http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/413641.html
Ministry probes how IDF choppers got to Colombia
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
The Defense Ministry is investigating a complaint that a company called Globus Aviation Ltd. was involved in a transaction in which surplus IDF helicopters ended up in Colombia, violating an agreement with the ministry. The possibility that the helicopters have ended up in the hands of criminal elements in Colombia is under investigation.
The ministry's inquiry is being conducted in cooperation with U.S. investigators, and Colombia's Defense Ministry.
Major General (res.) Yossi Ben Hannan, who heads the Defense Ministry's Defense Export branch, has asked Colombian authorities to help with the investigation of Globus Aviation and its role in the helicopters affair.
Though the transaction's origins go back several months, suspicions about possible wrongdoing arose two weeks ago. Globus Aviation received permission from the Defense Ministry to purchase five DM-500 helicopters that were in IDF surplus. The helicopters were made in America, and they were delivered to the Israel Air Force as part of U.S. defense assistance to Israel.
The IAF removed them from active service, and the choppers were put under Defense Ministry authority, for sale as IDF surplus. Globus Aviation, owned by Gabi Meidar, signed a contract to purchase the choppers for $100,000 apiece.
Under the terms of the agreement with the Defense Ministry, Globus Aviation was to sell the helicopters via a Canadian intermediary to purchasers who would use them for fire-fighting in Spain's Catalonia region; alternatively, the helicopters were to end up with the federal police in Mexico.
At one stage, Globus Aviation received permission to turn the helicopters into civilian aircraft; once they were revamped for civilian purposes, Globus Aviation transferred the helicopters to Miami, and their shipping invoice states that they were destined for Vera Cruz, Mexico.
But the helicopters ended up in the possession of a Colombian company called Aviel. Not long ago, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration officials turned to Israel with an inquiry about the choppers, asking why they have ended up in Colombia.
Senior Israel Defense Ministry officials have expressed concern that the sale of U.S.-manufactured helicopters to Colombian purchasers, without American consent, could harm defense relations between Jerusalem and Washington. Such tensions could compound existing problems that surfaced in recent years from other misunderstandings and affairs involving the use or sale of military items.
A Defense Ministry spokesperson corroborated the facts in the case of the five helicopters, but she stressed that "all the documents presented to the Defense Ministry were appropriate and confirmed," which is why the case is now under investigation after the helicopters ended up in Colombia.
As part of the inquiry, Yossi Ben Hannan has already met with Meidar, who apparently is arguing that once the helicopters were converted to civilian use and certified as civilian craft by the Defense Ministry, their sale was no longer a military matter. Ra'anan Har-Zahav, Meidar's attorney, told Haaretz: "Gabi Meidar is not a party to a sale of the helicopters that involves the Defense Ministry. Signatures for the sale involved a Canadian company and the Defense Ministry ... Meidar has done all that he can to help the Defense Ministry clarify how the helicopters were moved to Colombia."