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The_Info_Web/60 - PLACES/REGIONS/Cabazon Indian Reservation.md

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title aliases created updated tags category summary location
Cabazon Indian Reservation
Cabazon Indian Reservation
Cabazon reservation
2026-05-17 2026-10-09
Geography
Intelligence
Military
UnitedStates
California
1980s
ContraWar
PROMIS
DarkAllianceInvestigation
Region Sovereign tribal territory near Indio, California used during the 1980s as a site for a CIA-linked Wackenhut Corporation weapons development and PROMIS software modification joint venture. Indio, California

The Cabazon Indian Reservation is located near Indio, California, and is home to the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians. Its sovereign nation status played a crucial role in a joint venture with Wackenhut Corporation, allowing the parties to operate outside typical federal jurisdiction and congressional prohibitions. During the 1980s, the reservation was used as a site for developing weapons for Third World armies, including the Contras.12

Joint Venture with Wackenhut Corporation

On April 1, 1981, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians formalized a joint venture with Wackenhut Corporation, primarily to establish a production facility named "Cabazon Arms" on the reservation. This partnership was designed to manufacture high-tech arms and explosives for export to third-world countries, including the Contras in Nicaragua and nations in the Middle East, effectively circumventing U.S. arms export regulations. The San Francisco Chronicle described the venture as "a series of international military and security projects that seem to be lifted from the pages of a spy novel."12

Dr. John Nichols, the Cabazon tribal administrator and a former Central Intelligence Agency agent who claimed involvement in the agency's Chilean destabilization program in the 1970s, was instrumental in this venture. He obtained a Department of Defense secret facility clearance for the reservation to conduct various research projects. Nichols proposed to Wackenhut the production of a range of weapons systems, including 120mm combustible cartridge cases, 9mm machine pistols, laser-sighted assault weapons, sniper rifles, portable rocket systems, night-vision scopes, and battlefield communications systems. The joint venture also explored the development of biological weapons.12

In May 1983, the Cabazons solicited San Diego arms manufacturer Tim LaFrance to build an arms factory on their reservation. Their letter to LaFrance Specialties stated: "We need the know-how from an organization engaged in the manufacturing of armaments of various types, all consisting of technology not currently found on the marketplace."2

The casino's first cardroom manager was Rocco Zangari, who managed the cardroom from September 1980 until his discharge in November 1981.3 Cheri Seymour wrote that he was a former bookie.1 In 1988 he pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in Los Angeles; the 1989 Press-Enterprise reports the plea, a sentence of five years' probation and a $2,000 fine, and an indictment that identified him as an associate of Peter Milano.4

Wayne Reeder, a real estate developer, told FBI agents on October 5, 1992 that he had built the casino for the Cabazon Indians and had received a percentage under an agreement made when he built it.5 The Bua report describes the casino building as the only building on the reservation in the early 1980s, with a mobile trailer behind it used as a small office for the Cabazons and the casino operation.6

Casino Establishment and Bankruptcy

In October 1980 the Cabazon Band established on the reservation the Cabazon Indian Casino, an unincorporated company consisting of a card parlor, restaurant and bar, employing about 75 people whose wages were paid from casino revenues.7 The casino was located on tribal trust land. On December 10, 1981, the casino filed a petition for reorganization under Chapter 11. The petition was signed by John Paul Nichols as "Project Manager," and it described the casino as a co-partnership whose listed members included the tribal chairman and other tribal members alongside Nichols, a non-Indian.3

A Ninth Circuit bankruptcy appellate panel reversed summary judgment in a suit brought by the discharged cardroom manager in 1983, finding a material question of fact about whether the casino was a partnership with members outside the protection of 25 U.S.C. § 81.3 In February 1986 a Ninth Circuit bankruptcy appellate panel affirmed a ruling that the casino was not exempt from federal unemployment and employment taxes, on an Internal Revenue Service proof of claim for 1981 employment taxes of $181,530.24 (FICA) and $5,614.11 (FUTA).7

A January 1988 article reports that the tribe then owed casino debts of $567,577 to 45 creditors against assets of $123,859, and that settlement of the case depended on a $200,000 loan from Southwest Gaming Inc.8

Contra Connection

Contra leader Eden Pastora visited a firing range near the reservation for a weapons demonstration in 1981, a claim Pastora has both confirmed and denied on separate occasions. Wackenhut was using the Cabazon reservation's tax-exempt status and its freedom from federal oversight to gain a competitive advantage in soliciting federal weapons projects.2

PROMIS Software Modification

Michael Riconosciuto stated in a March 21, 1991 affidavit that he had served as the Director of Research for this joint venture; the report of Judge Nicholas J. Bua found no evidence that he was employed by Wackenhut or the joint venture, which had no employees.9 He claimed to have modified the proprietary PROMIS computer software at the Wackenhut facility on the reservation. This modified software, allegedly made available by Earl Brian through Peter Videnieks of the Department of Justice, was intended for worldwide implementation in law enforcement and intelligence agencies, leading to the PROMIS Software Scandal. Riconosciuto's affidavit detailed specific modifications for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in Canada.1

Frequent visitors to the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture included Peter Videnieks and Earl Brian. The venture maintained close liaison with elements of the United States, including representatives of intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies.1

Danny Casolaro Investigation

Investigative journalist Danny Casolaro was investigating the Cabazon/Wackenhut projects as part of his "The Octopus" investigation at the time he was found dead in a West Virginia motel room in 1991. He had told friends he was convinced that "spies, arms merchants and others were using the reservation as a low-profile site on which to develop weapons for Third World armies, including the Nicaraguan Contras." His notes contained cryptic references to slow-acting brain viruses, like Mad Cow Disease, which he believed could be used against targeted individuals, and he was concerned he might have been a target of such a virus. The notebooks Casolaro left behind contained the name of former CIA officer John Vandewerker.12

Termination and Investigations

The Wackenhut/Cabazon Joint Venture was terminated on October 1, 1984. Following its termination, the activities conducted on the Cabazon Indian Reservation became the subject of numerous investigations by various governmental and law enforcement bodies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Customs, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as police agencies and media worldwide.1

On February 8, 1989, the Special Committee on Investigations of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, chaired by Senator Dennis DeConcini, heard a witness listed under the fictitious name "Marty." The Press-Enterprise reported that he said the Cabazon reservation was involved with organized crime and gave no specifics on Cabazon.4 Robert Morehouse of the California Attorney General's office submitted a paper to the same hearing describing the casino's hiring of Zangari, the 1981 bankruptcy and John Philip Nichols's May 1985 plea of no contest to two charges of solicitation for murder.10 Arthur Welmas replied in writing that the testimony was unsubstantiated hearsay.11

Footnotes

  1. Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. TrineDay, 2010. ↩︎

  2. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty." ↩︎

  3. Zangari v. Cabazon Indian Casino (In re Cabazon Indian Casino), 35 B.R. 124 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. December 29, 1983), BAP No. CC-82-1578-GVAb. https://static.case.law/br/35/cases/0124-01.json ↩︎

  4. The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California), February 9, 1989, p. A-1, "Cabazon bingo casino listed as Mafia-tied." Reprinted in FBI Los Angeles file 183A-LA-1746, Section 1, https://archive.org/details/JohnPhilipNichols ↩︎

  5. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles, FD-302 of the interview of Wayne Reeder, October 5, 1992, file 74-86438. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-CabazonWackenhunt ↩︎

  6. United States Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, report of Judge Nicholas J. Bua (1993), section "(i) The Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture." https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993 ↩︎

  7. In re Cabazon Indian Casino, 57 B.R. 398 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. February 5, 1986), BAP No. CC-85-1006-MVAb. https://static.case.law/br/57/cases/0398-01.json ↩︎

  8. The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California), January 24, 1988, p. B-1, "Bingo profits rising as legal fight brews." Reprinted in FBI Los Angeles file 183A-LA-1746, Section 1, https://archive.org/details/JohnPhilipNichols ↩︎

  9. United States Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, report of Judge Nicholas J. Bua on the INSLAW matter (1993), printed pp. 42 to 43 and 55 to 58, footnote 35. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/DOJ-OIP-INSLAW_1993.pdf ↩︎

  10. Federal Government's Relationship with American Indians, Hearings before the Special Committee on Investigations of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, S. Hrg. 101-126, Part 2 (February 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1989), Robert Morehouse, "High Stakes Bingo on Indian Reservations in California," pp. 417 to 419. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152832_0182 ↩︎

  11. The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California), February 11, 1989, "Indians deny link to crime," by David Boyles. Reprinted in FBI Los Angeles file 183A-LA-1746, Section 1, https://archive.org/details/JohnPhilipNichols ↩︎