Trouble in the Phillipines

Kane hassled on arrival by U.S. agents


By AKFotoman

(Sept. 2, 2007)-Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines-An American citizen who lives in Alaska was briefly detained at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Sunday.

Rob Kane, an Anchorage, Alaska USA resident was detained byPhilippine customs agents there and accused of smuggling counterfeit U.S. currency.

"They didn't even inspect our luggage," said Kane. "They just surrounded me with a dozen men with AR-16 rifles and started asking questions. It was pretty tense for a few minutes."


Kane was returning to the Philippines with his wife Karen and their three children. Karen Kane is a Filipino who had been living in Alaska.

Kane said that he believes that he was flagged by U.S. customs for work he had done in 2004 when he recovered currency for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The currency and gold bullion was located at the bottom of lake in a downed aircraft and was to have been used to support an insurgency movement in the Philippines, according to Kane. The gold and counterfeit currency was in an area that was controlled by Abu Seif terrorists, that Kane infiltrated, according to him.

All of the counterfeit and gold was turned over to the FBI and the CIA, according to Kane.

Kane received notoriety when he was arrested and served 32 days in jail in 2006 for obtaining and possessing Soviet made rocket launchers that were to be used on Czech built L-39 jets.

The jets were owned by Anchorage based Security Aviation and were to be used for U.S. Defense Department contracts. Kane was eventually acquitted in a two week trial, but suffered back injuries while in jail. Kane alleges that U.S. agents mistreated him while he was incarcerated.

Security Aviation's owner Mark Avery, later admitted to getting loans against a trust fund that amounted to $52 million. Avery is accused of raiding the trust of May and Stanley Smith, who was married to Stanley Smith after acting as an interpreter of Chinese leader Chang Kai-shek.
Avery assumed the position of trustee after his father, a wealthy San Francisco attorney left him his clients.

Kane was repeatedly bashed as a "phony" agent by the Anchorage Daily News in more than 40 different articles. Kane was later avenged when details of his life as a counter operative came to light in the court case that was fed with dubious information by the FBI.
Kane was released after a brief verbal fray with Philippines U.S. Customs Attache Douglas Creer.

"They were going to arrest me until I showed them my status as a Commander in the Philippine Coast Guard, and had them talk to my cousin who is a general in the military here," said Kane.

While Kane was in jail wife Karen Kane was threatened with deportation by US officials if she did not reveal Kane's contacts, which she did not do, according to Kane.

Kane and his family were released to continue their travels in the Philippines.

U.S. Customs could not be reached for comment on this event.