Timothy LaFrance was a San Diego arms manufacturer whose custom weapons were so highly regarded that he created custom-made weapons for Rambo films and episodes of *Miami Vice*.[^1] LaFrance was a key participant in [[Ronald Lister]]'s weapons manufacturing operation in [[El Salvador]] through [[Pyramid International Security Consultants]] and provided detailed accounts of the operation to investigative journalist Nick Schou of the L.A. Weekly. ### Weapons Manufacturing in El Salvador LaFrance accompanied Lister to El Salvador at least twice, becoming involved as a weapons specialist and helping to set up facilities to make pistols for the [[Contras]] in neighboring [[Honduras]]. He described Pyramid International Security Consultants as "a private vendor that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] used to do things [the agency] couldn't do." When he applied in Pyramid's name for a State Department permit to take high-powered weapons out of the [[United States]], "It came back approved in two days. Usually it takes three months. We went down to [[Central America]] with two giant boxes full of machine guns and ammunition."[^1] LaFrance told Schou that their cover story for the trip was that they were there "to provide security, armor-proofing for vehicles, limos and homes. My end was the weapons [and] how to make a three-car stop if you're shot at." But the real purpose was to "set up an operation in El Salvador that would allow us to get around U.S. laws and supply the Contras with guns. It's much easier to build the weapons down there and that's eventually what we did."[^1] According to LaFrance, the Pyramid team moved into a mass-transit center run by the military in downtown [[San Salvador]]. "That's where we made the weapons. You could have 50 guys working in a machine shop and nobody would know it." After the finished guns were transported to a Salvadoran military airstrip in Morazon province, they were airlifted to Contra camps in Honduras. "We made almost all of our drops by helicopter, buzzing the treetops." Pyramid was eventually expelled from El Salvador at the urging of the U.S. Army, which took over the weapons plant.[^1] ### Intelligence Connections LaFrance said the [[DIA|Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)]] was involved in Lister's weapons manufacturing plant, and that the meetings Lister and his associates had with death squad commander [[Roberto D'Aubuisson]] "happened because the DIA wanted them to happen."[^1] LaFrance met Lister through [[Richard Wilker]], a former Laguna Beach resident LaFrance described as an ex-CIA agent. "Wilker had heard about my stuff from the Agency. He said he had a friend who wanted to talk about a deal. I called to check and Langley said he [Wilker] was still working for the Agency. So I started doing business with Lister and Wilker." LaFrance said Lister was not officially a CIA employee: "He wasn't getting a paycheck from them. He may have said he did but his connection was... with Wilker. Very few people ever work directly for the Agency."[^1] ### Cabazon Indian Tribe Solicitation In May 1983, LaFrance was solicited by the tiny [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]] in southern [[California]] to build an arms factory on their Riverside County reservation. The Cabazons' letter to LaFrance Specialties stated: "We need the know-how from an organization engaged in the manufacturing of armaments of various types, all consisting of technology not currently found on the marketplace." Another letter specified the Cabazons wanted: "A 9-mm machine pistol, an assault rifle with laser sighting, a long-distance sniper rifle, a portable rocket system, a night-vision scope, and a battlefield communications system 'that cannot be detected by current technology.'"[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty"