SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTER-TERRORISM OFFICIAL SENTENCED FOR TRYING TO SUPPORT HEZBOLLAH

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
South American Counter-Terrorism Official Sentenced to 195 Months in Prison for Attempting to Support Hezbollah
Also Convicted of Narcotics Trafficking and Firearms Offenses

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York announced that Dino Bouterse, a citizen of Suriname who assisted in the formation of that country’s Counter-Terrorism Unit, was sentenced today in federal court in New York City to 195 months in prison for attempting to provide material support and resources to Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization, along with narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses.  Bouterse, who was arrested in Panama on Aug. 29, 2013, and arrived in the United States on Aug. 30, 2013, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, who also imposed today’s sentence.

“Dino Bouterse was supposed to oppose terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Bharara.  “Instead, Bouterse betrayed his official position and tried to support and aid Hezbollah, including his agreement to assist Hezbollah in acquiring weapons, and conspiring to import cocaine to the U.S.  Today he has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term for those odious crimes.”

According to the indictment, other documents filed in federal court and statements made at today’s sentencing:

In 2013, Bouterse used his position within the government of Suriname to assist individuals he believed were members of Hezbollah, who informed Bouterse that they intended to conduct terrorist attacks against American interests.  In exchange for a multimillion-dollar payment, Bouterse agreed to allow large numbers of purported Hezbollah operatives to use Suriname as a permanent base for, among other things, attacks on American targets.  In furtherance of his efforts to assist Hezbollah, Bouterse supplied a false Surinamese passport to a purported Hezbollah operative for the purpose of clandestine travel, including travel to the United States; discussed heavy weapons that he could provide to Hezbollah; and instructed the purported Hezbollah members about how Hezbollah operatives, supplied with a Surinamese cover story, could enter the United States.

In June 2013, Bouterse and a co-defendant, Edmund Quincy Muntslag, met in Bouterse’s office in Suriname with confidential sources (the CSs) working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to discuss importing cocaine into the United States using commercial airline flights.  During the meeting, Bouterse showed the CSs a rocket launcher and a kilogram of cocaine.

Approximately one month later, Bouterse and Muntslag worked to provide transportation and security for cocaine being sent through Suriname to the United States.  As a test run, Bouterse and Muntslag sent 10 kilograms of cocaine on a commercial flight departing from Suriname.  Bouterse personally verified the arrangements for the 10-kilogram cocaine shipment in a text message.  The cocaine was intercepted by law enforcement officials after it departed Suriname.

In July 2013, Bouterse met with one of the CSs to discuss opening Suriname to the CSs’ purported Hezbollah associates.

Later that month, Bouterse met in Europe with one of the CSs and with two other men who purported to be associated with Hezbollah.  During this meeting, Bouterse discussed initially hosting 30 to 60 Hezbollah members in Suriname for training and operations.  He also indicated that he wanted a Hezbollah cell in Suriname to act, in part, as a personal armed force.  Bouterse confirmed his understanding that the purported Hezbollah operatives would operate in South America against American targets, and he agreed to supply Surinamese passports to the operatives and to assist with their applications for visas to travel from South America into the United States.  In addition, in response to a request for surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, Bouterse stated that he would need “two months” and that he would provide a list of what he could supply.  Finally, at the July 2013 meeting in Europe, Bouterse agreed to create a false Surinamese passport for one of the purported Hezbollah operatives so that Bouterse and the Hezbollah operative could travel to Suriname to inspect the facilities that Bouterse had agreed to prepare for the Hezbollah contingent.

At a subsequent meeting in August 2013, Bouterse delivered a Surinamese passport with false identifying information to a purported Hezbollah operative.  As had been discussed at the July 2013 meeting in Europe, the purported Hezbollah operative was to use the fraudulent passport to travel to Suriname.  Bouterse indicated that everything was ready in Suriname for the arrival of the purported Hezbollah members, and that some “toys” – a code-word for weapons – would be available for inspection.

Following this meeting, Bouterse was arrested by Panamanian law enforcement and transferred to the custody of the DEA.

* * *

On Aug. 29, 2014, Bouterse pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist organization; conspiring to import five kilograms or more of cocaine into the United States; and using and carrying, or aiding and abetting the use and carrying of, a firearm during and in relation to a drug-trafficking crime.  In addition to his prison term, Bouterse, 42, a citizen of Suriname, was ordered to pay a $300 special assessment fee.

Assistant Attorney General Carlin joined U.S. Attorney Bharara in praising the outstanding efforts of the DEA’s Special Operations Division.  Assistant Attorney General Carlin and U.S. Attorney Bharara also thanked the DEA’s Miami Field Division, Panama City Country Office, Port-of-Spain Country Office and Bogota Country Office; the Government of the Republic of Panama; and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael D. Lockard, Adam Fee, Michael Ferrara and Edward Y. Kim of the Southern District of New York and Trial Attorney Andrew Sigler of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT LAW ENFORCEMENT MEMORIAL WALL

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at the Dedication of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Memorial Wall

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

21st Street Entrance

Washington, DC

June 12, 2014

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Bill, thank you very much. Good morning, everybody, distinguished guests all, and particularly the members of the Bynum family and extended clan. We’re delighted to be able to honor you here today. As Bill just mentioned to you, on the other side of this building – and I hope you have a chance to see it if you haven’t seen it already when you came in – we have the AFSA, the American Foreign Service plaque, which proudly honors our fallen Foreign Service officers. But from this day forward, at this very spot, as Bill has described, in a place that is a thoroughfare for the moment of all of the people who work here in this family, with just as much solemnity and with just as much reverence we honor the men and women – contractors and federal employees alike – who gave the full measure of their capacity of their service to country, of their commitment to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement mission abroad.

This is much more than a list of names. It’s a legacy of stories, individual stories, each one with a human face that tells the story of a brave person who served their country. In the name of making the rule of law stronger, of making the world a little bit more free from the drugs and the crime and the web of horrors that come with it that threatens the civilized world everywhere. Believe me, this is personal for everybody here. It’s particularly personal for Assistant Secretary Bill Brownfield, who could tell you by memory exactly where on the wall you would find the name and the date of his friend Kris Kriskovich, who Bill knew when they both served in El Salvador and who we lost in Bosnia struggling in the service of the effort to re-establish a police force and take back order from the streets of random and wanton violence. Nothing motivates this fellow, Bill Brownfield, more than the memory of Kris’s sacrifice.

Kris is one of 87 heroes on this wall. And now today his name is linked forever, as are the others, with that of Kevin Bynum, the newest name on the INL wall – a man that we’re here to remember together with his family. We’re delighted to welcome Kevin’s mother, Rebecca, his brother, Lawrence, and fiancee Chaille are all here, as are their children, Josiah Cross, Lazarus Cade, and Luke; his nieces, Sandy and Pam, his nephew-in-law, Doug, and his cousins, Mickie and Howard – they’re all in the audience, and we thank you so much for being here. I know it was a very difficult, long travel with weather delays, and you got in literally early in the morning. And we appreciate the special effort to be here.

Michael Botticelli from the White House is here too along with Michele Leonhart from DEA and Charles Samuels from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. And I also want to acknowledge all of our international partners who were here today to honor the fallen. We thank you.

For a year now, the INL memorial wall has been without a home. Today we give it a permanent display in, as I said, one of the busiest lobbies in this building so that each and every day the thousands of people who pass through here and visitors who come will be reminded of the sacrifices that people do make for the mission that we engage in here in the State Department.
Now I remember a time when some people questioned whether INL’s mission was the work of diplomats, whether law enforcement, crimes, and drugs overseas matter to our interests here at home. But as I travel the world today, I’m amazed by the degree to which corruption and crime are stealing opportunity from entire nations and standing in the way of the march of values that we care about and believe in so deeply. And that should concern every single person because wherever and whenever the rule of law is broken, whenever crime and corruption take root, that is a failure that literally endangers all of us. It is a threat to America and to Americans and to our allies and our friends and partners.

Narcotics grown halfway around the world are too often sold on our streets to our kids. People who are forced to pay bribes are likely to turn to extremism and illegal trafficking of elephant tusks and rhino horns. All of these things threaten the most vulnerable species and threaten communities, because it is criminal activity. It is outside of the rule of law.

What happens overseas matters here at home, and INL is leading our effort to fight back in order to bring order out of chaos. These issues are transnational. There’s no way to fight them by putting your head in the sand and just staying here at home. There’s no way to protect America by pretending that things that happen elsewhere don’t affect us here. None of these threats stop at any border, and they certainly can’t be stopped by one single government.
So if we are to turn the tides in the battle against organized crime and against drug traffickers, then we need to build cooperation and be innovative in our approaches. We in the United States believe that the rule of law has to be renewed every single day and it has to be renewed by people who work here in this Department and elsewhere in our government, sometimes in courageous and lonely efforts.

On this wall are the names of people who gave their lives in service to that principle, that they’re getting up every single day and committing to something much bigger than themselves. Today, with heavy hearts we add the name of Kevin Todd Bynum.

Now let me tell you a little bit about Kevin. For years Kevin worked for a crop dusting company in his native Mississippi, maintaining and loading the prop planes that sprayed the fields of soy beans and wheat. But Kevin didn’t want to just support the pilots. He wanted to be one. So Kevin got his pilot license and he became the man behind the controls. Then Kevin decided to use his license to fly for a bigger mission. He signed up to fly for his country in one of the most dangerous assignments that a pilot can imagine – flying anti-drug missions over the jungles of Colombia, becoming one of the brave pilots who have destroyed 1.5 million acres of coca trees and 7.9 million kilos of cocaine.

While Kevin took this mission very seriously, I can tell you and I think his family knows this, he always found the opportunities to have some fun. Whenever Kevin was working and his company called to check on him, Kevin would answer the phone the same way, with an order for cheeseburger and fries. Kevin’s fellow pilots called him “Boomer,” and they will tell you when you were working with Kevin, you had to check your shoes for rocks or for knotted laces every single morning.

Kevin was also one of our bravest pilots. Each time he went to Colombia, he asked to fly over some of the most dangerous regions. He dodged bullets fired from the rainforest below, and he was also the maintenance test pilot. When no one knew whether a repaired plane would be able to get off the ground and fly or break up over the jungle, Kevin took that first intrepid flight. He was always making sure that everyone came home safely.

Kevin’s name will now forever be honored at the entrance of this building named after President Harry Truman, a president who told us that “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage and on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” President Truman could have just as easily been talking about Kevin and the other 86 patriots who are on this wall with the courage to fight against chaos and negativity, nihilism; the guts to imagine a more just world and the special resolve individually to try to get something done. That’s what makes us the indispensable nation. We look outward. We respond to the call of duty, even at the risk to ourselves, and we embrace the responsibility to lead.

In that spirit, we remember Kevin Bynum and everyone on this wall, whether they were contractors, federal employees, foreign nationals. We honor each of them for their dedication to the American mission abroad and for their willingness to put country and duty above themselves.

It’s now my honor to present the flag to Kevin’s mother and to lay a wreath at the wall.

STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL'S CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY ON INTERNATIONAL CRIME

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

United States Assistance to Combat Transnational Crime

Testimony

William R. Brownfield
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Statement before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs

Washington, DC

May 7, 2014

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Chairwoman Granger, Ranking Member Lowey, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to discuss the evolving threat of transnational organized crime and the efforts of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to address it.

If I were sitting before you 35 years ago, when the predecessor to INL—the Bureau of International Narcotics Matters—was first established and you asked me what transnational organized crime would look like in the year 2014, I might have informed you of the violent and hierarchical structure of the drug cartels and various mafias and have foretold the success of U.S. counternarcotics assistance to Colombia or the expansion of our anti-drug trafficking efforts worldwide. I might have accurately predicted the efforts of some cartels to move across the Caribbean and destabilize communities across the hemisphere. I might have surmised that, criminals being opportunists, they would diversify and seek out not only new markets but also new forms of criminality with minimal risk and high rewards. And I would have assumed—accurately—that certain elements of illicit trafficking would remain the same regardless of the product being trafficking: demand for the product, which produces a market; a producer at the source; the need for a logistics network to move the product across international borders, a system to market or distribute the product at its destination, and the need to convert the product into cash or some other marketable commodity usable in the licit market. But I could not have predicted the extent to which globalization, coupled with dramatic improvements in technology, would turn criminal organizations that had once had only a domestic or regional impact into networked enterprises posing threats to our and our partners interests across the globe.
Today’s reality is that criminal and illicit networks have expanded their tentacles to all parts of the world, corrupting public and market-based institutions alike. Their activities threaten not only the interdependent commercial, transportation, and transactional systems that facilitate free trade and the movement of people throughout the global economy, but are jeopardizing governance structures, economic development, security, and supply chain integrity. Their penetration of state institutions and financial and security sectors is particularly concerning.
Recognizing the expanding size, scope, and influence of transnational organized crime and its impact on U.S. and international security and governance, in July 2011, the White House released theStrategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime. The Strategy calls on all departments and agencies to "build, balance, and integrate the tools of American power to combat transnational organized crime…and urge our foreign partners to do the same." The Strategy also calls for the U.S. government and our international partners to work together to combat transnational illicit networks, and take that fight to the next level by breaking their corruptive power, attacking their financial underpinnings, stripping them of their illicit wealth, and severing their access to the financial system.

With our diplomatic reach and foreign assistance authorities, INL is strengthening partner nation capacity to deal with these emerging transnational criminal threats including by combating corruption and targeting the illicit wealth of criminal entrepreneurs. INL’s programs promote regional capacity-building to mitigate the famous "balloon effect" we saw in South America in the 1980s and 1990s, whereby criminal groups jump from one country to another as pressure was applied. Through the Central America Regional Security Initiative, the Merida Initiative, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, the West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative, and other programs you have supported, we are focused on coordinating investigations, supporting prosecutions, and facilitating the sharing of information across borders.

Many of the approaches and methods we have refined over the past three decades to reduce the harm of narcotics trafficking are transferable to new and urgent threats – and I will focus on one such threat today -- wildlife trafficking. It is fueled by high demand for wildlife products, high profits -- an ounce of rhino horn is worth more than gold, cocaine, or heroin in weight -- and low risk for detection or meaningful punishment. Its impact on the planet’s natural resources is as obvious as it is devastating – entire animal species are at risk. But even setting aside the risk to wildlife, the United States has cause to be seriously concerned about this criminal enterprise: the corruption that it both encourages and benefits from undermines good governance, the rule of law, and citizens’ confidence in their government institutions; the high tech weaponry and aggressive tactics used by poachers and the syndicates and corrupt officials that support them threaten civilian populations; the crime creates and exacerbates border insecurity; wildlife trafficking can weaken financial stability and economic growth, particularly in countries for which tourism is a major revenue source; and we have seen some evidence of involvement by terrorist entities and armed groups.

For these reasons, we need to address wildlife trafficking not only as a conservation issue but also a national security issue. The President issued an Executive Order calling for a whole of government response to combat wildlife trafficking on July 1, 2013 and on February, 11, 2014, the White House released a National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. The Strategy calls on agencies and departments to strengthen domestic and global enforcement, reduce demand for illegal wildlife products, and build international cooperation and public-private partnerships.

INL is playing a significant programmatic and diplomatic role in implementing the National Strategy. For over a decade, we have provided wildlife investigative training delivered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of our International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) program. Within the last year, with strong support of this Committee and this Congress, we have begun to greatly expand our assistance, drawing on our experience in addressing other forms of transnational criminal activity. We have organized our work abroad around four key areas that support the enforcement and international cooperation goals of the National Strategy.

First, we will strengthen legislative frameworks to make wildlife trafficking a serious crime with strong penalties to give investigators and prosecutors the legal tools they need to put the traffickers behind bars.

Second, we will improve law enforcement and investigative capabilities -- including intelligence, evidence collection and analysis, investigative skills and methods, and collaboration across agencies and governments – to promote intelligence-led investigations and operations that strive not simply to pick up individual poachers but rather to better understand and begin to dismantle the organizations for which they work.

Third, we will build prosecutorial and judicial capacities. As we have learned, rangers and police will not continue to pick up the bad guys if they believe prosecutors or judges will just let them go so, as we improve legislative frameworks and offer up new tools, we need to ensure prosecutors and judges know how to use those tools effectively and creatively.

And fourth, we will enhance cross-border law enforcement cooperation, particularly by working with the regional Wildlife Enforcement Networks (WENs). There is much that we do not know about how wildlife trafficking organizations operate – but we do know that illegal wildlife products often make their way through multiple transit points as they move from supply – or "range" – states to demand markets. So we need to build alliances and processes across borders for sharing information and intelligence and collaborating on operations.

Our work in these areas will be done on a bilateral basis. A portion of our overall assistance is dedicated towards our programming in Kenya ($3 million in FY13) and South Africa ($3M in FY 2013); regionally in Africa ($4 million in FY 2013) and Asia ($1.45 million in FY 2012); and globally ($4.3 million in FY 2012) through organizations including INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Customs Organizations, who are part of the International Consortium for Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). Using $15 million in FY 2014 funds, we will expand efforts begun or piloted using prior year resources, such as training for customs officers at ports of entry, prosecutorial training, and joint capacity building-operational exercises across continents.

INL is also approaching the wildlife trafficking problem in new ways. We are using new tools such as the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, which Congress, with your support, authorized in 2013. In November 2013, Secretary Kerry announced the first reward offer under the program of up to $1 million for information leading to the dismantling of the Xaysavang Network. The Xaysavang Network, based in Laos and operating across Africa and Asia, facilitates the illegal trade of endangered elephants, rhinos, and other species. This reward offer provides us with an additional tool to dismantle wildlife trafficking networks and bring its leaders and members to justice.

We are also using our diplomatic tools to build an international consensus around the importance of dismantling wildlife trafficking networks. For example, at the UN Crime Commission in April 2013, the United States introduced a successful joint resolution with Peru encouraging governments around the world to treat wildlife trafficking as a "serious crime" pursuant to the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Making it a serious crime unlocks new opportunities for international law enforcement cooperation, provided under the Convention, including mutual legal assistance, asset seizure and forfeiture, extradition, and other tools to hold criminals accountable for wildlife crime. The U.N. Economic and Social Council adopted the resolution in July 2013, further elevating wildlife trafficking as a major concern for the United Nations. These measures provide the mandate that we need, as members of a larger body of concerned nations, to harness our collective capabilities to learn more about these trafficking networks, share information, and collaborate on plans and programs that will undermine them.

The resolution was one of several early successes to which we can point. Another is a month-long global law enforcement cooperative effort that we helped to support in February known as "Cobra II." Participants from 28 countries, including representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Justice, executed a global operation to combat wildlife trafficking and poaching that resulted in more than 400 arrests and 350 major seizures of wildlife and wildlife products across Africa and Asia and the U.S.

Although we have more to learn about the links that exist between wildlife trafficking organizations and other transnational criminal groups, we do know that wildlife traffickers do not operate in a vacuum. Like any legal enterprise that seeks to diversify its portfolio, criminal organizations tend to use the same routes and shipping methods as smugglers of weapons, drugs, and counterfeits. They bribe the same customs officials. They deploy poachers in the same restive regions where terrorists and other criminals may sow instability and conflict and exploit weak institutions and porous borders. Money and corruption are common denominators of all forms of transnational organized crime, and wildlife trafficking is no exception.
Corruption greases the wheels of illicit trade in everything from counterfeits to ivory. In the Sahel-Sahara region of Africa, for example, collusion between smugglers and state officials has eroded state authority and created lucrative funding channels for terrorists, militias, and criminal groups. INL is looking at ways to link up our anti-corruption and unit vetting programs used effectively in narcotics-producing regions, to support willing governments afflicted by illicit wildlife trade.

Following the money is equally important. All illicit criminal networks need money to finance their activities and as illicit funds move through the international financial system, they can be detected and monitored. In addition to exercising leadership within the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), we are promoting and applying tools like asset recovery and forfeiture to combat transnational organized crime and money laundering. Through the FATF style regional body for Eastern and Southern Africa, we are working with international partners to uncover and counter money laundering and other illicit financial flows related to wildlife trafficking. When it is finished, our capacity building projects will address the gaps identified.

Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member Lowey, and distinguished Members, there is no doubt that transnational organized crime presents a growing and profound threat to international security. Illicit networks undercut the ability of law enforcement to protect citizens, deprive the state of vital revenues, promote corruption, and both thrive on and contribute to bad governance. But as organized crime has evolved and diversified, so has INL. Our programs are both tailored to specific threats, such as wildlife trafficking, and cross-cutting, to target the common facilitators of all types of crime.

Thank you, Chairwoman Granger and Ranking Member Lowey. I welcome your questions.