The first one, "The California Story", was issued in a classified version on December 17, 1997, and in an unclassified version on January 29, 1998. 
U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. ", The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report[45] was released on July 23, 1998. According to the report's "Epilogue", the report was completed in December 1997 but was not released because the DEA was still attempting to use Danilo Blandn in an investigation of international drug dealers and was concerned that the report would affect the viability of the investigation. [7], In 1985, another Contra leader "told U.S. authorities that his group was being paid $50,000 by Colombian traffickers for help with a 100 kilograms (220lb) cocaine shipment and that the money would go 'for the cause' of fighting the Nicaraguan government." Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, drug money laundering in South and Central America, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Communications and International Economic Policy, Trade, Oceans, and Environment of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, "C.I.A. 
ClA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting against the Soviet-supported govemment and its plans to reform the very backward Afghan society. [40] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series' claims. Between 1982 and 1989, during which time the CIA ships billions of dollars in weapons and other aid to guerrilla forces, annual opium production in Afghanistan increases to about 800 tons from 250 tons. 
[27] McManus found Blandn and Meneses's financial contributions to Contra organizations to be significantly less than the "millions" claimed in Webb's series, and no evidence that the CIA had tried to protect them. Based on a year-long investigation, reporter Gary Webb wrote that during the 1980s the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaraguas leftist government through sales of cut-rate cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer, Ricky Ross. You have reached your limit of free articles. These categories include many . Still, Webbs reputation as an investigative journalist was tarnished. He wrote that the huge influx of cocaine happened to come at just the time that street-level drug dealers were figuring out how to make cocaine affordable by changing it into crack. A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the Nicaraguan Contras' cocaine trafficking operations during the 1980s Nicaraguan civil war. And I know so because I was told by some of these pilots that in fact they had done that."[54]. [59], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of 'millions', contrary to the claims of the Dark Alliance series. U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. William Blum is author of Killing Hope: U.S Military and CIA Interventions Since World War ll available from Common Courage Press, P.O. [21] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. [28], Surprised by The Washington Post article, Mercury News executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. The subcommittee found that `there was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zone on the part of individuals Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras supporters throughout the region.' Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking They used contra planes and a Costa Rican-based shnmp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to move cocaine to the U.S. Costa Rica was not the only route. They deny that Bay Area-based Nicaraguan drug dealers, Juan Norwin Meneses and Oscar Danilo Blandon, worked for the CIA or contributed millions in drug profits to the contras, as Webb contended. Designated as Contra Craft, these shipments were not to be inspected. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras The National Security Archive obtained the hand-written notebooks of Oliver North, the National Security Council aide who helped run the contra war and other Reagan administration covert operations, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 1989. Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. Several years later, the Japanese Yakuza emerges as a major source of methamphetamine in Hawaii. By 1972, the KMT controls 80 percent of the Golden Triangle's opium trade. WebCIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking Add languages Central Intelligence Agency A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Webb conducted a year-long investigation during which he discovered that a San Francisco-based drug ring, which had ties to a CIA-sponsored Nicaraguan contra group called the FDN, sold cocaine to a dealer in South Central Los Angeles. Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and other locations, including several military bases. DEA agent Enrique `Kiki' Camerena is kidnapped and murder in Mexico. (The most comprehensive allegations were reported by Gary Webb in a series of San Jose Mercury News reports and a book entitled "Dark Alliance.") Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking. The investigation also reveals that some `senior policy makers' believed that the use of drug money was `a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems.'. But in 2000, a #CIA report produced for Congress claimed the #KLA had disarmed, disbanded, and reformed into a friendly civil defense organization. According to Alfred W. McCoy in The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrestle control of labor unions from the Communist Party. The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. "[12], On April 17, 1986, the Reagan administration released a three-page report stating that there were some Contra-cocaine connections in 1984 and 1985, and that these connections occurred at a time when the rebels were "particularly hard pressed for financial support" because aid from the United States had been cut off. [42] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. In a scene from the new movie Kill the Messenger, investigative reporter Gary Webb (played by Jeremy Renner) says that he doesnt believe in conspiracy theories. . Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers. Despite the CIA suppression of investigative reporting on the matter, many of the US government's own reports have confirmed significant involvement of the CIA with cocaine trafficking during the war. While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients drug trafficking. The article also discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. Chinese Communist revolution causes collapse of drug empire allied with U.S. intelligence community, but a new one quickly emerges under the command of Nationalist (KMT) General Li Mi, who flees Yunnan into eastern Burma. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the worlds illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for Americas booming heroin market. Matta, it turns out, was business partners with Felix Gallardo, one of the Mexican cartel leaders whom Camarena was investigating. Each is closely examined in terms of their relationship with CIA, the drug trafficking activity that was alleged, the actions CIA took in response to the allegations, and the extent of information concerning the allegations that was Shared with U.S. law enforcement and Congress. PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was for years a useful tool of the United States, until President George H.W. Carlos Cabezas, convicted of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, said that the profits from his crimes "belonged to the Contra revolution." There are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity or take action to resolve the allegations. [24], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. The charges linked the Contra trafficking to Sebastin Gonzlez Mendiola, who was charged with cocaine trafficking on November 26, 1984, in Costa Rica. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering, and international arms dealing. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. But while calling the flaws in the series "unforgivably careless journalism," Overholser also criticized the Post's refusal to print Ceppos' letter defending the series and sharply criticized the Post's coverage of the story. copyright owner. [22], In early October, 1996, a front-page article in The Washington Post[23] by reporters Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus, argued that "available information" did not support the series's claims, and that "the rise of crack" was "a broad-based phenomenon" driven in numerous places by diverse players. In fact, a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee corroborated this claim that the CIA actively supported Contra groups. 
Many GIs in Vietnam became addicts. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said: "I think the critics have been far too harsh. A 1996 Peter Dale Scott affidavit on CIA drugs trafficking explained his research into longstanding US government involvement. Brian Barger and Robert Parry, "Reports Link Nicaraguan Rebels to Cocaine Trafficking". Air America, the CIAs principal proprietary airline, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia. In the late 1940s, the CIA funneled arms and funds to the Corsican Mafia in WebNoriega became involved in drug trafficking and in 1977 was removed from the CIA payroll. Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of Cuban Amencans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the contras. WebCentral Intelligence Agency Involvement with the Contras Chronology of Key Developments Related to the Contra War Cocaine Flows through Central America in the 1980s Results of Previous Investigations into Alleged Contra Drug Trafficking FINDINGS Was CIA involved in the California-based drug trafficking of Ricky [51], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. Marseilles first heroin laboratones were opened in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took over the waterfront. (G)overnments themselves, and the links they develop with major traffickers, are the key both to the drug-trafficking problem and to its solution, he explained. 
(See Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA, W.W. Norton & Co., 1 987. "[11], In April 1986, Associated Press reported on an FBI probe into Contra cocaine trafficking. In support of the U.S. war in Vietnam, the CIA renews old and cultivates new relations with Laotian, Burmese and Thai drug merchants, as well as corrupt military and political leaders in Southeast Asia. 
It started when Webb wrote a series of three articles for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 dubbed Dark Alliance. In his report, Webb who had won a Pulitzer in 1989 for a different story claimed that the CIA was partly responsible for bringing crack cocaine to the United States in the 1980s. Seeking to rekindle anticommunist resistance in China, the CIA provides arms, ammunition and other supplies to the KMT. In August 1996, the San Jose Mercury News initiated an extended series of articles linking the CIAs contra army to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles. [38] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. Southern Air Transport, After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. There is a limited number of planes, pilots and landing strips. Deciding that he has outlived his usefulness to the Contra cause, the Reagan Administration approves an indictment of Noriega on drug charges. [52], The report stated that the CIA had requested the Justice Department return $36,800 to a member of the Meneses drug ring, which had been seized by DEA agents in the .mw-parser-output .vanchor>:target~.vanchor-text{background-color:#b1d2ff}Frogman raid in San Francisco. SINs mandate included countering the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselves engaged in trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some Haitian military and political leaders. The lieutenant trafficker was also a Contra, and the CIA knew that there was an arms-for-drugs shuttle and did nothing to stop it. [48] The second volume, "The Contra Story," was issued in a classified version on April 27, 1998, and in an unclassified version on October 8, 1998. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. ), For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. U.S. authorities claim the CIA is more interested in protecting its assets, including top drug trafficker and kidnapping principal Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. : r/virginvschad. Hull and other CIA-connected contra supporters and pilots teamed up with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and several planes to contra leaders. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. [50], The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandn, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in Dark Alliance were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency. Their silence not only serves to maintain public support for the Mujahedeen, it also smooths relations with Pakistan, whose leaders, deeply implicated in the heroin trade, help channel CIA support to the Afghan rebels. WebThe CIA Was Behind a Massive Drug Trafficking Operation in Argentina, Russian Drug Smuggler Claims. 
The U.S. government only turned against Noriega, invading Panama in December 1989 and kidnapping the general, once they discovered he was providing intelligence and services to the Cubans and Sandinistas. "[47], It also concluded that "the claims that Blandn and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." In 1985, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Celerino Castillo reported to his superiors that cocaine was being stored at the CIAs contra-supply warehouse at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador for shipment to the U.S. Cia provides arms, ammunition and other locations, including several military bases matta, it turns,... Southern air Transport, after Ceppos ' column, the Department of,. By 1972, the New York Times published two articles on the series `` created impressions that were to! 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House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate the waterfront or create a account. Had long been involved with the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients trafficking... Conspiracy to traffic cocaine, said that the CIA is more interested in protecting its assets including... In fact, a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee corroborated this claim the! Convicted of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, said that the profits from his crimes `` belonged to the Contra..
U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. ", The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report[45] was released on July 23, 1998. According to the report's "Epilogue", the report was completed in December 1997 but was not released because the DEA was still attempting to use Danilo Blandn in an investigation of international drug dealers and was concerned that the report would affect the viability of the investigation. [7], In 1985, another Contra leader "told U.S. authorities that his group was being paid $50,000 by Colombian traffickers for help with a 100 kilograms (220lb) cocaine shipment and that the money would go 'for the cause' of fighting the Nicaraguan government." Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, drug money laundering in South and Central America, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Communications and International Economic Policy, Trade, Oceans, and Environment of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, "C.I.A. ClA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting against the Soviet-supported govemment and its plans to reform the very backward Afghan society. [40] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series' claims. Between 1982 and 1989, during which time the CIA ships billions of dollars in weapons and other aid to guerrilla forces, annual opium production in Afghanistan increases to about 800 tons from 250 tons. [27] McManus found Blandn and Meneses's financial contributions to Contra organizations to be significantly less than the "millions" claimed in Webb's series, and no evidence that the CIA had tried to protect them. Based on a year-long investigation, reporter Gary Webb wrote that during the 1980s the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaraguas leftist government through sales of cut-rate cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer, Ricky Ross. You have reached your limit of free articles. These categories include many . Still, Webbs reputation as an investigative journalist was tarnished. He wrote that the huge influx of cocaine happened to come at just the time that street-level drug dealers were figuring out how to make cocaine affordable by changing it into crack. A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the Nicaraguan Contras' cocaine trafficking operations during the 1980s Nicaraguan civil war. And I know so because I was told by some of these pilots that in fact they had done that."[54]. [59], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of 'millions', contrary to the claims of the Dark Alliance series. U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. William Blum is author of Killing Hope: U.S Military and CIA Interventions Since World War ll available from Common Courage Press, P.O. [21] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. [28], Surprised by The Washington Post article, Mercury News executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. The subcommittee found that `there was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zone on the part of individuals Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras supporters throughout the region.' Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking They used contra planes and a Costa Rican-based shnmp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to move cocaine to the U.S. Costa Rica was not the only route. They deny that Bay Area-based Nicaraguan drug dealers, Juan Norwin Meneses and Oscar Danilo Blandon, worked for the CIA or contributed millions in drug profits to the contras, as Webb contended. Designated as Contra Craft, these shipments were not to be inspected. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras The National Security Archive obtained the hand-written notebooks of Oliver North, the National Security Council aide who helped run the contra war and other Reagan administration covert operations, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 1989. Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. Several years later, the Japanese Yakuza emerges as a major source of methamphetamine in Hawaii. By 1972, the KMT controls 80 percent of the Golden Triangle's opium trade. WebCIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking Add languages Central Intelligence Agency A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Webb conducted a year-long investigation during which he discovered that a San Francisco-based drug ring, which had ties to a CIA-sponsored Nicaraguan contra group called the FDN, sold cocaine to a dealer in South Central Los Angeles. Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and other locations, including several military bases. DEA agent Enrique `Kiki' Camerena is kidnapped and murder in Mexico. (The most comprehensive allegations were reported by Gary Webb in a series of San Jose Mercury News reports and a book entitled "Dark Alliance.") Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking. The investigation also reveals that some `senior policy makers' believed that the use of drug money was `a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems.'. But in 2000, a #CIA report produced for Congress claimed the #KLA had disarmed, disbanded, and reformed into a friendly civil defense organization. According to Alfred W. McCoy in The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrestle control of labor unions from the Communist Party. The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. "[12], On April 17, 1986, the Reagan administration released a three-page report stating that there were some Contra-cocaine connections in 1984 and 1985, and that these connections occurred at a time when the rebels were "particularly hard pressed for financial support" because aid from the United States had been cut off. [42] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. In a scene from the new movie Kill the Messenger, investigative reporter Gary Webb (played by Jeremy Renner) says that he doesnt believe in conspiracy theories. . Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers. Despite the CIA suppression of investigative reporting on the matter, many of the US government's own reports have confirmed significant involvement of the CIA with cocaine trafficking during the war. While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients drug trafficking. The article also discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. Chinese Communist revolution causes collapse of drug empire allied with U.S. intelligence community, but a new one quickly emerges under the command of Nationalist (KMT) General Li Mi, who flees Yunnan into eastern Burma. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the worlds illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for Americas booming heroin market. Matta, it turns out, was business partners with Felix Gallardo, one of the Mexican cartel leaders whom Camarena was investigating. Each is closely examined in terms of their relationship with CIA, the drug trafficking activity that was alleged, the actions CIA took in response to the allegations, and the extent of information concerning the allegations that was Shared with U.S. law enforcement and Congress. PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was for years a useful tool of the United States, until President George H.W. Carlos Cabezas, convicted of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, said that the profits from his crimes "belonged to the Contra revolution." There are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity or take action to resolve the allegations. [24], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. The charges linked the Contra trafficking to Sebastin Gonzlez Mendiola, who was charged with cocaine trafficking on November 26, 1984, in Costa Rica. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering, and international arms dealing. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. But while calling the flaws in the series "unforgivably careless journalism," Overholser also criticized the Post's refusal to print Ceppos' letter defending the series and sharply criticized the Post's coverage of the story. copyright owner. [22], In early October, 1996, a front-page article in The Washington Post[23] by reporters Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus, argued that "available information" did not support the series's claims, and that "the rise of crack" was "a broad-based phenomenon" driven in numerous places by diverse players. In fact, a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee corroborated this claim that the CIA actively supported Contra groups. Many GIs in Vietnam became addicts. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said: "I think the critics have been far too harsh. A 1996 Peter Dale Scott affidavit on CIA drugs trafficking explained his research into longstanding US government involvement. Brian Barger and Robert Parry, "Reports Link Nicaraguan Rebels to Cocaine Trafficking". Air America, the CIAs principal proprietary airline, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia. In the late 1940s, the CIA funneled arms and funds to the Corsican Mafia in WebNoriega became involved in drug trafficking and in 1977 was removed from the CIA payroll. Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of Cuban Amencans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the contras. WebCentral Intelligence Agency Involvement with the Contras Chronology of Key Developments Related to the Contra War Cocaine Flows through Central America in the 1980s Results of Previous Investigations into Alleged Contra Drug Trafficking FINDINGS Was CIA involved in the California-based drug trafficking of Ricky [51], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. Marseilles first heroin laboratones were opened in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took over the waterfront. (G)overnments themselves, and the links they develop with major traffickers, are the key both to the drug-trafficking problem and to its solution, he explained. (See Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA, W.W. Norton & Co., 1 987. "[11], In April 1986, Associated Press reported on an FBI probe into Contra cocaine trafficking. In support of the U.S. war in Vietnam, the CIA renews old and cultivates new relations with Laotian, Burmese and Thai drug merchants, as well as corrupt military and political leaders in Southeast Asia. It started when Webb wrote a series of three articles for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 dubbed Dark Alliance. In his report, Webb who had won a Pulitzer in 1989 for a different story claimed that the CIA was partly responsible for bringing crack cocaine to the United States in the 1980s. Seeking to rekindle anticommunist resistance in China, the CIA provides arms, ammunition and other supplies to the KMT. In August 1996, the San Jose Mercury News initiated an extended series of articles linking the CIAs contra army to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles. [38] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. Southern Air Transport, After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. There is a limited number of planes, pilots and landing strips. Deciding that he has outlived his usefulness to the Contra cause, the Reagan Administration approves an indictment of Noriega on drug charges. [52], The report stated that the CIA had requested the Justice Department return $36,800 to a member of the Meneses drug ring, which had been seized by DEA agents in the .mw-parser-output .vanchor>:target~.vanchor-text{background-color:#b1d2ff}Frogman raid in San Francisco. SINs mandate included countering the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselves engaged in trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some Haitian military and political leaders. The lieutenant trafficker was also a Contra, and the CIA knew that there was an arms-for-drugs shuttle and did nothing to stop it. [48] The second volume, "The Contra Story," was issued in a classified version on April 27, 1998, and in an unclassified version on October 8, 1998. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. ), For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. U.S. authorities claim the CIA is more interested in protecting its assets, including top drug trafficker and kidnapping principal Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. : r/virginvschad. Hull and other CIA-connected contra supporters and pilots teamed up with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and several planes to contra leaders. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. [50], The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandn, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in Dark Alliance were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency. Their silence not only serves to maintain public support for the Mujahedeen, it also smooths relations with Pakistan, whose leaders, deeply implicated in the heroin trade, help channel CIA support to the Afghan rebels. WebThe CIA Was Behind a Massive Drug Trafficking Operation in Argentina, Russian Drug Smuggler Claims. The U.S. government only turned against Noriega, invading Panama in December 1989 and kidnapping the general, once they discovered he was providing intelligence and services to the Cubans and Sandinistas. 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