In the seven years Operation Snowcap actively deployed we lost six agents, all killed in plane crashes. Snowcap would also serve as the predecessor and model for DEA’s ‘FAST’ teams (Foreign-deployed Advisory and Support Teams), which would also lose three agents in similar fashion while serving their country in Afghanistan. This type of work carries with it a calculated risk that all participants willingly accept, as they feel they are truly ‘making a difference,’ and our world a better and safer place.
There are now a total of eighteen videos about ‘Operation Snowcap’ available to this website: all are linked on this site through ‘You Tube’ for viewing, and the first eight, all major operations, are also available through the book’s ‘Amazon’ Author page (link is below, however only viewable by a computer or Ipad on that site). I include a more complete synopsis of these first eight videos below:
- In May 1993, based on intelligence and surveillance we suspected that a clandestine airstrip near Boca Santa Ana, Peru was being utilized by Colombian traffickers to pick up cocaine loads. We launched an infiltration team to the site with the Peruvian National Police, and they concealed themselves in the surrounding jungle. The next day a Colombian trafficking plane arrived and canoes were bringing cocaine up an adjacent tributary. As the team moved in for arrests the plane attempted to take off towards the police, they opened fire, and the damaged plane came to a halt with both pilots wounded. The traffickers in the canoes escaped, however both pilots were arrested and approximately 50 kilos of cocaine base were seized. As it was dark in the aftermath of this incident, the team treated the wounded pilots throughout the night, and all were extracted the next day by helicopter. Further details are related on pages 73-76 of the book.
- In June 1991, based on corroborated informant information we launched an infiltration raid on a clandestine airstrip located along a river, in an isolated area of the Chapare, Bolivia. We were dropped off late at night close to the nearest village, and 7 of us walked for hours through the jungle, finally reaching the suspected site and concealing in the brush near the river. Just before daylight we could hear people tossing rocks and clearing the area, and shortly after an airplane came in low over the trees and landed on the beach. Several canoes crossed the river with traffickers and bags of cocaine, and as we broke cover and moved on the plane they dropped several bundles and fled in the canoes. The pilot was arrested still in the airplane, and 75 kilos of base cocaine was seized on-site. After the raid support helicopters and more troops arrived from our base, the airplane was removed by Bolivian pilots, we cratered the makeshift airstrip with explosives to deny further use, and we all extracted from the site. Further details are related on pages 48-51 of the book.
- In November 1992, informant information corroborated by extensive covert aerial surveillance, documented that weekly flights of Colombian turboprop aircraft were landing at night on the airstrip of the remote village of Sapasoa Peru. We launched a night raid with the Peruvian National Police, ultimately resulting in the seizure of over 1,650 kilograms of cocaine (1 ¾) tons and the arrest of eight armed traffickers. The value of this cocaine in Peru at this time was over a million dollars USC ($800 per kilo), and as base cocaine converts to hydrochloride on a one to one ratio in processing this constituted a roughly 50 million dollar loss to the traffickers at the US street value of $35,000 per kilo. These are conservative estimates! Further details are related on pages 67-71 of the book.
- In May 1991, two USBP members of the team were on an aerial recon mission with two Bolivian pilots and a Police Lieutenant. They spotted an airplane on the ground at a suspect estancia in the rural Beni region, and on landing located two pilots, a large stash of aviation fuel, and in a search of the plane discovered 2 kilos of cocaine (hcl) and an automatic rifle. They also recovered a logbook indicating the location of other suspect clandestine airstrips throughout the area. The pilots and manager of the estancia were arrested, and the plane was confiscated and flown back to our base with the prisoners. The airplane was forfeited and put into service for the police, and the Estancia was also seized, and eventually utilized as a forward operating base on future missions. Further details are related on pages 46-47 of the book.
- In June 1993, based on corroborated informant information a 14 man PNP and Snowcap team launched a night infiltration raid on a clandestine airstrip in the Huallaga valley near Palestina, Peru. On the second evening while concealed in place, a twin engine Peruvian aircraft landed on the strip shortly after midnight. As two vehicles and numerous traffickers appeared and began loading cocaine onto the aircraft, the raid team broke cover and moved in on the plane. Several shots were fired by PNP in this action, the plane was struck once in a wing, and a trafficker loading cocaine was struck and ran off into the nearby jungle where he was later recovered dead. Three arrests were made, the plane and two vehicles were seized, and 550 kilos of cocaine base was recovered (over ½ ton). This load had a value ($800 per kilo) to traffickers of $440,000 USC. Once refined in Colombia where it was destined, and upon reaching the US it would have brought in over $19,000,000 ($35,000 per kilo) to the criminal organizations. S/A Tim Markey (narrating part of this video and a raid leader) was sadly murdered in Honduras while on vacation July 29th, 2005. He was shot by two juvenile gang members, allegedly during a botched robbery. SA Markey was a regular on many Snowcap tours, I insured he was with me on mine, and you will note he appears in several of these videos as he was always active. May he rest in peace, he’s certainly earned it!
- In October 1992, we received informant information of traffickers blocking a portion of the main highway through the Huallaga valley Peru, and bringing in planes to land and on-load cocaine base for delivery to Colombia. A 14 man PNP and Snowcap team launched a night infiltration to an abandoned building nearby, and the following day a Colombian twin engine airplane landed on the highway and cocaine was brought out of the pueblo. The team broke cover advancing on the plane, and the traffickers escaped into the nearby pueblo (including the pilot who had left the plane with engines running). The PNP fired during the action, striking the plane at least five times and puncturing a fuel tank. Recovered on-site was the airplane, which was damaged but cannibalized by the Peruvian Air Force for parts, and 500 kilos of Cocaine base with a local value of $400,000 ($800 per kilo). If this flight had succeeded, Colombian processing of this load would have garnered traffickers in the US over $17,000,000 ($35,000 per kilo). Pictures and further details and are related on pages 63-65 of the book.
- On October 28, 1992, the day after the Colombian twin was seized on the road (in the previous video), we went back to that same pueblo to thoroughly search it. The townspeople were very volatile and vocal, having just lost some major assets in the 500 kilo cocaine and airplane seizure the previous day, making it difficult to record the entire raid on video. We located an underground stash (caleta) underneath the floor of a restaurant near the road. This concealed an additional 500 kilos of Cocaine base, making a grand total of 1,000 kilos of cocaine base… seized from one small town over a two day period. Pictures and further details are related on page 66 of the book.
- In October ’92, based on informant information we launched a raid on an isolated ‘caleta’ or stash house of cocaine, located deep in the jungle along the Huallaga river. We were inserted by helo at a clearing some distance away, and by the time we reached it the traffickers had fled into the jungle leaving several weapons and food still cooking on the stove. Several bags (50 kilos per) were found in a hootch, several bags they attempted to flee with and were abandoned along the trail as they ran, and several bags were recovered buried neatly in a nearby stash. Altogether over 350 kilos of cocaine base and two sawed off shotguns were seized (weighing nearly 800 pounds), and the team had to clear a small landing zone for a helo at the site to remove the evidence. This seizure denied the Peruvian traffickers $280,000 of illicit profit, and would have been on its way to Colombia once they had accumulated a few more hundred pounds (the typical trafficker plane load was around 1,000 pounds). Further details are related on pages 71-72 of book.
The last ten videos available are fairly self-explanatory, provide an overview of what daily operations consisted of over a time span of approximately 3 years, and cover lab raids, covert surveillance techniques, mission aircraft utilization and complex logistical support, host nation interdiction of aircraft, and a foray into Colombia in the final days of Snowcap. This is the totality of my available (edited) film footage. The first fifteen videos constitute some of the work by our team as recorded during that span, the last three are links to segments of another team’s operations originally posted to You Tube by D. Taylor. It’s important to remember that at any given time during seven years of Snowcap activity there were at least four teams working South America at the same time. I am hopeful that more teams will provide footage (or links) of their efforts in this arena as well… we all felt that it was a noble effort with many sacrifices, highly successful, and should not be forgotten.
Questions or comments may be directed to harts4.rh@gmail.com
