The Montana Pipeline


Mike Perry is a small town newspaper editor who is covering one of Montana's hottest scandals - widespread drugs corruption among politicians and law enforcement officials.

His life has been threatened over the story and he packs a pistol these days, just in case. There has been a trail of bodies around Montana of people who said before they died that they knew too much about drugs corruption and that they were going to be killed.

He says that a rival paper was launched in this tiny town to try to drive him out.

"You can't buy me, you can't threaten me, you can't run me out of town," he says." I've been a journalist for 28 years and I've never seen a reaction to a story like they reacted to this one."

"They may not like me personally but they know what we write is accurate."

He thinks heroin is being brought into Vancouver, then flown from Canada to a series of landing strips and drop zones in sparsely populated areas, with a view to further distribution.

He points to unsolved murders of people giving evidence or about to give evidence on drugs corruption.

"I believe there is a group of people who are combining secretly to protect their illegal business interests."

The story has been hinted at in mainstream papers, but not properly exposed.

He's upbeat about the future: "There's a new sheriff and a new county Attorney. Hopefully they'll get these guys thrown out of town."

The Montana State legislature considered evidence from Gene Tatum, an ex-CIA agent in jail on fraud charges, of how a still working FBI agent recruited corrupt police in Montana to help the shipments.

Former Chinook Police Chief Bernie Brost received death threats at his rural after press reports of drug flights into the Chinook Airport. Brost had lost his position in Chinook after he and several other officers began to investigate drug flights into the Chinook airport which were apparently co-ordinated by a local banker and Chinook attorney.

The threats came when the Chinook Opinion began to publish reports linking a local Chinook attorney and others to the 1987 murders of Richard and Bernadette Cowan. Cowan reportedly advised friends that they were co-operating with the police concerning area narcotics traffick. The Cowans advised on the night they were murdered that "if anything should happen to us, it will be ( a Chinook attorney)".

Two men who were convicted of the Cowan killings have pleaded guilty to first degree murder and sentenced to hundreds of years in jail. But Perry is sceptical: "Nobody pleads guilty to first degree murder."

Perry has been an outspoken critic of Montana State governor Marc Racicot, who recently won re-election despite rumours of drugs links.

Witnesses in Lambert complain that their reports of drug flights to the Lambert airport have been ignored. A highway patrolman looking into drug traffic by a Malta businessman supposedly committed suicide. After the officer's death further investigation failed to materialize.

Perry notes how hard drugs first arrived in quantity in Montana around 1987, and he sees similarities with allegation of CIA linked drugs smuggling in California covered by the San Jose Mercury News.

The following letter was sent to the Montana State Senate from Gene Tatum, a former CIA operative, who claims knowledge about CIA and FBI drug smuggling activities.


March 22, 1997

Montana Senate Judiciary Committee
Montana Senate
State Capitol
Helena, Montana 59602

RE: Senate Bill 255

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Committee:

I am an ex-intelligence operative. I have served agencies and organizations which include the CIA, DIA, NSA, and NSC. I have direct information relating to a substantial amount of narcotics trafficking into Montana involving Colombian cartel members and others.

During the course of my duties, I met with Agent Terry Nelson of the FBI in South Florida, who was also “tasked” to the Crises Pre-Planning Group (CPPG) and Operational Sub-Group (OSG). As an operative for the OSG, I was taken into Agent Nelson’s confidence concerning operations along the US/Canadian border which included the smuggling of drugs into your state. This operation was planned and executed by a Canadian National named Mike Huxtable, a Colombian drug lord named Fabio Ochoa, and FBI Agent Terry Nelson. Together they affected the movement of multi-ton shipments of cocaine and heroin from an airstrip located south of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada to a series of landing strips and drop-zones in Montana, including Chinook, Sidney, and Havre. Nelson boasted of his ability to recruit local law enforcement and state officials in Montana and North Dakota. These officials were recruited to assist in the smuggling operations, thinking that they were part of a government-sanctioned covert operation.

I am currently serving a twenty-seven month federal sentence at Jesup Federal Prison Camp in Jesup, Georgia, for failure to disclose ownership in a firm subcontracting to the FDIC (Title 18 § 1007). If you wish to contact me, you can do so either directly or through my attorney. (Attachment 1)

I hope this information will be of assistance to you and your committee.

Yours Truly,

/s/ Dois Gene “Chip” Tatum

This informatuion comes courtesy ofThe BIG SKY PATRIOT at mtpatriot@imt.net

Go to The BIG SKY PATRIOT HOME PAGE



Issue 6
Water supply threatened by pollutionOrganophosphates - why are these dangerous chemicals being used routinely in our food?MORE drugs corruption - a heroin pipeline into Montana, operating with the Governor's blessing...
Area 51 is touted as an "ET highway", and was a model for the awful 'Independence Day'..find out what's really going on at this secret US base....More genetic engineering nonsense - and how to stop it.Multi millionaire George Soros lashes out at the capitalist system...
Who we areWhat's new?Press cuttings