The British Connection: Operation Highlander

By Tim Daly

On the face of it, author Tim Daly was an unlikely candidate for undercover agent. Not only had he lived in America for less than a decade, but his strong Scottish accent was unintelligible to many Americans. At age fiftythree, he should have been looking forward to a peaceful retirement rather than a dangerous new career. But when they approached him in 1985, US Customs knew that what he lacked in youth, he more than made up for in experience.

In The British Connection, Daly, a seasoned sailor, provides a firsthand account of the extremely murky underworld of drug deals in a variety of places, including Florida, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Belize, and Venezuela as he worked as an undercover agent for five years to help bust Central and South American drug cartels. His detailed story tells how he played a major role in operations involving thousands of kilos of cocaine and thousands of pounds of marijuana. Daly recalls hobnobbing with Colombian racketeers, setting up deals with Cubans in Miami and elsewhere, meeting with senior members of the Medellin and Cali Cartels in their own countriesand living to tell about it.

More than a thrilling memoir of action and adventure, The British Connection exposes the chaos and treachery behind the war on drugs from a man who transported drugs around the Carribean and Latin America and mixed with the worlds most powerful and ruthless criminals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abbott Press
• Release date: Jun 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781458203830

Tim Daly

Tim Daly, born in Scotland, joined the Royal Navy as a boy. He served in the Royal Naval Patrol Service, the Palestine Patrols, the Submarine Service, and as a British Merchant Navy chief engineer. Daly then joined US Customs and the Drug Enforcement Agency. He currently lives in Texas.

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Copyright © 2012 by Tim Daly.

Timdaly769804@ gmail.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0382-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0383-0 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0384-7 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012909182

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Abbott Press rev. date: 06/01/12

Contents

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

BACHELOR DEGREE OPERATION

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER-12

CAYMAN ISLANDS TO EGMONT KEY

dedication.jpg

Dedicated to….

My Parents Daniel & Catherine Daly

Brothers and Sister

Daniel, Alexander, John, Charlie

Tommy, Bart, (Bassy)

Catherine, Elizabeth (Betty)

My wife Cassandra and her Parents

ED, & Ethel Quillin

All the events in this book are true A far cry from my childhood in Greenock Scotland. It was my passion for the sea that provided the link,that led me to join the Royal Navy as a boy, through the Royal Naval Boat Service,General Service and, the Submarine Service, to the Merchant Navy.To becoming an unwitting bagman, in illegal U.S Intelligence, running arms to the Contra’s with other goods, back to the U.S. until, the demise of Oliver North was then passed to National Narcotics Border Intelligence Service.(N.N.B.I.S) the U.S Custom’s Service and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other agencies .As an undercover Boat Captain involving controlled deliveries of Marijuana,. and Cocaine.Under the complete supervision, and authority of the above agencies. Some of the name’s have been changed to protect the agents and others.

PROLOGUE

BACKGROUND

Tim Daly is a rugged: tough, shoot-from-the-hip, Scotsman, who does not take fools gladly, he has spent most of his life as a senior Sailor, sailing anything that would float, from a warship to a large merchant vessel, or a simple Florida fishing boat.

He was based in Florida, when he was first approached, and later recruited by U. S. Customs, then, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as an undercover agent to help bust the Central and South American drug Cartels; as a boat Captain doing covert controlled deliveries into the United States. Part of the pressure put on him was financial, they offered him huge profits in the way of rewards, to co-operate, and he was a registered alien in the States at the time, so they used this. He knew the waters off the Florida Keys, like the back of his hand; he was fully conversant with the entire Caribbean, which he treated more or less as his own backyard.

In all, between 1983-1986 A.D.F.V. 1986, DEA U.S Customs until late1992 he was a central figure in eight major operations, involving thousands of kilos of cocaine. And 200,000 pounds of marijuana. He Hob-knobbed with Colombian racketeers, set up deals with Cubans in Miami, and elsewhere; was responsible for the DEA and Customs to expose all the players.

His story is several fold, it tells how, the DEA and Customs recruit former felons and junkies to do their work for them; how quite often, several agencies are working on the same bust, without the knowledge of each other,to the extent, they have set up each other; the rife in competency within the agencies themselves, creating havoc all around

How the best drug busters are seriously hampered, by their own or other agencies; how several were set up by the DEA to flush out the drug dealers; behind the scene politics, which on several occasions, nearly got Daly killed..The story has adventure, politics, deep intrigues, corruption, disillusion, and dramatises-the whole scenario of the uses and abuses of the agent provocateur system of crime busting. Nobody comes out of this book smelling of roses. It is a blow by blow account of an extremely, murky underworld, in which the profits were high on both sides. Daly himself, makes no bones about it, the whole system stank; couldn’t wait until he had become a U S Citizen, so that he could break the hold the federal agencies had over him, by threatening to have the I.N.S review his alien status, and get out of this dangerous business, where it was hard to tell, who were the good guys and who were the bad guys

Despite the massive federal funds, behind Customs, DEA, FBI, and other law enforcement agencies. The drug dealers information was consistently better, and Daly is able to catalogue this in graphic detail.

There are many questions, which still need to be answered, and which Daly can only speculate upon. The abject failure of several operations with Daly and others, could only be down to incompetence, in the sense, that DEA and Customs, were themselves, penetrated to a very high level ,

There are other savage indictments, for example, even though Daly had first hand knowledge of drug operations going to Europe, mainly organised by French and Belgian Nationals. Often through the Low Countries, the DEA refused, even to accept intelligence from him, if it did not directly affect the U.S they could have had first hand knowledge of the destinations of millions of dollars worth of drugs, going across the Atlantic, but refused to pass on the information to the Europeans!

The most important ingredient of the Daly dialogue, is that he was first hand witness, he was there at the time; he can tell exactly how deals were set up, for a pick up, what it was like to be under fire, when the bad guys rumbled him, also, the exact points through out the Caribbean, which are still operating, despite huge federal evidence. In fact, the scenario covers Florida, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Belize, Venezuela, Haiti and Jamaica.His stories about the trips he made, how he made contact, switch about the Caribbean in a perplexing manner, but are quite riveting, On the boat, through his satellite radio system, and tracking device, he could keep in contact with the DEA, who were setting up the deal, with the people who were being set up, and the suppliers, his boat was often like a floating news room"

Daly’s code name with the DEA and Customs was, HIGHLANDER, he was supplied with sophisticated surveillance Equipment and was often wired for sound during meetings with the bad guys but unknown to them, he was also, taping the DEA and Customs themselves, This crucial, because it not only identifies him, as being completely genuine, but also, identifies the age-nts. Because of these tapes, it would be virtually impossible, to have a come back from the Agencies. A verbatim transcripts of the tapes will also provide, genuine dialogue, in the book itself, lending credence to Daly’s story.I have read many chapters of the manuscript, and listened to some of his tapes, having been an investigative reporter for many years for some British newspapers, this story should be told to make the Europeans aware of the major drug problems on their doorstep, also, to avoid the pit falls of the U S

S. REAGAN

OPERATION BACHELOR DEGREETHE TRUE STORY OF A BRITISH AGENT UNDERCOVER IN AMERICA’S WAR ODRUGS.

For five years Scottish boat Captain Tim Dalylived the life of an action movie hero, fighting in the front lineof the war on drugs.An undercover agent ,he transported drugs around the Carribean and Latin America,and mixed with the world’s most powerful and ruthless criminals.His bravery and guile helped put scores of drug barons behind bars,and prevented tons of their produce from hitting the streets of America.

Operation Bachelor Degree will be the inside story of one Daly’s dramatic assignments. Centering on a huge Cocaine deal between a major American drugs ring and the Colombian Cali Cartel, it took six months to prepare and execute, and saw Daly involved in shoot outs, abandoned without back-up to live by his wits and sampling the high life as the guest of of the unsuspecting god-fathers.It culiminated in the capture of half a tonne of cocaine and the conviction of dozens of drug dealers.

But this is not just a story of action and adventure.It will also,expose the chaos and treachery hat lay at the heart of the war on drugs. Daly assumed that he would be fighting for justice against evilHHHgood guys agaist bad-but he soon learned that the battle was hampered by corruption and incompetence and inter-agency rivalry.His only assurance against these dangers was his secret tape recorder. He was supposed to use it to trap the criminals, but trusting no one, he taped his fellow agents and bosses as well.Operation Bachelor Degree will draw on his unique archive for the first time and in so doing wil lachieve an authenticity seldom found in war storymemoirs, and is bound to upset the U.S Authorities

These operations commence around the time known to the drug smugglers, as the Happy Years, when nearly every load of drugs destined for the United States, had a 95% chance of arriving free and clear; when just about any means of transport was used, at the time when the interdiction forces were sorely lacking, in skills and equipment to stop the flow of drugs entering the United States, mainly through South and Central Florida. .

The really big time drug barons were just coming into their own, from then on. People like the Ochoa’s, Gacha, ( I met Gacha personally in Belize shortly before he was killed) and Escobar, the now incarcerated Kingpin Carlos Ledher from the Medellin Cartel, "as well as a few big timers from the Cali Cartel not quite as well known, as the Medellin Cartel; however, would come into their own, when the pressure was being put on the others. Not forgetting the biggest of them all, Manuel Noriega, who, with or without the help of the U S government, was doing quite well, using Panama as one of the major shipping points for drugs to the U S, as well as for being the one place, where no questions were asked, when it came to laundering drug money.

It was also, a period of time when the very forces that were designed to prevent drug smuggling into the U. S. would themselves, fall to the temptation, of the large amount of money that could be made rendering assistance to the drug dealers, which was not only to involve several of the Federal Agencies, D.E.A. U.S. Customs and law enforcement alike, to involve at least 50% of the personnel at one of the major Coastguard stations in the Florida Keys,

The mind boggles at the amount of marijuana, and cocaine, that was allowed free access to the U.S. with the help of these agencies, even the famous South Florida Task Force, formed by the then, vice-president of the U S George Bush himself, was to become tainted.

Most of the blame for all this can be laid squarely at the door of the Federal Agencies and their Administrators, the infighting among these Agencies, which had set in earlier when the DEA, F, B.I, A.T.A.F and the Customs and other law enforcement was integrated into each other, everybody wanted to be a chief, nobody wanted to be an Indian, especially, when the media was focussing its attention to the Agencies performance In addition the fact that these Agencies would try to outdo each other, to such extent that some drug operations were hampered by each other, their motto being, if their respective Agency was not going to get publicity from some of these busts, to the extent they would not co operate with each other, from the highest, to the lowest, from a Judicial district, to local offices, sometimes even pulling the plug on each other. This was even more so, when it came to international drug smuggling, if it wasn’t coming to the U S, they weren’t interested. Also, the fact, when outside the US these Agencies were hampered, by stupid rules and regulations, which made the Agents themselves targets, hence, why, very few liked working outside the US, and trying to avoid this kind of duty, throwing most of the work onto people like myself, a relying, also, on convicted drug smugglers to assist them.

These same people, still working both sides of the fence, because, of the lack of supervision, by the agents controlling them, more so, when they were operating outside the U S.

The Customs rely, on 75% of their cases, by using these convicted felons, even going to the extent, of taking them from prison, where they were serving long prison terms.As for the DEA, S.A.C has gone to the trouble of having Miami Banks receive and count all drug money seized, because he felt he could not trust his own people to do the job, as well as, doubling up his agents to keep an eye on each other to prevent the possibility of any one of his agents, deciding to go south.

The Miami judicial district has one of the worse records in the country, for loose cannons and convicted Agents, maybe, it’s because his offices uses more than 600 convicted felons as Confidential Informants, C.I.’s, who are a lot smarter than his Agents. Despite all this, they are still telling Congress and the American public they’re winning the drug war. Bullshit. All they doing is negotiating its surrender.

Daly believes he was one of the few undercover agents to actually have met senior members of the Medellin and Cali Cartels in their own countries .Colombia, Mexico, Belize, Panama, and Cayman Islands and lived to tell theses stories

CHAPTER 1

On the face of it Tim Daly was an unlikely undercover agent, for a start he was a foreigner, and lived in America for less than a decade. Although English was his native language his strong Clydeside accent was unintelligible to many Americans. Then there was his age at 53 he should have been looking forward a peaceful retirement rather than a dangerous new career. But when they approached him in 1985 U.S Customs knew that what he lacked in youth, he more than made up for in experience

EARLY YEARS

Born in Greenock Scotland into a working class, seafaring family. He left school at 14 changed his age during the war to join the Civilian Royal Navy Patrol Service which escorted Navy and Merchant Navy vessels through the Scottish Islands and Western approaches into the Atlantic. After the war he entered the Royal Navy as a stoker, and over the next Twelve years rose up through the ranks to become a Chief Petty Officer in the Submarine Service. In 1951 he married and soon after had a son and daughter. In 1960 he joined the Merchant Navy as an Engineer, and remained there until 1979 until he was badly injured during a storm in the Pacific Ocean.

He spent six months recuperating in Florida, and began doing odd surveying and advisory jobs for local ship yards. His wife had by this time divorced him. As he liked the Florida lifestyle, he decided to stay put and open his own ship repair yard Seaport Marine Services in Tampa… He came to know the Caribbean like the back of his hand and developed many contacts in the Shipyards of his adopted state. The other great quality that caught the attentions of Custom’s agents was his honesty.Much of the time was spent repairing and surveying confiscated vessels for the Government Surplus Authority One particular, large vessel was bought from the Authority, by a friend who planned to turn it into a floating hotel. Whilst doing the conversion, Daly found a huge stash of marijuana in a cleverly concealed,tank,covered by concrete.

He reported his find to the U.S Coastguard, when turn informed the DEA and Customs. This incident earmarked him as a man who could be trusted.Shortly afterwards in 1983. he was approached out of the blue, Michael Millar president of the Virginia based American Development Foundation, who offered to lease him confiscated vessels. It was a curious proposition, because A.D.F was a Government organisation that was supposed to encourage economic development in third world countries. Stranger still, Millar drove around in a large black limousine, hardly the sort of car one might associate with someone in this line of work.

Daly soon learned that A.D, F. had established a considerable commercial empire through other leasing deals, What, He wondered, had all this to with third world development? He began to suspect it was a front for some secret Government operation. At the instructions of A.D.F. and a Pensacola based company called Ships and Seas, whose directors included a number of Florida state legislature, he made a number of journeys to the Caribbean and Latin America, taking containers back and forth. He was told that the outward bound containers contained frozen chicken, yet, he was forbidden to refrigerate them! He soon discovered that the actual cargo was arms On the return voyage the containers were supposedly empty, but he eventually found out there hidden compartments containing drugs. He was too canny to ask questions: he simply banked his pay cheques.

He came to no harm, but others involved in the same game weren’t so lucky. Three of his associates died in suspicious circumstances. Two of them, both boat captains, were found shot dead in their cars; On the Interstate; the official explanation was that they had committed suicide, yet, neither had shown signs of depression. The third was found mangled in a burned out hay baler on a farm. His death was put down as an accident, another was found drowned in Tampa bay.

In 1996, rumours began to spread that the Reagan Government was using Colonel Oliver North, to orchestrate covert arms supply to the Contras, via, network of front organisations A.D.F. suddenly disappeared, and some of it’s directors were eventually jailed.

Although, North was quick to admit his role in the arms deals and secret fund raising, it would be almost a decade before the public discovered that his Contra friends were ferrying drugs back to the U.S. Daly was thoroughly investigated, was allowed to keep his vessels under N.O.O.A And National Marine Fisheries

Daly moved on to the less risky business of running Grouper Boats and fishing trips out of Fort Myers Florida, but the federal authorities had not finished with him. During a night sailing in 1986, his vessel was bumped (a supposedly routine stop) by the U.S Coastguard and asked to accompany them to Naples, Florida, where his boat was subjected to a thorough search; the boat was clean, but he was quietly tipped off, that a member of his crew, Steve Foulkes, was on U.S.Coastguard computer, so he was asked to report to the Customs office at Marco Island the following day. Daly couldn’t believe that he had drug dealer in his midst, but, unaware of the sting, Foulkes immediately confirmed it. He told Daly that he was impressed by the way he had stood up to the Coastguard and made it clear, he could make himself a lot of money, if he was prepared to deliver drugs to his underworld associates.

Daly visited the Marco Island Customs office the next day and reported Foulke’s offer; so the bump paid off! He heard a delighted Customs officer tell a colleague. It turned out that Foulkes was part of a very large and ruthless drug running operation headed by an ex -cop from Indiana. Agent Paul Kilcaine asked Daly, to cultivate Foulkes, accept any offer he might make and report back to Customs. Daly agreed reluctantly, although he hated drugs and was promised a substantial reward; it was made clear, that this would be genuine undercover assignment. He would have to work his way into the confidence of a man, who he knew was a violent psychopath. If he put a foot wrong, he could end up dead.

Fortunately, duping Foulkes proved easy. As a foreigner in his fifties, Daly was, on the face of it, a very unlikely undercover agent, and Foulke’s instincts were invariably blunted by his huge drink and drug intake. Together they began making routine pick ups in the Thousand Islands area, just off the Florida Everglades in the Gulf of Mexico. Usually, they would go alongside freighters, whose crew dropped off 40lb bales of marijuana.

Before long, Daly got the first warning of the treacherous world into which he was now plunged. Driving with Foulkes from Fort Myers to Naples for a meeting with the gang’s bosses, he casually asked, How the operation had avoided detection. Unaware that he was being taped and trailed by two unmarked Custom car, Foulkes, matter of factly, described how they were paying off the Police. Coastguard, DEA, and Customs.

If he was telling the truth, who could Daly trust? Were the agents in the cars behind taking bribes too? By the time they reached their destination, out at 31 Marina, the second car had left and Daly never saw its occupants again -could they have fled in panic.

Daly reported his concerns to Paul Kilcaine, who was the only agent, he truly respected. Kilcaine filed a report to his superiors, but it made matters worse. They were visited by two officers from Customs Internal Affairs Department in Miami.

Daly told them he wanted out, but the visitors ordered that he must continue, and insisted he go wired to the gang leader’s house Daly knew through Foulkes that the house was itself wired with counter surveillance equipment, so the mission would be suicidal. He bluntly told the Internal Affairs. Department men what he thought of their crackpot scheme, but they angrily retorted that, if he refused to comply, they would see that his house, land and boats would be confiscated, his ass would be kicked out of the US! Since he only had registered alien status, he was in a very weak position, but Kilcaine stood up for him, and in any event, he needn’t go wired.

Even so, Kilcaine was hauled over the coals, for not keeping his agent under control. The experience told Daly, that his employers could be as dangerous as the Drug barons. He decided that from now on everyone would be taped.

Customs knew that Daly was too valuable an asset to use only against Foulkes’s gang. Besides being a foreigner, he knew that Caribbean, like the back of his hand; that the area was the epicentre of the drug traffic from Latin America. Each new assignment brought fresh adventures, and fresh doubts about his employers. It was clear that Customs were unable or unwilling to properly protect their agents

His first major operation was coordinated by the Customs office in Fort Myers, which involved shipping eight tons of marijuana from a pick-up off the coast of Venezuela to Florida.

Foulkes’s gang was being supplied by the Colombian Medellin cartel. It was to be a so-called controlled delivery, which meant the Customs would discreetly monitor it’s progress and trace the drugs to the dealers in the US. The monitoring was supposed to be done, via satellite equipment, but instead of installing state of the art equipment as Daly suggested. They cut corners and used inferior gear.

He set sail over Christmas, accompanied by Foulkes and one of his cronies. About 70 miles off Jamaica, the Loran navigation system failed., Daly was left with no choice but to navigate his way to the island using charts. He eventually moored at Alligator Pond, an area notorious for its drug traffic; he left the crew with the boat and travelled on to Kingston. by Jamaican Defence Force cutter, that had come to investigate his presence; during the trip, he was questioned very thoroughly by the captain of the Cutter, about what an Englishman was doing on an American Government vessel in Jamaican waters,? He accepted Daly’s reasons however, the J.D.F. Commander of the base had a different view and made it clear, if he was up to no good, he would throw Daly in jail. Daly promised him, he would stay no longer than was necessary to have his navigational equipment repaired.

Daly contacted Foulke’s people in Miami, they weren’t too happy, because unbeknown to Daly, they’d put 60 thousand dollars to one of their people up Front, to refurbish the boat, but less than half the money was given to Daly, the rest was handed over to Customs, so the remainder had obviously been pocketed by a corrupt agent. The Fort Myers customs did nothing to help leaving him with no choice, but to secretly fly back to Florida, whilst pretending to the Fort Myers office he was still in Jamaica.

He discreetly met up with Paul Kilcaine, from the Marco Island office, to seek his advice. When he eventually did call at the Fort Myers office, he was alarmed to see a car belonging to a gang member in the parking lot… When the agents saw him they panicked and quickly ushered him round to the back door, where he couldn’t be spotted by their dubious informant.

By the time Daly returned to Alligator Pond, he discovered the crew, had gone on a drinking binge around the beach side bars, running up huge credit bills in the process. They initially paid their debts by selling of some of the boat’s fishing gear, but then, began striking deals with the local