Daniel Garner

Daniel Garner was a hard-nosed detective and spiritual leader of the Majors II squad who was indicted on corruption charges in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Operation Big Spender sting. Garner had been a court-certified expert in money-laundering issues and had secretly kept documents seized from Ronald Lister's home during the 1986 raids as "insurance."¹

The Lister Documents

When Garner hired defense attorney Harland Braun after his indictment, he produced papers he said the Majors had seized from the home of a money launderer connected to a major drug ring linked to the Contras. Garner had secretly copied ten pages of documents that "give the name of CIA operatives in Iran, specifically mention the Contras, list various weaponry that was being purchased and even diagram the route of drug money out of the United States, back into the United States purchasing weaponry for the Contras as well as naming the State Department as one of the agencies involved."¹

Trial and Conviction

During the trial, Harland Braun attempted to introduce the Contra-CIA evidence as part of an outrageous government conduct defense. Judge Edward Rafeedie gagged Braun and refused to allow the evidence. Garner managed to tell the jury during his testimony that he had discovered "the CIA was doing, conducting illegal activities in which the guys in the CIA were getting rich," but jurors were instructed to disregard the comments. Garner received a fifty-four-month sentence, one of the harshest. Six of seven deputies were convicted.¹

After Prison

Garner was released in 1996 and emerged defiant. "I didn't pump 500 tons of cocaine into the ghetto," Garner said. "I stole American money and spent it in America. The United States government can't say that."¹