CHILE: Augusto Pinochet's €20.3 million fortune was amassed through cocaine sales to Europe and the US, the general's former top aide for intelligence has alleged. In testimony sent to Chilean judge Claudio Pavez, Manuel Contreras alleges that Gen Pinochet and his son Marco Antonio organised a massive production and distribution network, selling cocaine to Europe and the US in the mid-1980s.
According to Contreras, once Pinochet's ally and now a bitter enemy, Pinochet ordered the army to build a clandestine cocaine laboratory in Talagante, a rural town 24 miles from Santiago. There he had chemists mix cocaine with other chemicals to produce what Contreras described as a "black cocaine" capable of being smuggled past drug agents in the US and Europe. Pinochet and his son denied the charges. His son also said he would sue the former head of intelligence whom he called "a liar" and "a monster".
The details of Contreras's testimony were published first in the Chilean newspaper La Nacion. The Pinochet fortune, amassed during the dictator's 1973-1990 rule, is now estimated at some €20.3m and is being investigated in Chile, the US and Europe.
The mastermind behind the cocaine operation, alleges Contreras, was Eugenio Berrios, a chemist who was used by Pinochet's secret police force, DINA, to run clandestine experiments. Earlier testimony and documents show that Berrios and the lab tested anthrax and botulism and were able to produce the deadly gas sarin.
Contreras is serving two jail terms for human rights violations. As former director of DINA, Contreras is accused of running death squad operations that led to the murders of an estimated 3,000 Chileans in the mid-1970s.
The details of the cocaine operation came as part of an investigation into the murder of Col Gerardo Huber, a top intelligence operative and close friend of Contreras. Huber was found murdered in the middle of an investigation that implicated the Chilean army in breaking a UN weapons embargo and sending arms to Croatia in 1991. Huber, who had extensive first-hand knowledge of the deals and was expected to testify before Chilean judges, was kidnapped and his body dumped in a remote area.
With mounting evidence that Pinochet personally planned the 1992 execution of Huber, former allies such as Contreras have turned on Pinochet and are now alleging a stunning list of crimes and cover-ups. The Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, called on the courts to carry out further investigations.