Opinion ID: 707621
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Daniel Morales

Text: 2 Morales began selling planes, parts, and services to drug traffickers in the mid-1980s, from his job as Latin American representative for Downtown Airpark (Downtown) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Downtown was a sales and service agent for GulfStream Aero Commanders, a type of plane favored for use in large-scale drug operations. 3 In October 1985, at the suggestion of a Colombian drug trafficker named Cuco Rodriguez, Morales recruited a pilot named Antonio Aizprua to fly planes for a drug-trafficking operation headed by one of Morales' clients, Dr. Fidel Kosonoy. Morales had sold Kosonoy the Aero Commander 1000 that Aizprua was to pilot. Aizprua had previously flown an Aero Commander to Colombia for Rodriguez to replace a plane that had been seized in Mexico while loaded with cocaine. Aizprua had also been involved in an aborted cocaine smuggling flight for Rodriguez in September 1985 in which he was forced to abandon his plane after being intercepted by United States Customs agents. 4 Aizprua twice flew Kosonoy's Aero Commander 1000, loaded with over 700 kilos of cocaine, from Colombia to Mexico. Morales arranged payments to Aizprua of $80,000 for each flight. On February 7, 1986, however, Aizprua was arrested in Los Angeles on charges stemming from the aborted September 1985 flight. 5 Morales' involvement with drug smugglers continued into 1986. He represented an individual named Roberto Franco in a deal to purchase a Piper Navajo for $225,000, and agreed to pay an additional 2 percent fee to the seller's representative to accept cash. The representative later testified that Morales was pleased by these terms and indicated that he had other clients who would be willing to clean up their dollars by similar transactions. Morales did not finish this deal, however; he bowed out before its conclusion and was replaced by Burton Golb, Franco's brother-in-law. Golb also apparently indicated an interest in cleaning up money via these cash sales. 6 The United States government subsequently investigated Downtown and seized six Aero Commanders brokered by Morales, who moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, and opened his own aircraft brokerage, Aero Executive International (AEI). Morales continued to broker planes to Latin American drug dealers, in the process supplying his clients with necessary tools of their trade as well as a means of laundering their drug profits. This time, however, Morales relied on wire transfers from banks in Panama and Mexico rather than direct cash sales. The transactions worked in the following manner: a money launderer named Nazareth Andonian, fronting as a legitimate gold dealer, would receive millions of dollars a day in small-denomination cash (heavily powdered with cocaine), which he would then use to purchase gold at above-market prices. He then sold the gold at below-market prices for checks or wire transfers directed to the Latin American bank accounts, from which funds were transferred to AEI's corporate account.