here<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe INTERPOL report, adapted from A Sympathetic History of Peoples Temple and Jonestown<\/em>, by Rebecca Moore.<\/p>\nThe U.S. Customs Service investigation greatly affected Jonestown by creating deep and real concern. The Temple learned of the Customs Service investigation on September 29, 1977. A Miami freight handler told church member Jim Randolph that a Customs search occurred August 29. In October, Temple attorney Charles Garry asked Customs why the cargo had been searched. Customs replied that such examinations of exports were routine, but that \u201cin any event, any information which might have prompted an examination would be of the type which would be exempt from disclosure to your clients.\u201d<\/p>\n
By that time, the Customs Service had had Peoples Temple under surveillance for ten months. An unnamed agent first made contact with Peoples Temple ex-members in February 1977. On February 24, the agent met with a dozen defectors who charged that the church was arming itself. Customs forwarded the report of that meeting to the Treasury Department\u2019s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI, the Secret Service, the State Department, and the California Department of Justice, \u201cas well as various state and local law enforcement agencies.\u201d Surveillance revealed \u201cno indication of illegal activity.\u201d Similarly, the shipment identified in August was \u201cexamined in Miami with negative results.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Customs reports show a close scrutiny of Peoples Temple. On February 17, a Customs agent \u201csurveilled the TEMPLE\u2019S location in Redwood Valley and saw guards and watchdogs on patrol\u2026According to the Mendocino Sheriff\u2019s Office, the guards at night are armed.\u201d On March 25, Customs forwarded four items to the San Francisco Crime Lab of the Postal Inspection Service for fingerprinting. On April 21, Customs contacted the Organized Crime Intelligence Division and the Criminal Conspiracy Section of the Los Angeles Police Department, \u201cwith negative results.\u201d An August 3 report observes:<\/p>\n
Surveillance of the Church in San Francisco reveals evidence of large scale packing and crating indicative of an imminent move. One truck left San Francisco on July 9, 1977, for an unknown Gulf Coast port.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Customs Service failed to turn up any contraband or signs of smuggling. Nevertheless, according to House Foreign Affairs Committee staff who studied the Temple and the government\u2019s relationships with it, Customs \u201cinvestigators apparently felt enough residual suspicion\u201d to send their findings to INTERPOL and to the State Department. INTERPOL, the international police organization, shared the report with the Guyana police, which, in turn shared it with some Temple members in Guyana, including Carolyn Layton.<\/p>\n
The INTERPOL Report came directly from an August 26, 1977 Customs Service report. That document came directly from interviews with ex-members. As a result, the report contains a few inaccuracies and a great many innuendos. The amount of acreage at Jonestown, as well as its location, are wrong. The agreement between Peoples Temple and Guyana not to search cargo \u2013 if there were one \u2013 ended in the summer or fall of 1977, according to the U.S. Embassy, when \u201cGuyanese authorities began to pay greater attention to Peoples Temple activities.\u201d The trawler belonging to the Temple was required to stop at Port Mabaruma for customs and immigration inspections. It is not clear why the Customs agent persisted in using the colonial spelling \u201cGuiana,\u201d nor why he referred to \u201cBritish Guiana\u201d later in the report.<\/p>\n
The Customs document notes connections with the Black Panthers and Black Muslims. Other Customs papers go further, and allege that Jones donated $10,000 to the Muslims; and that \u201c[deleted] acts as legal advisor to the Black Panthers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. Customs Service circulated the report widely. The agent distributing it said the State Department never acknowledged receiving it. The Guyana police did, though.<\/p>\n
The Commissioner of Police in Georgetown wrote to INTERPOL at the U.S. Department of Justice on January 31, 1978. He observed that the police had made \u201cno progress along the lines indicated and that the [Guyana] Customs Police investigations had not brought to light any evidence to support the allegation of firearms or foreign currency.\u201d He concluded by saying, \u201csurveillance will be maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Customs report outraged the Jonestown leadership. In December 1977, Carolyn Layton wrote her parents that she\u2019d read it.<\/p>\n
The media has advertised us in the most grotesque and unreal manner \u2013 due to this conspiracy which is indeed real, though I know you are not conspiracy-minded and tend to pooh-pooh the idea. I saw myself the Interpol [Customs] report which a high officer in government allowed a number of us to read firsthand. They are accusing us of the most absurd things \u2013 trafficking in weapons and currencies. This I saw with my own eyes and as you know Interpol is closely related to high ranking and wealthy Nazis in the U.S. and originated from the Nazi movement in the first place. We have suffered an unimaginable sort of harassment in the United States. It is all a political game and since they can\u2019t get us on small things, I guess now they want to start on the big ones. You need to read Comrade George<\/em> and other such texts to get a perspective on what U.S. tax dollars abroad are used for. Because we have close government ties here, we have been able to learn a lot of a number of things which otherwise we would not know. (Of course, all originates from the U.S.).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTemple members\u00a0didn’t\u00a0know how to handle the charges. They had little idea of the extent to which they circulated throughout the U.S. government. When Terri Buford forwarded the report to Charles Garry, she asked, \u201cDo you suggest writing INTERPOL, or is that just a waste of time? Perhaps we should write our congressman?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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