The Nation - News from April 18, 1989

Fugitive financier Robert Vesco was added as a defendant in a drug-conspiracy indictment by a federal grand jury in Jacksonville, Fla. Vesco, indicted on one count alleging he conspired to import cocaine into the United States, is accused of persuading Cuban officials to allow cocaine-laden airplanes to fly over Cuba en route to the Bahamas and then to the United States. Vesco is believed to have lived in Cuba since 1982. He has been wanted in the United States since 1973 on charges of looting an investment firm, Investors Overseas Services, of $224 million. The indictment charged that in 1984 Vesco arranged the cocaine overflights at the request of convicted Colombian cocaine kingpin Carlos Lehder. The United States and Cuba do not have an extradition agreement.