The Nation - News from Dec. 1, 1987

Michael L. Toliver, who contends he smuggled guns and drugs under the direction of former CIA operatives, was granted limited immunity from prosecution for his testimony in a lawsuit over a crashed airplane. Toliver, 40, was piloting a twin-engine plane that crashed into the ocean near the Cayman Islands on Jan. 3, 1983. A suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kan., later that year in an attempt to get the U.S. government to pay $413,000 for the loss of the plane. The plaintiffs are Midland National Bank, of Newton, Kan., which had a lien against the plane; Walter R. Conlogue, who owned American Aircraft Inc., the company that leased the plane; and Puritan Insurance Co. Toliver, who is serving a federal prison term, said in his deposition that he smuggled planeloads of arms into Central America and flew back to the United States with illegal drugs under the direction of ex-CIA operatives who continued to have ties with the U.S. government.