An officer in the Israel Defense Force reserves is denying that he trained “hit squads” for the drug cartels operating in Colombia.
Reserve Lt. Col. Yair Klein said the company he heads, Hod Hahanit, worked in Colombia about 18 months ago training security guards for farmers and cattle ranchers.
He insists it was all legal and above-board.
But the case, first reported on American television last week, has triggered an investigation by the Defense Ministry and discussion in the Knesset.
It has focused attention on the activities of many retired IDF officers as free-lancers training paramilitary groups in parts of the world remote from Israel.
Klein contended that the people who employed him and several of his former IDF colleagues needed military training to combat guerrillas and cattle rustlers their government was unable to control.
He insisted they had nothing to do with drug traffickers, citing the relatively small amount of money he said his clients were able to pay for his services.
Klein has been appearing in radio and television interviews since he returned to Israel from abroad Thursday.
Israel Television identified him last Wednesday as the man alleged by NBC News to be a mercenary employed by the drug cartel.
A videotape purported to be made by the Colombian drug syndicate was aired by NBC News on August 22. It showed uniformed men undergoing training from instructors the newscast identified as Israeli and South African.
One of them spoke Hebrew on the videotape, which was translated to Spanish. The film was shown the next night by Israel Television, which identified the speaker as Klein.
Klein said the film clip was taken from a videotape his firm made 18 months ago to advertise its services.
ISRAELI GUN-RUNNER IDENTIFIED
Klein said he had declined to renew his contract in Colombia, but revisited that country briefly four months ago to collect money still owed him by the ranchers.
He said the Defense Ministry questioned him at that time about rumors of drug involvement, which he denied. Klein admitted, however, that drug interests could have participated in the training program after he left Colombia.
According to Klein, his training duties were taken over by mercenaries from the Britain, South Africa and the United States.
The Defense Ministry is reported to be continuing its investigations. The matter is also on the agenda of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, some members of which have demanded that the police investigate Klein and his activities.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department said Friday that it was satisfied with “several recent public commitments by Israeli officials to investigate fully the reports and to seek to prosecute any Israelis accused of wrongdoing.”
Meanwhile, Hadashot reported Sunday that an Israeli arrested in Miami in June on suspicion of gun-running to Colombian drug dealers has been identified as David Candiotti.
He and a Colombian, Carlos Enrique Gil, were arrested at a highway toll both in South Florida.
According to Hadashot, at least 30 Israelis, some of them retired IDF officers, serve as consultants and advisers to unofficial paramilitary and political groups in South American countries, such as Chile and Peru, and in the Central American nations of El Salvador and Guatemala.
(JTA correspondent Howard Rosenberg in Washington contributed to this report.)
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