Alex Constantine - March 14, 2025
" ... those drawn into the Iran-Contra arms scandal include: Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Sultan of Brunei, China, Poland, John Gotti. ..."
By Jimmy Breslin
NY Daily News, May 5, 1987
THE COLD rain yesterday, so uncharacteristic for various the law season, drove many law enforcement people off 101st Ave. in Ozone Park. ... Among those who left because of the rain was a representative from either the Senate committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair, chaired by Sens. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Warren Rudman (R-New Hampshire), or Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh. It was unclear exactly which group. What is known is that people from one of these groups were in Ozone Park because of a reported $624,000 payment in Contra aid funds to John Gotti. He is the reputed head of the Gambino crime family, whose headquarters are in the brick-fronted Bergen Hunt and Fish Club on 101st Ave.
This would make the second time in recent history it has been discovered that the Mafia has been used directly by the American government. The first time was in the 1960s, when the CIA recruited Sam Giancana of Chicago, Santo Trafficante of Tampa and Johnny Rosselli to assassinate Fidel Castro. The CIA agent who was reportedly involved at that time was one Thomas Clines. This time, the same Thomas Clines has been named in the IranContra matter. Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh has asked the Senate and House not to give Clines immunity.
He has consistently been named in stories, along with retired Gens. Richard Secord and John Singlaub. There was a belief yesterday in Ozone Park that at least some of the money received by Gotti came from the Sultan of Brunei. "I hear he is a real good guy," somebody said on 101st Ave. yesterday.
Other Contra funds collected by Reagan officials and the CIA were sent through Swiss bank accounts out into the vapor. At least some of the money was handled by Carl Channell, a professional right-wing fund-raiser and an associate of Oliver North. Channell seemed to do his greatest fund-raising for himself. Yet some yesterday thought he was the person who gave the $624,000 to Gotti. This now means that so far, those drawn into the Iran-Contra arms scandal include: Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Sultan of Brunei, China, Poland, John Gotti.
In New York Sunday, President Reagan asked the American Newspaper Publishers Association to join the fight against the Sandinistas. Somewhere either in the CIA or in right-wing lunatic circles, the idea was that John Gotti "hit squads" would infiltrate Nicaragua and level the Sandinista government. But the Reagan people who gave Gotti the $624,000 apparently didn't know that.Gotti refuses to fly and thus can't get to Nicaragua. He mostly stays in Ozone Park because he thinks the train to Fort Lauderdale takes too long. He will go no further. The Contra supporters also failed to realize that Nicaragua, being a Catholic country, has Catholics in government. Some, like Foreign Minister Miguel d'Escoto are so Catholic that they are priests.
While Mr. Gotti took the money, his being of the same religious persuasion as the Sandinistas has insured his having done no work against them.
In Ozone Park yesterday, his people typically turned the situation around and placed all blame for the payment on those who paid. "No wonder they need an investigation in Washington. They go around paying people to shoot a priest." The official Washington story is that money for the Contras was raised to put on American television commercials urging Congress to vote for Contra funds.
Although Gotti is one of the best gangsters ever to appear on television or in a movie, he was never contacted to make a commercial urging Congress to vote for Contra funds. Therefore, some Contra fund-raisers attempted to ask for the money back. "They have a problem, because the first thing John did was to take 10% off the top for himself," a man said on 101st Ave. yesterday.
"He is so used to taking a cut that he even cuts his own money. Now they want the money back? They better get someplace bigger than a courtroom or a hearing room or whatever it is. They better hire the football stadium- in Washington for all the guys who want to see anybody make John Gotti give money back. Who are they, just because they're from Washington? John Gotti wouldn't pay Benjamin Franklin." Ozone Park people also point out the ridiculousness of doing anything with the government except robbing it. They know that the last time, the CIA and gangsters Giancana and Trafficante and Rosselli met in the Fontainebleau in Miami with a cook who was supposed to go to Havana and poison Castro.
The cook was given a special pill over Rosselli's objections and the cook, instead of going to Havana, went to his home in Miami. The next day, the cook disappeared and his wife was found poisoned. "You got us in a common homicide," Rosselli wailed to the CIA man. The CIA man proposed a special cigar which, when Castro smoked it would cause his beard to fall off, thus humiliating him. "What am I doing, playing Halloween?" Giancana said, getting up to leave.
This time, there was no discussion in Ozone Park of any sort of plan. Apparently, the matter never got past the point where the $624,000 was given to Gotti, who doesn't fly. Therefore, again, it is the Reagan administration officials and their loose-wired friends on the fringes who turn out to be, as Sen. Inouye observed, "the gang that couldn't shoot straight.".