ABOUT LAGUNA
LAGUNA is the biography of PAUL LIR ALEXANDER. He authorized the author to write his story while they were cell mates at the federal detention center in Miami in 1995.
Who is PAUL LIR ALEXANDER? His name is virtually unknown in the USA. In Brasil, he is a living legend. The people of Brasil know him as:
"O barao da cocaina"
The English translation of this phrase is:
"The Baron of Cocaine"
PAUL LIR ALEXANDER was born on July 27, 1956, in Laguna,
Santa Catarina, Brasil. He was the son of an unwed mother. His life
began in abject poverty in a small fishing village. By the time he was
33 years old, he had amassed a fortune in excess of $100 million. His
assets included a $25 million dollar custom-built yacht, a $3.5 million
dollar home in Rio de Janeiro, a 64,000 acre ranch in rural Brasil and
a Hawker Sidley corporate jet.
He is a fascinating man who led three lives. His first life was a
20-year career with the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency. Joining the
agency at age 17, he became one of their best terrorist catchers and a
master strategist at planning assassinations. Just a story of this life
would fill a riveting book. Steven Spielberg's movie Munich includes
the assassination of a woman terrorist code-named "Jeanette." Paul was
part of this operation.
His second life came about when the Mossad permanently stationed him
in Brasil. It bought a small entertainment company for him as a "cover"
for his intelligence work with the Mossad. Alexander applied his
considerable talents to turn it into a multi-hundred million dollar
success story. He discovered an unknown 18 year-old female singer. He
started her out as a children's show performer. She evolved into an
adult performer. She is now XUXA - "the Madonna of Brasil," who was
recently chosen to play the part of Lucy in the Brazilian remake of the
television part Lucille Ball made famous in the long-running television
hit "I Love Lucy." Alexander also developed several other super stars
in Brasil.
His association with the Mossad also led him to his third life. Lt.
Col. Oliver North "borrowed" him from the Mossad to help the Contras in
their war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. While in the employ of
Lt. Col. Oliver North, Alexander became involved with a clique of CIA
agents (Air America, the Phoenix Program, etc.) who were obtaining
cocaine from Pablo Escobar through General Manuel Noriega and smuggling
it into the USA for sale to street gangs on the East and West Coast.
His CIA-sponsored drug dealing career lasted from 1982 until his arrest
at Miami International Airport in April,1993. At the time of his
arrest, he was collecting a $1 million fee each year from the CIA in
his capacity as anti-terrorist consultant. He was also in the process
of raising $350 million to purchase the Manchete national television
network in Brasil. He was on his way to becoming a billionaire before
he was 40 years old.
During his time in the drug business, Alexander was the
transportation expert responsible for the importation of cocaine with
an estimated street value between $6 billion and $10 billion into the
USA from Brasil. He used a very ingenious method to hide the cocaine in
large Siemens generators. He brought in 3,600 kilograms of cocaine a
month to the Port of Miami using this method.
Even after his arrest, Alexander pulled off miracles no one thought
were possible. Clearly one importing billions of dollars worth of
cocaine into the USA would be classified as a Drug Kingpin. The normal
sentence for such a high-level criminal would be the death penalty or
life in prison without parole, to be served in some
super-maximum-security prison.
Through adroit legal moves, Alexander got himself declared a
small-time individual importer of drugs. His initial sentence was 22
years in prison. Alexander then approached the US Marshal's Service in
Miami. He offered to capture their twelve most wanted international
fugitives (Not to be confused with the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List.")
The US Marshal's Service reluctantly gave Alexander the list. They
doubted that anything would come of it.
