Thor Halvorssen Hellum - Drug Czar

Drug Czar

According to profiles of Halvorssen in magazines who covered his imprisonment, Halvorssen's years of socializing and partying caught up to him, and he developed a drinking problem. When Pérez offered him the position of "drug czar", Halvorssen accepted because, "I went to a detoxification clinic in the US and I was so appalled by what I saw there that I resolved that I would do anything I could to fight drug trafficking." According to Isabel Hilton, writing in the British edition of Gentleman's Quarterly (GQ), observers say that Pérez may have offered Halvorssen the job as a necessary matching gesture when US president George H. W. Bush appointed William Bennett as his Director of National Drug Control Policy, thinking that Halvorssen was still drinking and wouldn't cause problems. Halvorssen performed his duties well, deciding to use his worldwide contacts and intelligence connections to detail the extent of Venezuela's role in the drug world. Halvorssen believed that Pérez wasn't responding to his reports on drug trafficking and money laundering and approached his ally, Venezuelan Senator Cristobal Fernandez Daló. In 1992, he was appointed special overseas investigator of an Anti-Money-Laundering Commission by the Venezuelan Senate. He was a liaison between law enforcement agencies around the world, working on drug and money-laundering cases.

Hilton reveals that Halvorssen was behind the extradition to Italy of the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan members Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera. Gaeton Fonzi, former U.S. Senate investigator, wrote that "the remaining Mafia in Venezuela do not remember Halvorssen fondly for that". Halvorssen worked closely with Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau investigating the financial affairs of Venezuelan government officials. Halvorssen discovered the secret bank accounts of Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez, the man who had appointed Halvorssen. The evidence revealed $19 million that Perez and his mistress, Cecilia Matos, had deposited into numbered accounts. This discovery and the airing of the evidence in Venezuela led to the impeachment of President Perez in May 1993.

Halvorssen worked with Annabelle Grimm, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Venezuela. According to Colombia's Dinero, Grimm became involved with controversial controlled deliveries of cocaine shipments from Venezuela to the US. A DEA investigation uncovered a scandal in which a fellow US agency, the CIA, helped Venezuelan General Ramón Guillén Davila of the National Guard antidrug unit to run a profitable cocaine-trafficking operation. Grimm said she refused to cooperate with the CIA, but was removed from Caracas. Halvorssen became a persona non grata for the new DEA group that took over. Halvorssen appeared to be both a DEA informant and CIA source. Halvorssen denies being a CIA agent, but admits having "cooperated" with the agency.

When Halvorssen was imprisoned on charges (later dismissed) of terrorism, officials in Miami distanced the DEA from Halvorssen and stated that his drug information was considered unreliable. He was reported to have "unusual ties to and knowledge of drug traffickers"; the DEA said it "refused to deal with him, citing as reasons 'duplicity and manipulation.'" Halvorssen denied working with Florida agencies, and human rights advocates who knew him said that, considering his involvement in the fight against narcotrafficking, the accusations were not unexpected.