tamiami, Florida, identified himself as a "secret agent," and turned over a suitcase that the report said weighed about 60 pounds and contained cocaine.[^8] Grasheim's own account to the Inspector General is that a clog in his fuel line forced an emergency landing at Tamiami in 1987, that Customs had him proceed to the airport, and that no one searched his person, bags or plane.[^9]
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On September 1, 1986, Salvadoran police searched Grasheim's residence. Castillo's report lists a small amount of marijuana, plastic explosives, cases of grenades, sniper equipment, silencers, anti-tank rockets, machine guns, pistols, night vision equipment, military radios and ammunition. Three vehicles were also seized, one with a license plate registered to the U.S. Embassy, which the Embassy denied belonged to it. Grasheim filed a sworn statement that the Salvadoran armed forces had named him a military advisor and given him the seized items, a claim the armed forces denied.[^8] Castillo later told the Office of Independent Counsel's 1991 interviewer that he had possessed Grasheim's identification cards, including a U.S. Embassy identification.[^10]
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On October 30, 1986, Castillo and U.S. Customs agent Richard Rivera briefed Ambassador [[Edwin Corr]] on Grasheim. Corr told the Inspector General that he welcomed the investigation but asked that it be conducted discreetly, and that he had canceled U.S. government night vision contracts with Grasheim after the search. Corr said he later sent a secret "back channel" cable asking the [[State Department]] to have the DEA review Castillo's allegations. According to Corr, DEA headquarters replied that the Grasheim case would be closed for lack of evidence. The Inspector General could not find that cable or any DEA reply in DEA files, and the State Department could not find the back-channel cable either.[^11]
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Corr told the Inspector General that after the back-channel cable Castillo's supervisors told him to close the Grasheim investigation, and that Castillo continued "to snoop around the airport and make allegations." Corr said he told Castillo that if he had evidence on Grasheim or anyone at Ilopango, Corr would support the investigation, and if he had none he would have to stop the "witch hunt."[^11] Webb's account has Corr telling Castillo to stop the "witch hunt," and reports that the DEA told Corr that Castillo's information was "totally inaccurate." Webb attributes to Corr, in his interview with Justice Department investigators, the statements that Castillo "Was a very professional and a good agent" and that the investigation had the potential to "destroy relationships with Salvadoran officials that had taken so long to build."[^3]
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The DEA closed the case on November 21, 1986. The closing report, written by Stia, stated: "DEA has no further interest in Grasheim at this time and it is unlikely to develop further drug information about Grasheim directly." It added: "[t]he drug aspect of this portion of the investigation is concluded and therefore this particular file is closed." The DEA passed its information to Customs and the Internal Revenue Service, which were conducting their own investigation of Grasheim's exports of military equipment.[^12] Rivera told the Inspector General that Customs never developed enough evidence to charge Grasheim and eventually closed its own case.[^12]
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### Carlos Amador and the hangar cables
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The CIA's records on Amador begin in November 1984, when a cable describes him as a pilot for the [[ARDE]] group and reports that he had given the station information about another ARDE pilot fired for suspected contraband smuggling. A July or August 1985 Costa Rica station cable records that the other pilot had suggested Amador was a possible trafficker. The DEA office in Costa Rica had received an August 27, 1985 report that Amador planned to fly two aircraft from Miami to Colombia. The DEA official who reviewed that report later said it sat in a general air intelligence file, which indicated to him that there was not enough specific information to open an investigation.[^13]
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After the March 20, 1986 DEA cable, the CIA's Costa Rica station wrote to the El Salvador station on April 23, 1986. On April 25 the El Salvador station replied that Amador had stopped flying for the Contras in early 1985 and had gone into private business. The reply said Hangar 4 at Ilopango was the location of Contra operations and that the station could assure that the only items moved on Amador's flights were military supplies. It then asked: "Based on that information, [El Salvador] Station would appreciate [Costa Rica] Station advising [DEA] not to make any inquiries to anyone re: hangar no. 4 at Ilopango since only legitimate [CIA] supported operations were conducted from this facility." The same cable noted that station air operations had moved from Hangar 4 into Hangar 5, which the station still occupied.[^13]
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On June 10, 1986, the El Salvador station reported that an embassy officer, the local contact for the regional DEA official, had asked for any CIA information on Amador. According to that cable, the DEA official said that if Amador was connected to the CIA the DEA would leave him alone, and if not the DEA intended to go after him. The Inspector General judged that the regional official was likely either Robert Stia or Castillo.[^13] On June 17, 1986, CIA headquarters replied that its records showed no CIA "association" with Amador. Castillo's June 23, 1986 debriefing had described Amador as a "Contra Freedom Fighter" based in Miami who used a Salvadoran military credential to land at Ilopango without a customs search.[^5] The Inspector General found no DEA case initiated against Amador in its NADDIS database and no later DEA or FBI file on him.[^13]
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### Hangars 4 and 5
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The CIA Inspector General's report on the Contra story describes the hangars at Ilopango. In 1984 the CIA occupied a newly built warehouse and hangar, Hangar 5, and moved to it activities that had been conducted in the smaller Hangar 4. After the CIA moved out of Hangar 4, the [[NHAO]] and the "Private Benefactors" used it in 1985 and 1986 for Contra-related operations. The two hangars shared an aircraft parking area on a restricted part of the base controlled by the Salvadoran military.[^6] Webb wrote that CIA records show Hangar 4 was used for covert Contra operations "until it was turned over in 1985 to the National Security Council and Oliver North's illegal arms network, 'The Enterprise.'"[^3] The CIA Inspector General's account of the transfer names the NHAO and the Private Benefactors and does not name the [[National Security Council]] or [[Oliver North]].[^6] Webb quotes former CIA Central American Task Force chief [[Alan Fiers]] from his testimony in *United States v. George* on July 31, 1992: "We had a capability and indeed a responsibility for reporting what had been happening at Ilopango."[^3]
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The same report identifies three main sources of drug trafficking allegations at Ilopango: a U.S. citizen, Castillo, and a CIA/DEA source known as STG6.[^6] [[Felix Rodriguez]], who went to El Salvador in 1985 to oversee a counterinsurgency program at Ilopango and who was known in the Contra supply operation as "Max Gomez," told the Inspector General that Hangar 4 was used by the Salvadoran military to store equipment and helicopters, that the CIA controlled Hangar 5, and that the sliding doors on both generally stood open. He said that he never saw or had reason to believe that drugs were carried by the Contra pilots, and that [[Juan Rafael Bustillo]] had asked Corr to place drug-sniffing dogs at the airfield after the DEA allegations.[^14] Rodriguez also said that he sent a mechanic named Carson back to the United States in 1986 after Carson said the Ilopango operation was "a money making project."[^14]
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### Castillo's conversations with CIA officers
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In the book, Castillo describes two conversations with CIA officers. In the first, on August 15, 1986, the San Salvador chief of station, whom he names as [[Jack McCavett]], denied any connection between the CIA and the Ilopango operation. Three days later, Castillo wrote, McCavett pulled $45,000 in cash from his desk drawer and told him to spend it on cars for an anti-narcotics group. In the second, Castillo says that [[Randy Kapasar]], a CIA agent in Guatemala, knew he was investigating the Contras and followed the reasoning of informant Socrates Sofi-Perez. In Castillo's account Kapasar said: "Cele, how do you think the Contras are gonna make money? They've got to run dope, that's the only way we can finance this operation."[^15]
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The CIA Inspector General's report found CIA records showing that in mid-1986 the agency planned to spend $45,000 on three vehicles for the Government of El Salvador, and that the money was accounted for on August 18, 1986, "the same date Castillo alleged in Powderburns that he received $45,000 from a person he refers to as COS McCavett." The report added that "no information has been found to indicate that the transaction involved Castillo or DEA in any manner."[^15] The same report records an officer who met Castillo in Guatemala, and who worked with him on an unrelated project, recalling that Castillo discussed suspected narcotics trafficking at Ilopango without mentioning the Contras. That officer denied any knowledge of Contra drug trafficking and denied ever asking Castillo to back away from an investigation.[^16]
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### The DEA's internal review
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The Inspector General reports that in February 1987 [[Douglas Everett]], chief of program and policy in the DEA Intelligence Section, went to Central America to evaluate allegations linking Nicaraguan political organizations to the drug trade. After meeting DEA, State Department and military personnel and informants, Everett reported that he could find no evidence that the [[Sandinistas]] or the Contras as entities were involved in drug trafficking. He wrote that the Guatemala office had recently closed an El Salvador investigation involving Contra allegations, and that informants had reported drug activity in hangars four and five. The Guatemala office believed the informants had exaggerated, in part because people arriving at the airport sometimes ran to the military side carrying briefcases, which the informants assumed held cocaine. Everett suggested that any smuggling at Ilopango was probably the work of Francisco Guirola Beeche, and he predicted that the allegations would keep surfacing because arrested traffickers would claim CIA authorization.[^17]
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The CIA Inspector General's report records that a DEA intelligence analyst who helped review Castillo's allegations told it that DEA found no information supporting the claims linking the Contras to drug trafficking, and that "all of the Contra allegations lacked substance."[^16]
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### The Inspector General's 1997 review
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Chapter X of the DOJ Inspector General's 1997 report on the CIA and the Contra cocaine controversy states that Castillo refused an interview unless it was taped and [[Maxine Waters]] was present. The Inspector General agreed to tape the interview and to let him bring a personal representative, but told him Waters should not take part in an investigation it was conducting, and Waters was unable to persuade him to meet. The report also records that the former DEA country attache for Costa Rica, the former CIA chiefs of station for Costa Rica and El Salvador, and others declined interviews; that Stia did not sit for a second interview; and that the former Salvadoran air force chief Juan Rafael Bustillo and informant STG6 could not be located.[^1]
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The Inspector General's conclusion, attributed to the Inspector General alone, is that "although some of his claims have a seed of truth behind them, the inferences he draws, and his core claims about CIA support for Contra drug trafficking, were not substantiated by our review." It also found "that there was intelligence, although not hard evidence, that some Contra resupply pilots were trafficking in drugs, and that Castillo made that information available to the DEA, as he states." It found that the CIA did ask the DEA to stop using STG6, and that "there is no evidence that the CIA made this request for any reason other than that it wanted to use the informant."[^18]
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On the Ilopango operations, the Inspector General wrote that "it is clear that there were sensitive covert operations being conducted at Ilopango Airport," and that the CIA and the embassy were not anxious for the DEA to pursue its investigation there. It said it did not find proof that the CIA or the embassy wanted the DEA kept away because the agency was involved in drug trafficking, as opposed to wanting to protect covert operations.[^18]
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The Inspector General also summarized the 1991 interview of Castillo by FBI Special Agent [[Michael Foster]] for the [[Office of Independent Counsel]] investigation of the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. Castillo told Foster that he believed North and the resupply operation were running drugs to raise money for the Contras. He said Grasheim had told Corr that "If I go down, half your Mil Group will go down with me," and that Corr had responded "Let the chips fall where they may." Foster wrote that Castillo "makes general accusations, but when I try to pin him down, he can't provide specific information that would support his conclusions." Foster told the Inspector General that Castillo would proceed from his own limited knowledge to generalizations that people "had to have known" about drug involvement.[^10]
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Other DEA and embassy personnel interviewed by the Inspector General described Castillo in similar terms. Stia said Castillo needed a lot of guidance and was quick to make judgments before conducting an adequate investigation. Reina said Castillo was quick to jump to conclusions and treated the leaders of foreign governments with disrespect. [[Janice Elmore]], the embassy's narcotics coordinator, said Castillo had often made allegations that later proved to be without merit. Delphin Von Briesen, who worked with informant STG6, said that Castillo's book "definitely embellished facts" about which Von Briesen had personal knowledge.[^19]
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### The 1988 Bustillo meeting and Hangar 5
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On December 14, 1988, Castillo met General Bustillo about Bustillo's suspicion that Salvadoran Air Force officers were using the base for drug trafficking. Castillo told Bustillo that the DEA had similar information but lacked hard evidence because it had not been able to work at Ilopango. Pressed for names, Castillo named the Air School director, [[Manfredo Koenigsberg]]. Bustillo passed the allegation to the defense minister, General [[Vides Casanova]], who confronted Koenigsberg. Koenigsberg denied the charges, and Bustillo could produce only rumors and Castillo's information. A January 3, 1989 embassy cable to the DEA said the embassy assumed the DEA "must have some concrete evidence" to support Castillo's remarks, and it noted that Castillo had given Bustillo the impression that the DEA was prepared to assign personnel to Ilopango.[^4]
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In February 1989 the CIA station sent the DEA information that the Panamanian Miguel Antonio Rodriguez was using Ilopango to repair his aircraft. Robert Stia later reported that Castillo and Group Supervisor [[Thomas deTriquet]] went to Ilopango to investigate and were told by a CIA officer that they could not enter the base for that purpose, and that the CIA had already supplied the tail numbers and names.[^4] Stia wrote that the San Salvador station "has taken a more active stance in providing drug information to DEA," but that the Guatemala office could not develop the most important information, which concerned Ilopango.[^4]
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DeTriquet told the Inspector General that he and Castillo went to Ilopango about an allegation that unidentified dealers moved cocaine through Hangar 5 using Contra-associated pilots. A Salvadoran security officer denied them access to Hangar 5, which deTriquet believed held CIA equipment, after they tried a ruse without identifying themselves as DEA agents. At the embassy the CIA chief of station assured them there was no drug activity associated with Hangar 5, and they dropped the matter.[^4] The Inspector General's account has a Salvadoran security officer and a CIA officer as the obstacles. Castillo's version has the CIA itself refusing him access.[^3]
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The CIA ended its use of STG6 in December 1987, when it asked the DEA to stop using him because he was a current CIA informant. The DEA reactivated STG6 in 1989. Stia said the CIA chief of station had asked him to relinquish STG6 and that Castillo never expressed displeasure about it. An April 13, 1989 Stia memorandum, however, describes a "valuable asset (CI) was denied" to the Guatemala office at Ilopango.[^20]
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### Disciplinary action and disability retirement
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In December 1991 the DEA moved to remove Castillo as a criminal investigator on six charges. The first was misappropriation of funds. A DEA source reported that Castillo had asked for $25,000 to give to special forces in Guatemala; the source said he gave Castillo the $25,000, and Castillo later said the source had given him only $10,000. The Office of Professional Responsibility found that Castillo had not followed the rules for processing money, had delayed reporting it for about five months, and had not fully advised his supervisor. The second charge concerned an attempt to sell a DEA radio to the same source for $15,000. The third was accepting a fully automatic MAC-10 machine gun from a confidential source and disregarding an order to get rid of it. The fourth concerned the sale of a .45 caliber pistol and a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun to an informant for $3,000 and $5,000. The fifth was possessing two fully automatic weapons, an AR-15 and a MAC-10, contrary to DEA regulations. The sixth was a false statement about whether he knew the buyer of the pistol was an informant.[^21]
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Castillo denied the charges, called them administrative, and said they were brought in retaliation for his investigations of alleged Contra and CIA drug trafficking. In 1992, in lieu of the removal the DEA had proposed, he accepted disability retirement for a stress-related disorder. The Inspector General wrote that it was beyond the scope of its review to determine the validity of the charges or whether his retaliation claims had merit.[^21]
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### The 1996 protest and the congressional record
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In October 1996 Castillo appeared at DEA headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, with a list of cases that he said supported his allegation that the DEA had turned a deaf ear to investigations linking the CIA and the Contras to trafficking.[^7] [[Salon]] published a report by [[Dennis Bernstein]] and [[Robert Knight]] of Pacific News Service on October 8, 1996, which stated that Castillo, "flanked by civil rights activist [[Dick Gregory]] and the Rev. [[Joseph Lowery]] of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]]," had staged a protest at DEA headquarters the week before, with the demand "an official investigation into the Reagan-Bush governments' clandestine Iran-Contra policy."[^22] The report states that Castillo said he tried on or about January 14, 1986 to alert Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]] at a U.S. embassy party in Guatemala that "something funny" was going on at Ilopango, and quotes him: "But he just shook my hand, smiled and walked away from me." It describes a February 14, 1989 memo from Castillo to his Guatemala-based supervisor on known traffickers using hangars at Ilopango controlled by the CIA and by North, and quotes a 1994 interview in which Castillo said: "There is no doubt that they were running large quantities of cocaine into the U.S. to support the Contras. We saw the cocaine and we saw boxes full of money." The report adds that Attorney General [[Janet Reno]] and CIA Director [[John Deutch]] had stated there was no evidence to support the allegations against the CIA.[^22]
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The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held hearings titled "Allegations of a CIA Connection to Crack Cocaine Epidemic" on October 23 and November 26, 1996. [[Fred Hitz]] testified at the first session.[^23] The printed record of both sessions does not name Castillo. A statement in the record says the committee took testimony from a DEA agent after the agency closed its Honduras office and moved the agents to Guatemala, and that the agent "said it made no sense." The record does not name him.[^23]
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On March 16, 1998, the CIA Inspector General told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in a statement on the California story, that "six former CIA employees and a former DEA agent refused our request to be interviewed." The statement does not name the agent. The DOJ Inspector General records that Castillo declined an interview on conditions he set.[^1][^24]
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The 1988 Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee report, issued by the [[Kerry Committee]], does not name Castillo. It documents the flights of a C-47 transport. [[Adolfo Chamorro]] gave the subcommittee a list of the flights made by that aircraft to ferry arms from Ilopango to Costa Rica and to La Penca, and the report states that between October 18, 1984 and February 12, 1986 some 156,000 pounds of material were moved from Ilopango to airfields in Costa Rica, on 24 flights, eleven of them to La Penca.[^25] A subcommittee staff report chronology for October 14, 1986 states that [[Max Gomez]] (identified in brackets as Felix Rodriguez) was managing contra supply operations out of Ilopango after having allegedly been placed there by the National Security Council.[^26]
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### Powderburns
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*Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War* was published in 1994, under the Sundial imprint of [[Mosaic Press]], with Dave Harmon as co-author.[^27] The CIA report and the Inspector General's chapter X both quote its account of Castillo's conversations with CIA officers, and both treat those claims as Castillo's allegations.[^1][^6] The CIA report quotes the book's references to "McCavett" and "Hugo Martinez," and its Kapasar passage is drawn from the book.[^15] Webb's notes for his chapter 13 cite *Powderburns* pages 112 to 113 for Stia's warning and pages 126 to 127 for Sofi-Perez, and state that his text on Castillo draws on the book, on his own interviews with Castillo, and on Castillo's interviews with Independent Counsel investigators declassified by the National Archives in 1994.[^3]
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### Dark Alliance and the Chretien allegation
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In his book [[Dark Alliance]], Webb wrote that after returning to [[Sacramento]] he phoned Castillo and told him about [[Craig Chretien]]'s claim that there was no proof the Contras were involved in drugs. Castillo said Chretien had been one of the DEA officials sent to Guatemala to conduct the internal investigation of him. He said Chretien ordered him to use the word "alleged" in his reports to Washington about Contra drug shipments from Ilopango. Webb quotes Castillo: "They said, 'You cannot actually come out and say this shit is going on.' And I told them, 'I'm watching the fucking things fly out of here with my own eyes! Why would I have to say alleged?'" Castillo said of Chretien's denial: "Aw, bullshit. Of all people, he knows perfectly well what was going on. He was reading all my reports, looking for grammatical errors."[^28]
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Webb also wrote that in response to a Freedom of Information Act request the DEA claimed it had no reports from Castillo about drug trafficking at Ilopango, and that the Inspector General "had no trouble locating the agent's reports and quoted from them liberally." The Inspector General's chapter X, reviewing DEA files, located Castillo's June 23, 1986 debriefing report, his October 27, 1986 case opening report on Grasheim, his October 31, 1986 personal history report, and the Air Intelligence files.[^7][^8]
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### Firearms conviction, 2008 and 2009
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The docket of *United States v. Castillo*, No. 5:08-cr-00193 in the Western District of Texas, lists the defendant as Celerino Castillo, III. A sealed complaint was filed on March 5, 2008 (No. 5:08-mj-00160) and an arrest warrant was returned executed on March 6; Castillo made an initial appearance on March 7 before Magistrate Judge John W. Primomo, who set a $25,000 unsecured bond. An indictment on two counts was filed on April 2, 2008. He pleaded guilty before the magistrate judge on June 13, 2008. On October 1, 2008 he pleaded guilty before Judge W. Royal Furgeson Jr. to two counts of a superseding information, and the indictment was dismissed on the government's motion. The minute entry for the sentencing of October 22, 2008 records 37 months of imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently, with two years of supervised release. He filed a pro se notice of appeal on October 31, 2008, and judgment was entered on November 5.[^29]
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The [[San Antonio Current]] reported in July 2009 that Celerino Castillo III, described as a Vietnam veteran and former DEA agent, was picked up at a San Antonio gun show in March 2008 and charged with conspiracy to sell guns without a license and selling guns without a license. The paper quoted him: "I did sell guns without a license because half of the gun shows do, but they wanted to actually come after me because of my history of fighting the government." It reported that he was ordered to report to the [[La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution|La Tuna federal prison]] on July 20 to serve a 22-month sentence received "late last year," and that at a July 10 hearing the judge denied his request to remain on bond during his appeal to the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit|Fifth Circuit]]. It quoted Castillo: "I initiated the Iran/Contra investigation back in the '80s where we implicated our government in the drug trafficking. There were some bipartisan investigations that confirmed my allegations."[^30]
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The docket records a July 10, 2009 status conference and an order of that date extending the surrender date to July 30, 2009. The Fifth Circuit (No. 08-51144) affirmed, and its mandate was entered on November 9, 2009; the docket also records a Supreme Court order denying certiorari, transmitted in March 2010. Castillo filed a motion to vacate under 28 U.S.C. section 2255 on October 7, 2010 (Civil Action SA-10-CV-818). Magistrate Judge Primomo recommended denial on February 2, 2011, and Chief Judge Fred Biery accepted the recommendation and closed the case on July 24, 2012.[^29]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy," Chapter X: Celerino Castillo, introduction and sections A and B (December 1997). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p1.htm
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[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 3, section F (interviews of DEA Guatemala personnel, including Reina, Holifield, Von Briesen and Elmore). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p3.htm
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[^3]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (Seven Stories Press, 1998), chapter 13, "The wrong kind of friends," and the chapter notes. https://archive.org/details/dark-alliance-the-cia-the-contras-and-the-crack-cocaine-explosion-gary-webb-1998
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[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 3, section E (Castillo's later interactions with Salvadoran personnel, the January 3, 1989 embassy cable, the Stia memorandum, and the deTriquet interview). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p3.htm
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[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, sections C.1.a and C.2 (DEA cables and debriefing reports on Grasheim and Amador, including the March 20, 1986 Costa Rica cable and Castillo's June 23, 1986 debriefing report). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
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[^6]: CIA Office of Inspector General, *Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States*, Volume II, "The Contra Story" (1998), paragraphs 1023 and 1026 (hangars, three sources of allegations) and 1028 (Castillo's book and the "Hugo Martinez" name). https://archive.org/details/nps56-111612-04
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[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 4, section I ("Castillo's Recent List of Relevant Files," including the October 1996 visit to DEA headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, and DEA case and informant files) https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p4.htm
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[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.1.a (DEA reports on Grasheim: the March 10, 1986 Panama cable, the June 23, 1986 debriefing, the October 27, 1986 case opening, the October 31, 1986 personal history report, the September 1, 1986 search, and the reports that followed). The Inspector General gives the case opening as October 27, 1986 in its file listing and as 1987 in one passage of part 2. https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
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[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.1.b(6) (interview of Walter Grasheim). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
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[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 4, section K (summary of the FBI report of Special Agent Michael Foster's 1991 interview of Castillo for the Office of Independent Counsel). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p4.htm
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[^11]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.1.b(2) (interview of Edwin Corr). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
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[^12]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.1.b(5) (interview of Richard Rivera) and section C.1.c (closing of the Grasheim case). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
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[^13]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.2 (Carlos Amador: CIA cables of April 23, April 25, June 10 and June 17, 1986; DEA cables of August 27, 1985 and March 20, 1986; NADDIS check). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
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[^14]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.1.b(1) (interview of Felix Rodriguez). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p2.htm
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[^15]: CIA Office of Inspector General, Volume II (1998), paragraphs 1028 through 1031 (Castillo's account of conversations with the San Salvador chief of station and with Randy Kapasar, as quoted from *Powderburns*) and paragraph 1047 (CIA records of the $45,000 vehicle purchase, August 18, 1986). https://archive.org/details/nps56-111612-04
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[^16]: CIA Office of Inspector General, Volume II (1998), paragraphs 1063 (officer who met Castillo in Guatemala) and 1065 (DEA intelligence analyst). https://archive.org/details/nps56-111612-04
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[^17]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 3, section D (Douglas Everett's February 1987 review of allegations linking Nicaraguan political organizations to drug trafficking). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p3.htm
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[^18]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 4, section L (evaluation of Castillo's allegations). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p4.htm
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[^19]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 2, section C.1.b(4) (interview of Robert Stia) and part 3, section F. https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p3.htm
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[^20]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 3, section H (informant STG6, CIA use and DEA reactivation, and the April 13, 1989 Stia memorandum). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p3.htm
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[^21]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Chapter X, part 4, section J (allegation that the DEA retaliated against Castillo, December 1991 removal charges and 1992 disability retirement). https://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch10p4.htm
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[^22]: Dennis Bernstein and Robert Knight (Pacific News Service), report published by Salon, October 8, 1996. https://www.salon.com/1996/10/08/news_555/
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[^23]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, *Allegations of a CIA Connection to Crack Cocaine Epidemic*, hearings of October 23 and November 26, 1996, S. Hrg. 104-865. https://intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/allegationsofcia00unit.pdf
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[^24]: CIA Inspector General Frederick P. Hitz, statement before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Volume I: The California Story," March 16, 1998. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_hr/980316-ps.htm
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[^25]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165 (printed December 1988), p. 51 (Chamorro flight list, C-47 flights from Ilopango).
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[^26]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165, chronology entry for October 14, 1986.
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[^27]: Celerino Castillo III and Dave Harmon, *Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War* (Sundial, Mosaic Press, 1994), catalogue record at Fairfield University Digital Commons. https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/petry-books/197
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[^28]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance* (1998), chapter 25, "Things are moving all around us."
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[^29]: Docket entries 1 to 100, *United States v. Castillo*, No. 5:08-cr-00193 (W.D. Tex., filed April 2, 2008; earlier magistrate No. 5:08-mj-00160), CourtListener RECAP archive. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4399978/united-states-v-castillo/
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[^30]: Alicia Ramirez, "DEA Agent Sentenced to 22 Months at La Tuna," *San Antonio Current*, July 15-21, 2009. https://www.sacurrent.com/news/dea-agent-sentenced-to-22-months-at-la-tuna-2377362/
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