Guns for Antigua

The Guns for Antigua scandal was a political scandal involving the shipment of Israeli-made weapons through Antigua to the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia. The affair was exposed by the Louis Blom-Cooper Royal Commission, following the discovery that several murders in Colombia had been perpetrated with Israeli guns that had been shipped through Antigua and were ostensibly for the Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force, which is equipped for free by the United States.

After the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán on 18 August 1989, Colombian police raided the home of cartel leader Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, where they discovered hundreds of Israeli-made Galil rifles including the one that had killed Galan. Colombia sought an explanation from Israel and it was revealed the rifle was part of a consignment of 100 Uzi submachine-guns, 400 Galil assault-rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition that had been sold and shipped by Israel to the Antiguan government. On receipt of this explanation, the Colombian government issued a formal protest note to the government of Antigua. Vere Bird Sr. asked the Governor-General of Antigua to appoint a Royal Commissioner to investigate and, on advice from the British Foreign Office, he duly appointed Louis Blom-Cooper.

The Royal Commission under Blom-Cooper uncovered an international conspiracy to ship arms from Israel to Colombia via Antigua.

In 1983, Maurice Sarfati, a Lebanese-born Israeli, started a melon farm on Antigua on the approval of Vere Bird Jr, whom he cultivated a friendship with. The financing and land for the melon farm was provided by co-conspirator Bruce Rappaport. Between October 1984 and 1987, Sarfati was appointed to a number of governmental positions, including managing director of the State-owned airline. The melon farm was expanded thanks to a series of promissory notes issued by the Antiguan Government, totalling US$4m. Sarfati set up a credit arrangement at the melon farm which allowed certain VIPs to withdraw US$1,000 in cash. Sarfati's secretary was directed to transfer payments of US$5,000 at a time to Vere Bird Jr and his wife. By 1988 the melon farm was US$7 million in debt.

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