Gerhard Mertins

Gerhard Mertins was a German paratrooper, post-war arms dealer,[1] and German Intelligence operative.  He was one of the biggest arms dealers in the world until his death in 1993.[2]  Mertins was a close friend of Paul Shafer, William Branham's security detail in Germany,[3] as well as a supporter of Colonia Dignidad.  Mertins established "del Círculo de Amigos de Colonia Dignidad"[4] (The Circle of Friends of Colonia Dignidad), which contributed to the support of the people (and the manufacturing of arms) in Colonia Dignidad.  Several right-wing Christian Social Union politicians participated including Franz Josef Strauss, the Minister-President of Bavaria.[5]

Mertins was also the contradiction to one of William Branham's Latter Rain predictions.  Branham claimed to have prophesied that Benito Mussolini would face his final defeat after invading Ethiopia.[6]  After invading Ethiopia in 1935, Mussolini forged an alliance with Nazi Germany.  In 1940, Italy entered WWII on the German side and invaded British Somaliland. [7] Mussolini invaded several countries after Ethiopia, including Albania, France, Egypt, Greece, Yugoslavia, Tunisia, British Somaliland, Kenya, and Sudan.  Mussolini was eventually captured, however, and imprisoned when the Allied forces invaded Italy.  In 1943, Mertins participated in the Gran Sasso raid rescuing Benito Mussolini from prison in Italy.[8]  

In the 1970s, Mertins began selling arms produced by Colonia Dignidad, as well as supplying the colony with arms.  According to the testimony of Erika Heimann, several tubes were sent from Germany filled with machine guns from Mertins.  The colony referred to Mertins by code name 'me', 'Merich', or Meeretich'.[9]  Another testimony from Gerhard Micke confessed that Mertins had asked for 100,000 mortars.[10]  To assist in the colony's funding for the manufacturing of arms, Mertins was the founder and president of 'the Circle of Friends of Colonia Dignidad', a charitable organization founded in 1978 in Germany to help Schäfer's colony.  

The expansion of Operation Condor  beyond the Southern Cone of South America required an incredible amount of people, resources, and money.  In 1976, Manuel Contreras, the former head of DINA, got involved with Gerhard Mertins and Paul Schäfer to help raise money.  He traveled to Iran with Mertins, three Chilean officers, and one Brazilian general in hopes to convince Shah Reza Pahlevi to contribute in exchange for the killing of Venezuelan Ilich Ramírez, "Carlos, El Chacal' (The Jackal).  'Carlos the Jackal' was an international terrorist and had angered Iran by kidnapping OPEC leaders.[11]  On December 21, 1975, the world watched in horror as 'The Jackal' and a handful of terrorists assaulted the headquarters of he Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, taking 63 hostages.  The operation was funded by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.[12]  It was later learned that United States also supported the operation to assassinate 'The Jackal', as well as two other well-known European leftists.[13]  Ultimately, the mission did not succeed; Carlos was briefly detained and migrated to Yemen where he would start another terrorist organization in collaboration with Syrian, Lebanese and German rebels, as well as the Stasi, East Germany's secret police.[14]