Air Scranton

AIR SCRANTON is used to refer to the ties between Air America, Frederick "Rik" Luytjes, & Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport...described as a “plane company, pilot, & route set up by the CIA to smuggle drugs and money for Pablo Escobar” (Operation Gladio, Paul Williams p. 180).

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport served as a hub for CIA drug trafficking, involving Air America and related aircraft operations. The mention of Frederick Luytjes, a pilot, ties this to specific CIA activities, tied to Latin American drug networks with Pablo Escobar, a Colombian drug lord active in the 1970s–1980s.

Air America and Nugan Hand Bank

Southeast Asia Operations (1960s–1970s): Air America was the CIA’s primary airline for transporting opium and heroin in the Golden Triangle (Burma, Laos, Thailand) during the Vietnam War, supporting Hmong forces under General Vang Pao (The Politics of Heroin, pp. 304–305; Whiteout, p. 20). Williams reinforces this, noting Air America’s role in drug smuggling (Operation Gladio, cited in).

Michael Hand, co-founder of the Nugan Hand Bank, was a CIA operative who worked with Air America in Laos, facilitating opium transport (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 274). His experience informed Nugan Hand’s role as a money-laundering hub for drug profits (In Banks We Trust, p. 70).

Nugan Hand’s early shareholders included four Air America employees, one from Continental Air Services, and five from USAID, all tied to CIA operations (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 274). This personnel overlap links Air America directly to the bank’s formation in 1973.

The bank’s Chiang Mai branch, opened in 1976, was strategically located in the Golden Triangle and shared an office with the DEA, facilitating drug money laundering (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 274; In Banks We Trust, p. 70).

Drug Money Laundering

Nugan Hand laundered profits from Golden Triangle heroin, with clients like Murray Riley transferring over $250,000 (and likely millions more) from Hong Kong to the U.S. (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 276).

Allegations suggest Hand met with Khun Sa, a major opium lord, to secure drug supplies (In Banks We Trust, p. 70), though this is unverified.

Williams’ broader narrative in Operation Gladio frames the CIA’s drug trafficking as a global enterprise, with banks like Nugan Hand and later the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) serving as financial conduits (Operation Gladio, cited in; Prelude to Terror, p. 179).

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport and CIA Drug Operations

Williams says the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport was a CIA hub for smuggling drugs and money for Pablo Escobar, facilitated by Air America and pilot Frederick Luytjes. This suggests a shift from Southeast Asia to Latin America, aligning with the CIA’s later involvement in Central America during the Iran-Contra affair (1980s).

According to Paul Williams, Operation Gladio

"The CIA was an active participant in the arrangement since the Agency was deeply involved with Escobar and the drug cartels. As soon as the laundries were created, the CIA set up Air America North America, a fleet of Seneca cargo planes that operated out of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport in Avoca, Pennsylvania. The planes made regular three thousand mile runs to Colombia to pick up the bundles of cocaine that were distributed to dealers throughout the east coast."

Frederick "Rik" Luytjes, the head of the outfit, and his fellow pilots made up to $1.5 million per run. Luytjes, by his own admission, was a CIA operative and the funds were used to sponsor black operations in South and Central America. A substantial amount of this cash was funneled into the IOR's (Vatican Bank) offshore shells.]]