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was not easy. Richard Dos Santos was one of those ex-Customs men whose adjustment was difficult (pp. 306, 307).

In the first place, Dos Santos told Senators, he had no choice in the matter. Dos Santos said his personnel officer at Customs told him to take the job with DEA or have no job at all (p.306).

But, Dos Santos testified, once at DEA he hoped and believed the Bouchard inquiry would succeed and would enable the young drug agency to begin life with a major law enforcement accomplishment— an accomplishment like seizing a 150 kilogram cache of heroin and arresting those who were trying to smuggle it into the U.S. or Canada. Dos Santos said:

. I didn't want to go to DEA but when I got there I wanted to make a case so the DEA would be a functional organization (p. 305).

Dos Santos found, however, that the bureaucracy at DEA was too complex and structured for his liking. He said too many officials got into the Bouchard case, for example, and Frank Peroff exploited their presence and made the inquiry more complicated than it should have been. Dos Santos testified:

In Customs, where there are fewer men and fewer lines of control and command to wade through, if I wanted a particular answer to a particular question, I knew who to call. I knew how to do it

If I called Miami and I asked for a particular favor or I called McCombs at headquarters and asked for certain information, possibly certain coordination or guidance, I got it, because I know these people and I respected their judg ment. I would like to think that they respected me and my judgment also. That was not the case in the DEA (pp. 306, 307).

Complicating the situation even more so, Dos Santos said, was the fact that he and his new boss, DEA Group Supervisor John J. O'Neill, did not get along very well. Dos Santos said:

Mr. O'Neill and I don't have a personal relationship. We are not able to approach one another very easily, regrettably, perhaps (p. 352).

HANDLING OF PEROFF WAS DIFFICULT

Dos Santos testified that being Frank Peroff's control agent was never simple. But, Dos Santos said, the job was made tougher when. early in July of 1973, the Bouchard case and Peroff-and Dos Santos himself-came under the jurisdiction of DEA and, specifically, the DEA New York region headed by Group Supervisor John J. O'Neill.

Dos Santos said that Peroff was "almost uncontrollable" but that Customs' and then DEA's best chance of controlling him was in designating one agent to be his single contact and then giving him authority to direct Peroff's activities. He was designated to be the agent, Dos Santos said, but DEA would not give him the authority and support required to do a good job (pp. 311, 312). He explained:

I didn't have that kind of authority when I went to DEA and that is the problem, that was the problem (p. 312).

HOW THE CHANGEOVER AFFECTED PEROFF

Frank Peroff testified that he had heard from Dos Santos and other agents that Customs was leaving drug enforcement July 1, 1973 and a new agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration, was to take over (p. 37).

Peroff said he understood that Dos Santos would be going over to DEA but that Dos Santos had assured him that there was nothing to worry about, that Dos Santos would remain his control agent, that all expense money owed him would be paid and, for the most part, the transition would take place on paper in Washington (p. 38).

Shortly after July 1, then, Dos Santos called Peroff from New York and, while on the phone, introduced him to Dos Santos' new boss, Group Supervisor John J. O'Neill. Peroff said he filled in O'Neill on the history of the Bouchard case as he knew it to that point (p. 38).

THE JULY 6 CONVERSATION WITH BOUCHARD

Octavio Pinol warned Richard Dos Santos that Frank Peroff was running up a big phone bill on unofficial calls from his beach front condominium apartment in San Juan. Dos Santos told Pinol to have Peroff's phone taken out. The phone company cut off service June 28, 1973.

But Frank Peroff was still operating under the assumption that he had a mission to fulfill, that being to continue to penetrate the Bouchard-Cotroni conspiracy and help Federal drug agents seize a large shipment of heroin.

So, on July 6, 1973, Peroff went next door, to the apartment of his neighbor, Normand Chabot, and asked him if he could use his phone. Chabot said he could.

Peroff didn't have a government-issue tape recorder anymore either. Octavio Pinol, under pressure from Jesus Martinez, had repossessed that too. But Peroff had a tape recorder of his own, a Panasonic (p. 47), which used the same type cassettes that Customs' Sony machine used (p. 45).

Equipping Normand Chabot's phone with the taping device, Peroff called Conrad Bouchard (p. 51). The tape of the conversation and the transcript were introduced as evidence at the hearings (p. 45). The July 6, 1973 conversation is important, for in it Bouchard told Peroff for the first time that Robert Vesco or Norman LeBlanc would finance the heroin deal. Bouchard told Peroff that he would probably have to go to Costa Rica to pick up the $300,000. Robert Vesco, a fugitive, was living in Costa Rica much of the time during this period. Norman LeBlanc, formerly of Montreal, was identified by Bouchard as being closely associated with one of the conspirators, later identified by Peroff as Giuseppe Cotroni.

Subcommittee inquiry established that Norman LeBlanc is a close associate of Robert Vesco. Vesco and LeBlanc, for example, were accused in November of 1972 by the Securities and Exchange Commission of being principals in the looting of $224 million from the international mutual fund, Investors Overseas Service (IOS).

As Vesco became increasingly involved in financial transactions in the Bahamas, so too did LeBlanc also begin expanding his role in commercial enterprises in the Caribbean country. Among LeBlanc's

many pursuits in the Bahamas was his senior position in a company that controlled the Bahamas Commonwealth Bank of Nassau.

Facts regarding the actual ownership of the bank are very complex. However, Subcommittee investigators did determine that together Vesco and LeBlanc were able to direct the bank's affairs and that the Bahamas Commonwealth Bank was central to the vast financial structure Vesco presided over.

Bouchard said one of the gangsters helping to plan the heroin venture was "like a father to LeBlanc." This father figure was later identified by Bouchard as Giuseppe (Pepe) Cotroni, according to Peroff.

Bouchard, who has a heavy French accent, told Peroff that a meeting was to take place the next day, July 7, at which final arrangements would be ironed out. Then, Bouchard said, Peroff was to fly in the executive jet to Costa Rica. Bouchard said either Vesco or LeBlanc would give Peroff the money.

The full transcript of the July 6 conversation follows:

BOUCHARD. Hello.

PEROFF. Jesus Christ, I've been trying to get you for I don't know how long.

BOUCHARD. I've been busy, I got your message.

PEROFF. Did you? What happened last night?
BOUCHARD. Trouble with the phones down there?

PEROFF. No, I've been calling and your phone's been busy.
I've been trying.

BOUCHARD. My phone hasn't been busy for a while yet.
Where are you?

PEROFF. I'm down south.

BOUCHARD. Yeah, nice weather down there?

PEROFF. Yeah, not bad. You got good news?

BOUCHARD. Well, I had a meeting last night, and the guys are going to meet all together Saturday, you know, to make a decision, you know.

PEROFF. Yeah, why?

BOUCHARD. Then we'll know. I told them I was ready and everything, you know. So Saturday I'll have a sure answer, you know. Everybody is going to be there at the meeting and you know.

PEROFF. Do you want me to be there?

BOUCHARD. You know this guy down there, down south,
Vesco?

PEROFF. Yeah, I read about him.

BOUCHARD. You've heard of him?

PEROFF. Yeah, sure. I seen him, I seen him quite a few times.

BOUCHARD. Yeah, you ever talk to him?

PEROFF. Let me tell you, I know a couple of his people, you
know.

BOUCHARD. Say that, say that I have a very close friend of
his, you know. That you could go and see him and ask him for
any-amount of money on his behalf, you know?
PEROFF. What do you mean?

BOUCHARD. Well, I'll let you know, I'll explain to you after the Saturday meeting anyway.

PEROFF. You mean he'll put up some bread?

BOUCHARD. What?

PEROFF. You mean he'll put up some bread?
BOUCHARD. Yeah.

PEROFF. You're kidding.

BOUCHARD. He's going to put up a lot of bread.
PEROFF. Yeah.

BOUCHARD. Yeah. Because you know there is a guy from Montreal in his organization, his name is LeBlanc, you know? PEROFF. Yeah. I don't know who the guy is, but I

mean

BOUCHARD. He's a guy from Montreal, his righthand man. PEROFF. Yeah.

BOUCHARD. This guy made a fraud here for $110 million you know. He's a righthand man of Vesco, you know, and one of the guys at the meeting is like a father to LeBlanc, you see. PEROFF. Right, I see.

BOUCHARD. So any amount of money I think will come from there. So you might have to go direct down there to get the bread, you know what I mean?

PEROFF. I was just there.

BOUCHARD. Yeah, when was that?

PEROFF. Just a couple of weeks ago, don't you remember I told you?

BOUCHARD. Oh, you were there, that's right.

PEROFF. You see, you've got to understand that there is a couple of other guys that used to live in Freeport that moved there. You understand?

BOUCHARD. Yeah.

PEROFF. And I was just down there doing some little business there. S

BOUCHARD. Listen, one of the guys at the meeting there, I will be able, only then to be able, only then to give you his name, you see?

PEROFF. Right.

BOUCHARD. And then with this name I'll give you another phone number where you can reach me, you know? PEROFF. Right.

BOUCHARD. Because this phone here I don't want to take a chance to give out that name, you understand? PEROFF. Right.

BOUCHARD. So, I'll give you, when you phone me like Sunday morning, I'll give you the name exactly, and if we have go through there, we'll go through there.

to

PEROFF. Right.

BOUCHARD. So you will go to Vesco or LeBlanc, I think it will be LeBlanc.

PEROFF. Okay.

BOUCHARD. And you'll tell him to phone this guy's name I am going to give you, you understand, in Montreal? PEROFF. Yep.

BOUCHARD. And he'll give you whatever we need, understand?

PEROFF. Yep.

BOUCHARD. Okay, so we won't talk anymore over the phone. PEROFF. In other words, in other words, what he'll give me what I need, or for the whole thing!

BOUCHARD. Yeah, yeah, everything.

PEROFF. Everything?

BOUCHARD. What we need too.

PEROFF. I see.

BOUCHARD. Understand?

PEROFF. Yep.

BOUCHARD. So give me a ring about 10 o'clock Sunday morning.

PEROFF. All right.

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Peroff said that after the July 6 conversation with Bouchard he called Dos Santos in New York. Dos Santos was not at his desk SO he spoke with Dos Santos' boss, Group Supervisor John J. O'Neill. Peroff said he played the tape for him over the phone (pp. 48, 49).

O'Neill's response, Peroff testified, was "one mixed with excitement and a little amazement that Vesco could be involved." Peroff said that O'Neill asked him to replay those parts of the tape with references to Vesco and LeBlanc. Neither he nor O'Neill knew who LeBlanc was, Peroff said, but O'Neill told him he would "immediately contact" the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and try to obtain more information (p. 49).

Peroff referred to the July 6 tape as conversation No. 1. He said that during the next week he made tapes of four more conversations with Bouchard, numbering them 2, 3, 4 and 5. Each of the tapes concerned the purported role of Vesco and LeBlanc in the heroin conspiracy, Peroff said.

RONALD SIEBERT VISITS PEROFF

Octavio Pinol moved from Customs to DEA on July 1, 1973. With the change, Pinol got a new boss, Ronald U. Siebert. Peroff said Pinol introduced him to Siebert in a visit the two men made to Peroff's apartment in early July. Peroff said he filled in Siebert on the Bouchard case (p. 51).

THE JULY 7 CALLS TO BOUCHARD

On July 7, 1973, a Saturday, Peroff called Bouchard twice. He said he taped both conversations on a single Scotch brand cassette. In both these conversations, Peroff said, he tried to learn from Bouchard of any new developments in the heroin plot.

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