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CIA Drug Trafficking and remembering Gary WebbDecember 10, 2008 - 10:33am.

Check out this new story by Robert Parry reflecting on journalist Garry Webb's suicide,after being totally blacklisted by the mainstream media because he had the guts to speak the truth about the CIA and other parts of the US government that helped the Contras andtheir allies import cocaine into the US, during the period that President Reagan wastalking about "fighting drugs" and locking up all those drug users in a cage, beefing up thepolice state and the prison industrial complex. CIA drug tra fficking had already been welldocumented (albeit ignored by the mainstream media) but Webb linked this cocaine to"Freeway" Rick Ross, who was almost single-handedly responsible for the crack epidemicin LA and around the country.

Read Parry's (who as a mainstream journalist broke the CIA-Contra-cocaine story in the1980s) article here:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/120908.html

Many critics sympathetic to Webb, noted that his story would have been much stronger if he had acknowledged all the other proof of CIA drug trafficking over the years, notably "The Politics of Heroin" by Alfred McCoy, and directly relating to CIA-Contra cocainetrafficking there was Senator John Kerry's 89 commission, which established beyond any doubt that the Contras and their allies were bringing cocaine into the US with the help of the CIA.

So, in the interests of that, I am including below the definitive summary of CIA drugtrafficking, written by William Blum. Check out all the footnotes below, to learn more, butmy overall favorite book, which summarizes all the best dirt we have on the CIA, is"Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press" by Counterpunch's Alexander Cockburn andJeffrey St.Clair-----------------The CIA and DrugsJust say "Why not?" by William Blum

"In my 30-year history in the Drug Enforcement Administration and related agencies, themajor targets of my investigations almost invariably turned out to be working for the CIA."

Dennis Dayle, former chief of an elite DEA enforcement unit.{1}

On August 18, 1996, the San Jose Mercury initiated an extended series of articles aboutthe CIA connection to the crack epidemic in Los Angeles. Though the CIA and influentialmedia like The Washington Post , The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times wentout of their way to belittle the significance of the articles, the basic ingredients of the story were not really new -- the CIA's Contra army, fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua,turning to smuggling cocaine into the U.S., under CIA protection, to raise money for theirmilitary and personal use.

What was unique about the articles was (A) they appeared in a "respectable" daily newspaper and not an "alternative" publication, which could have and would have beencompletely ignored by the powers that be; and (B) they followed the cocaine into Los Angeles' inner city, into the hands of the Crips and the Bloods, at the time that street-leveldrug users were figuring out how to make cocaine affordable: by changing the costly whitepowder into powerful little nuggets of crack that could be smoked cheaply.

The Contra dealers, principally Oscar Danilo Blandon and his boss Juan Norwin Meneses, both from the Nicaraguan pr ivileged class, operated out of the San Francisco Bay Area

and sold tons of cocaine -- a drug that was virtually unobtainable in black neighborhoods before -- to Los Angeles street gangs. They then funneled millions in drug profits to theContra cause, while helping to fuel a disastrous crack explosion in L.A. and other cities,and enabling the gangs to buy automatic weapons, sometimes from Blandon himself.

The principal objection raised by the establishment critics to this scenario was that, even if correct, it didn't prove that the CIA was complicit, or even had any knowledge of it.However, to arrive at this conclusion, they had to ignore things like the following from theSJM series:

a) Cocaine flights from Central America landed with impunity in various spots in theUnited States, including a U.S. Air Force base in Texas. In 1985, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent assigned to El Salvador reported to headquarters the detailson cocaine flights from El Salvador to the U.S. The DEA did nothing but force him out of the agency{2}.

b) When Blandon was finally arrested in October 1986, after congress resumed fundingfor the Contras, and he admitted to crimes that have sent others away for life, the JusticeDepartment turned him loose on unsupervised probation after only 28 months behind

bars and has paid him more than $166,000 since.

c) According to a legal motion filed in a 1990 police corruption trial: In the 1986 raid onBlandon's money-launderer, the police carted away numerous documents purportedly linking the U.S. government to cocaine trafficking and money-laundering on behalf of theContras. CIA personnel appeared at the sheriff's department within 48 hours of the raidand removed the seized files from the evidence room. This motion drew media coverage in

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1990 but, at the request of the Justice Department, a federal judge issued a gag order barring any discussion of the matter.

d) Blandon subsequently became a full-time informant for the DEA. When he testified in1996 as a prosecution witness, the federal prosecutors obtained a court order preventingdefense lawyers from delving into Blandon's ties to the CIA.

e) Though Meneses is listed in the DEA's computers as a major international drugsmuggler and was implicated in 45 separate federal investigations since 1974, he livedopenly and conspicuously in California until 1989 and never spent a day in a U.S. prison.The DEA, U.S. Customs, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and the CaliforniaBureau of Narcotic Enforcement have complained that a number of the probes of Meneses were stymied by the CIA or unnamed "national security" interests.

f) The U.S. Attorney in San Francisco gave back to an arrested Nicaraguan drug dealer the$36,000 found in his possession. The money was returned after two Contra leaders sentletters to the court swearing that the drug dealer had been given the cash to buy supplies"for the reinstatement of democracy in Nicaragua". The letters were hurriedly sealed afterprosecutors invoked the Classified Information Procedures Act, a law designed to keepnational security secrets from leaking out during trials. When a U.S. Senate subcommitteelater inquired of the Justice Department the reason for this unusual turn of events, they ran into a wall of secrecy. "The Justice Department flipped out to prevent us from gettingaccess to people, records - - finding anything out about it," recalled Jack Blum, formerchief counsel to the Senate subcommittee that investigated allegations of Contra cocainetrafficking. "It was one of the most frustrating exercises that I can ever recall."

A Brief History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking

1947 to 1951, France

CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseilleto wrestle control of labor unions from the Communist Party. The Corsicans gainedpolitical influence and control over the docks -- ideal conditions for cementing a long-termpartnership with mafia drug distributors, which turned Marseille into the postwar heroincapital of the Western world. Marseille's first heroin laboratories were opened in 1951,only months after the Corsicans took over the waterfront.{3}

Early 1950s, Southeast Asia

The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against CommunistChina, became the opium barons of The Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand andLaos), the world's largest source of opium and heroin. Air America, the CIA's principalairline proprietary, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia.{4}

1950s to early 1970s, Indochina

During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. Many GI's in Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After adecade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70percent of the world's illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for America's booming heroin market.{5}

1973-80, Australia

The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its officers werea network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including former CIA Director WilliamColby, who was also one of its lawyers. 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 dealings. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths,the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt.{6}

1970s and 1980s, Panama

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 thegeneral was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega facilitated"guns-for-drugs" flights for the Contras, providing protection and pilots, as well as safehavens for drug cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities. U.S. officials, includingthen-CIA Director William Webster and several DEA officers, sent Noriega letters of praise for efforts to thwart drug trafficking (a lbeit only against competitors of his Medellin

Cartel patrons). When a confluence of circumstances led to Noriega's political luck running out, the Bush administration was reluctantly obliged to turn aga inst him, invadingPanama in December 1989, kidnapping the general, and falsely ascribing the invasion tothe war on drugs. Ironically, drug trafficking through Panama was not abated a fter the USinvasion.{7}

1980s, Central America

Obsessed with overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Reaganadministration officials tolerated drug trafficking as long as the traffickers gave support tothe Contras. In 1989, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, andInternational Operations (the Kerry committee) concluded a three-year investigation by stating: "There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on thepart of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, merc enaries who worked withthe Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region. ... U.S. officials involved inCentral America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effortsagainst Nicaragua. .. . In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government hadinformation regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter. ... Senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was

a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems."{8}

In Costa Rica, which served as the "Southern Front" for the Contras (Honduras being theNorthern Front), there were several different CIA-Contra networks involved in drugtrafficking, including that of CIA operative John Hull, whose farms along Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua were the main staging area for the Contras. Hull and otherCIA-connected Contra supporters and pilots teamed up with George Morales, a major

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4 12/12/2008 2:19 PM



Miami-based Colombian drug trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cashand several planes to Contra leaders.{9} In 1989, a fter the Costa Rica government indictedHull for drug trafficking, a DEA-hired plane clandestinely and illegally flew him to Miami, via Haiti. The US repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull back to CostaRica to stand trial.{10}

Another Costa Rican-based d rug ring involved a group of Cuban Americans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the Contras. Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking. They used Contra planes and a Costa Rican-based shrimp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to move cocaine to the U.S.{11}

Costa Rica was not the only route. Other way stations along the cocaine highway -- andclosely associated with the CIA -- were the Guatemalan military intelligence service,which

harbored many drug traffickers, and Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador, a key component of the U.S. military intervention against the country's guerrillas.{12}The Contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. At least fourtransport companies under investigation for drug trafficking received US governmentcontracts to carry non-lethal supplies to the Contras.{13} Southern Air Transport,"formerly" CIA-owned, and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drugrunning as well.{14} Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana and otherlocations, including several military bases. Designated as "Contra Craft," these shipments were not to be inspected. When some authority wasn't clued in and made an arrest,powerful strings were pulled on behalf of dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence,or deportation.{15}

1980s to early 1990s, Afghanistan

CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fightingagainst the Soviet-supported government and its plans to reform the very backward Afghan society. The Agency's principal c lient was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of theleading druglords and leading heroin refiner. CIA-supplied trucks and mules, which had

carried arms into Afghanistan, were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The output provided up to one half of the heroin used annually inthe United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. US officials admittedin 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies.{16} In 1993, an officialof the DEA called Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world.{17}

Mid-1980s to early 1990s, Haiti

While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients' drug trafficking. In 1986, the Agency added some more names toits payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN).SIN was purportedly created to fight the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselvesengaged in the trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some of the Haitian military andpolitical leaders.{18}

NOTES

1. Peter Dale Scott & Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in

Central America, Berkeley: U. of CA Press, 1991, pp. x-xi.

2. Celerino Castillo, Powder Burns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug War, Mosaic Press,1994, passim.

3. Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row,1972, chapter 2.

4. Christopher Robbins, Air America, New York: Avon Books, 1985, chapter 9; McCoy,passim

5. McCoy, chapter 7; Robbins, p. 128 and chapter 9

6. Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and theCIA, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987, passim; William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S.Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995,p. 420, note 33.

7. a) Scott & Marshall, passim

b) John Dinges, Our Man in Panama, New York: Random House, 1991, passimc) Murray Waas, "Cocaine and the White House Connection", Los Angeles Weekly, Sept.30-Oct. 6 and Oct. 7-13, 1988, passimd) National Security Arc hive Documentation Packet: "The Contras, Cocaine, and CovertOperations" (Washington, D.C.), passim

8. "Kerry Report": Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, a Report of the SenateCommittee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics andInternational Operations, 1989, pp. 2, 36, 41

9. Martha Honey, Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s, Gainesville:University Press of Florida, 1994.

10. Martha Honey and David Myers, "U.S. Probing Drug Agent's Activities in Costa Rica,"San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 1991.

11. Honey, Hostile Acts.

12. Frank Smyth, " In Guatemala, The DEA Fights the CIA", New Republic, June 5, 1995;Martha Honey, "Cocaine's Certified Public Accountant," two-part series, The Source, August and September, 1994; Blum, p. 239.

13. Kerry report, passim.

14. Scott & Marshall, pp. 17-18

15. Scott & Marshall, passim; Waas, passim; NSA, passim.


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16. Blum, p. 351; Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget, New York: Warner Books, 1990, pp. 151-2

17. Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 1993

18. New York Times, Nov. 14, 1993; The Nation, Oct. 3, 1994, p. 346

Written by William Blum, author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA InterventionsSince World War II; email:[email protected]

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