Our Man in Lima

Abstract

This chapter notes a sizable cocaine seizure in Lima, Peru's capital, that was nestled in the arid hills next to the Pacific Ocean on May 11, 1996. It recounts how Peruvian authorities happened upon 174 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside the fuselage of a Douglas DC-8 jet belonging to the Peruvian Air Force that was slated to fly to Russia. It also cites how Peruvian president, Alberto Fujimori, used the DC-8 as an executive plane several months before the drug raid. The chapter talks about how the National Intelligence Service, Peru's military intelligence arm, acted with alacrity to pressure military brass to reveal which officials had been scheduled to be on the DC-8 to fly to Russia. It refers to notorious drug traffickers Demetrio Chávez Peñaherrera and Abelardo Cachique Rivera, who named three generals involved in their trafficking network and testified that Peruvian military officials accepted bribes on multiple occasions so that the drug ring could operate uninhibited.