Ramon J. Martinez

Ramon J. Martinez was a U.S. Customs Special Agent based in Washington D.C. who conducted the primary federal investigation of The Finders' properties in February 1987. His reports, filed February 7, 1987 and April 13, 1987, constitute the principal primary documentary record of what investigators found at the group's warehouse and Glover Park properties, including the telex communications describing international operations involving children and the subsequent CIA interference in the investigation. Both reports were included in the FBI Vault's November 2019 release of Finders documents under FOIA case number 1372462-0.¹²

The 1987 Finders Investigation

Martinez was called in by Metropolitan Police to assist with the investigation after the van used to transport six malnourished children in Tallahassee, Florida on February 4, 1987 was traced to The Finders' warehouse at 1307 Fourth Street NE in Washington D.C. He executed search warrants on the warehouse and the Glover Park duplex alongside MPD Detective Bradley on February 5-6, 1987.¹

His February 7, 1987 report documented the following at the warehouse:

• Extensive networked computer equipment with satellite dish antennas on the roof
• A large library including books on mind control
• A video screening room with production capability
• Sauna and hot tub facilities
• Files referencing international contacts in London, Germany, the Bahamas, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Africa, and Costa Rica
• A file labeled "Pentagon Break-In" (contents unexamined and unknown; the report records only the title)
• Documents with what Martinez described as "detailed instructions for obtaining children for unspecified purposes" including impregnation, purchasing, trading, and kidnapping
• Telex messages transmitted via MCI accounts to terminals across the United States and in foreign locations, including what Martinez identified as a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong through a contact at the Chinese Embassy
• "Intelligence files on private families," compiled through placement of babysitter and tutor advertisements in local newspapers¹²

At the Glover Park duplex, Martinez found Stuart Miles Silverstone inside a room equipped with multiple computers, printers, and satellite communications equipment, and bags of color slides and photographic contact sheets containing images of children.¹

Martinez's overall documented assessment: the files indicated "international trafficking in children, high tech transfer to the United Kingdom, and international transfer of currency."¹

CIA Interference and the April 1987 Report

On February 6, 1987, the FBI took over the investigation and took possession of the computers and floppy disks seized from Finders properties. The FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division directed the Metropolitan Police Department to classify all MPD reports as Secret and directed MPD not to brief the FBI's own Washington Field Office.¹²

In late March or early April 1987, Martinez met with MPD Sgt. John H. Stitcher Jr., who informed him that the investigation "had become a CIA internal matter" and that "the Finders was a CIA front gone bad." An MPD report filed by Stitcher on February 19, 1987 had previously documented a CIA official's acknowledgment that the investigation was "treading on their toes," that the CIA had "had someone working on the case since it first broke," and that the agency had a "vested interest" in the group.¹

Martinez's April 13, 1987 report concluded: "The MPD report has been classified SECRET... FBI had withdrawn from the investigation... FBI Foreign Counter Intelligence Division had directed MPD not to advise the FBI Washington Field Office... No further information will be available. No further action will be taken."¹

Professional Consequences

Martinez's reports were not released through official channels. Copies were obtained by retired FBI official Ted Gunderson, who made them publicly available. The existence of the reports became widely known during the 1993 reopening of the investigation, when congressional representatives obtained copies from private consultant Henry Skip Clements.²

In 1994, the U.S. Customs Service proposed to remove Martinez from his position. The stated reason was improper disclosure of case information to a close co-worker of an individual under investigation. By letter dated December 7, 1994, the penalty was subsequently mitigated to a five-day suspension without pay and reassignment from Special Agent to Physical Security Specialist, GS-080-13, Security Programs Division. Martinez declined public comment.²

Significance as a Primary Source

Martinez's reports, confirmed authentic by the FBI Vault's 2019 release, remain the most detailed primary-source description of what federal investigators found at The Finders' properties. The key evidentiary limitation is that no second investigator present at the same raids independently confirmed all elements of his reports in records accessible to the public, particularly the specific telex describing the Hong Kong children purchase order.³ His April 1987 report provides the primary documentary basis for the claim that the CIA intervened to end the investigation.