Agent Insists He Grew Rich Smuggling Gold

Darnell Garcia did a snap calculation, converting kilos to pounds, during a recess Wednesday afternoon in a Los Angeles federal courtroom, clicking off numbers on a hand-held calculator provided by government prosecutors.

When the jury returned, the former federal agent told an incredulous Assistant U.S. Atty. Joyce Karlin that he had smuggled 11,880 pounds of gold chain through Los Angeles International Airport between 1982 and 1987.

“And that’s how you explain how you have more than $2.6 million that you deposited to your foreign bank account?” the prosecutor asked.

“Yes,” Garcia replied.

It was a day of withering questioning from Karlin, marking the conclusion of her cross-examination of the former Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Questioning Garcia in tones drenched with sarcasm, Karlin said it would be unrealistic for the jury to believe that so much gold could have been carried into passenger compartments and then lugged around U.S. Customs at LAX.

But Garcia said he did it with the help of others.

The 44-year-old Rancho Palos Verdes man is charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. His explanation of how he accumulated about $3 million in a Swiss bank account is that he made the money helping an Italian firm smuggle jewelry into the U.S.

But federal prosecutors allege that Garcia’s bank account represents the proceeds of drug trafficking.

Garcia also said he received extra cash from the jewelry firm for keeping his mouth shut about misrepresenting 10-carat gold chain as more expensive 14-carat chain.

“That’s extortion, isn’t it, Mr. Garcia?” Karlin shot back.

“I don’t know,” Garcia said.

Referring to Garcia’s personal date books, Karlin noted that in December, 1985, Garcia smuggled 616 pounds of gold chain on a flight from Rome to LAX.

“You couldn’t put 600 pounds of gold jewelry under an aisle of seats, could you, Mr. Garcia?” Karlin asked. But Garcia said it was done.

Earlier, the defendant confirmed that he had been a fugitive for seven months between November, 1988, and July, 1989, after the government issued a warrant for his arrest. He said he traveled in Brazil and Europe, sometimes under assumed names.

“When you were staying in hotels under other names you weren’t hiding (from authorities), Mr. Garcia?” Karlin asked.

“No,” Garcia said.

Instead, he said, he fled to avoid harm from the DEA, which he alleged had a vendetta against him because he successfully sued the agency to get his job back after being fired over refusing to be transferred out of Los Angeles.

On this note, Garcia confirmed that he asked a federal judge’s secretary to tell him what happened during a November, 1988, hearing for two DEA colleagues implicated along with him, rather than show his face in a Los Angeles federal courtroom.

“You feared that your life would be in jeopardy ?” Karlin asked.

“Yes,” Garcia said.