PRE-LICENSE CHECK COMPLETED, APPLICATION NUMBER

UNCLAS LA PAZ 003378 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/ESP AND WHA/AND LPETRONI SAO PAOLO FOR ICE ATTACHE AND FCS FCARRICO ICE HQ FOR STRATEGIC INVESTIGATIONS USDOC FOR 3134 FOR FCS/OIO MKESHISHIAN USDOC ALSO FOR OEA/532 MNICKSON-DORSEY AND KGAINES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: BEXP ETRD ETTC BL SUBJECT: PRE-LICENSE CHECK COMPLETED, APPLICATION NUMBER D366011 REF: USDOC 6438 ¶1. (SBU) Reftel requested a pre-license check on Riberalta-based Comercial Safari, a Bolivian firm seeking to import various brands and powers of hunting and sport shooting scopes from Ohio-based Outdoor Sports Headquarters, Inc. ¶2. (SBU) At post's request, two police investigators attempted to locate the company December 8 but could find no bona fide business; as indicated in the investigators' photograph, the buildings on the 900 block of Chuquisaca Avenue (the address listed on the license application) were abandoned wooden shacks. Comercial Safari proprietor Hernan Roca explained December 12 that he had moved to a new location "a few months ago" and provided a new address, saying the business was "a little store" just in front of his house. ¶3. (SBU) Investigators visited the firm's new location December 13 and 14 but were told Roca was in Santa Cruz on business and would not return until December 19. The store measured approximately 12 x 18 feet and contained a few flashlights, some fishing items, and several shotguns and .22 rifles. ¶4. (SBU) Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) staff raised questions about the quantity of scopes Roca planned to purchase, noting that 500 seemed an unusually high number for a town of only 35,000 people. They also wondered where Roca might have obtained the $30,000 needed for the purchase, pointing out that even the relatively small sum represented a lot of money for Riberalta, a village surviving primarily on income from rubber and Brazil nut plantations. ¶5. (SBU) Recommendation: Given the absence of a bona fide business at the address listed on the license application, the difficulty of locating the firm's proprietor, the appearance of the store itself, and the questions raised by DEA, post recommends that the Department of Commerce consider Comercial Safari an unsuitable recipient of sensitive U.S.-origin commodities. GOLDBERG