It is known that part of the contraband weapons, much needed by “hungry” and war-torn Croatia, passed through Israel’s largest port, in Haifa. That port has been a transit point since at least November 1991. There, the ship’s name and papers would be changed, before the ship sailed for Trieste. In the same month, seven mobsters were arrested in Italy, involved in arms and drug trade (and other interesting activities), members of the Venetian Mafia, “Mala del Brenta”. The investigation revealed the just-mentioned arrangement, namely, the transfer of Russian weapons through Israel, with the mediation of the Northern Italian mafia, the CIA, SISMI, and the Mossad.
One of the people who was in charge of that arrangement, Giovanni Battista Licata, the head of the mafia from the Fidanzati clan (from the Milan area; dealing in drug trafficking), fled to Croatia in 1991, where he would live in luxury. His associate, the head of “Mala del Brenta”, Felice Maniero, called “Faccia d’Angelo”, i.e. “The face of and Angel”, a good friend of the son of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman-Miroslav (founder and leader of the “Croatian Intelligence Service” — HIS) and he make an agreement with the newly minted Croatian army. A deal of 50 million dollars (paid to Switzerland’s UBS bank), which, according to the investigation, also involved Ivan Kapetanović, consul of Croatia in Slovenia, confidant of Franjo Tudjman. From the documents submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Venice, the agreements were conducted between Trieste, Klagenfurt and Lugano. Mediator for Israel, Friedrich Schaudinn (from a Jewish mother), an electrical engineer by profession, an assassin by profession and apparently an expert in explosives, one of the people responsible for the “Christmas Massacre” of December 1984 (the detonation of express train 904, in the Great Apennine Tunnel-with 16 dead and 266 wounded), worked with Licata. Other persons involved in this scheme are “a couple of American citizens”, then the part-time consul of Rwanda in Italy, and a certain Riccardo Trombetta, captain of the parachute brigade “Folgore”, who is suspected of having participated in Operation Gladio, as an instructor. The “Honorary Consul of Rwanda”, Edmondo Camurri, is considered to be the “brains” of the operation. He was born in 1940; he served in the French Foreign Legion. Soon became an informant and Mossad agent, and then a businessman, shareholder of the company Kesser Working Tools (“produzione meccanica di precisione”), which had contracts with NATO and produced parts of the MILAN anti-missile system. In 1985, he became a part-time consul, with an office in Kesser (“via Vicoforte di Torino”). In the spring of 1991, the Turin court declared Kesser bankrupt. Among the names of the other “conspirators”, Shlomo Oren Sonnewald, an Israeli who at that time lived in Sanremo (a city known for its casinos) allegedly selling clothes, is recorded, followed by the Italians Antonio Carnielli, Mario Guglielmone, Silvano Zonetta, and Giuseppe Giovannelli. The ship’s cargo, composed of almost exclusively Russian products: machine guns, howitzers and ammunition, surface-to-air missiles, disappears by some chance after setting sail from Haifa. Everything happened with the tacit blessing of the Israeli intelligence services, according to writer Marko Lopušina. However, the burden did not disappear; it started from Haifa, touched Cyprus, Alexandria (Italy) and Ravenna, and was supposed to drop anchor in Umag, in Istria; however, it was instead confiscated by the Italian authorities. A warrant was issued for Camurri, and Trombetta and many others were arrested at the behest of Venice judge Felice Casson, one of the men responsible for uncovering the workings of Operation Gladio. Camurri, after the weapons were not handed over and the five million dollars were not returned, was kept with Licata in custody in Ljubljana under the watchful eye of Ivan Kapetanović and his “militians”, who conducted negotiations on behalf of the Government of Zagreb. According to Camurri, Licata collaborated with the Croatians. For the release of Camurri and Licata, Kapetanović asked for those five million. On November 29, Camurri allegedly threw himself from the window of the villa where he was being held, took a taxi, crossed the border and surrendered to the Carabinieri, who handed him over to Judge Casson. Camurri testifies that the weapons were not intended for the regular army of Croatia, but for the “ultra-right” paramilitary formation of Dobroslav Paraga, the Croatian Defense Forces (HOS).
This may be a lie, and a politically very safe lie, since Paraga seems to have been considered a persona non grata at the time in the Croatian elite, and at the same time, too many people related to Tudjman and his government were involved in this failed business for it to be about arming some “marginal” group. However, given the source of the weapon and the fascist political connections of the people involved in its transport, the hands of the HOS cannot be ruled out as the “final destination.” The second case in which Haifa was mentioned was different, because the shipment actually reached the hands of Croatian soldiers. Why? Because this time, apart from the tacit consent of the NATO fleet patrolling the Mediterranean, there was probably a change in Italian policy as well, perhaps under the pressure of the “allies”. And maybe because it was about “their man”, unlike some Soviet generals, because this time, the weapon was bought from the Belgian-French very famous merchant Jacques Monsieur. The ship set off from Rotterdam, ostensibly to Togo, with 3,000 crates. However, it went to Haifa, where the cargo was allegedly transferred from a Panamanian ship called “Sable” (“sand”) to a ship called “Sabre” (“sabre”), although it is more likely that it just changed its name, as Marin Tomulić testified, the man who negotiated these things for Croatia: “There were French agents in Trieste who were in touch with the ship. When the ship entered the Otranto Gate, a French cruiser appeared and missed the ship”. The ship ends up in Rijeka in November 1992. Monsieur had this to say about his job: “When questioned about these deals in 2000, Monsieur claims that he had been commissioned by the CIA to weaken the Serbian forces.” Until when it was exported via Haifa is not known, because more direct shipments from Russia and the countries around Croatia were also about to start soon, so it seems that the port was losing its importance; reportedly, at first only three or four ships were used (uncertain if they were all via Haifa, but it is very likely), and later they switched to cargo planes. Nevertheless, the Government of Croatia decided to establish its first consulate in Haifa, on April 27, 1993 (very likely after the trip of Jewish businessmen Davor Štern and Jakov Bienenfeld in the same year). Jewish Croatian Dan Baram was appointed consul, who allegedly came to that position because he, as an Israeli, was horrified by the influence of the “Serbian lobby” in Israel and the “Greater Serbian aggression” on his former homeland, and he went to support it in that difficult moment. It’s not certain how he did it (besides the obvious), but noble ideals aside, Baram was the perfect person for the role, since: “After the Yom Kippur War he went into the police and was one of the founders of the Mishmat Ezrahi (National Guard). He held various positions in the state security structures until his retirement in 1998. Retirement with the rank of brigadier general.” Journalist and writer Pero Zlatar mentions that for writing his book about the hunt for dictator Ante Pavelić, “Target Pavelić — Dead or Alive”, Dan Baram “opened the heavily guarded steel doors of the Mossad.” It is interesting that: “… as a Croatian man, Israeli journalists linked him to the arming of Croatia.” Nevertheless, Mr. Baram will be recognized by Israel as an honorary consul only after 1997, again it seems due to the action of Štern, when he opens in Tel Aviv the Croatian Embassy, that is, on April 7, 1999, with a service also in Jerusalem. He was later recalled in 2006, and immediately afterwards, the following year, he was awarded the Order of Prince Branimir with a necklace, a recognition for the promotion of Croatia in international relations. This type of “informal” contact through unrecognized embassies will be repeated to some extent in the case of Arie Livne and his unrecognized Representation of the Republika Srpska in Israel. Such a public denial of the existence of diplomatic relations serves to distance the government of Israel from possible controversies, as well as to enable the maintenance of “delicate” ties and the performance of certain actions out of public view.
Lastly, of Friedrich Schaudinn, not much is known. He is written to be of “Germano-Serb” or “Slavic-Germanic” origin, but he is most likely of Croat-German extraction, since he was born in Zagreb. According to reports from 1992 he was then 53 years old, which would place his date of birth around 1939. He lived in Germany for a while, later moving on to Istria, where he and Licata would launder money via casinos along the Dalmatian coast. The investigation of his activities would be interfered by the Italian secret services, but he also had the protection of their Croatian and Israeli counterparts. He maintained good relations with the Croat Right-wing, the Italian criminal underground, and the infamous quasi-masonic lodge “P2”.