Because the CIA believed Miranda was in the United States Senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the contras funding problems.. Julio Zavala, also convicted on trafficking charges, said "that he supplied $500,000 to two Costa Rican-based Contra groups and that the majority of it came from cocaine trafficking in the San Francisco Bay area, Miami and New Orleans. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt. 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. 
Regarding issues raised in the series' shorter sidebar stories, it found that some in the government were "not eager" to have DEA agent Celerino Castillo "openly probe" activities at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador, where covert operations in support of the Contras were undertaken, and that the CIA had indeed intervened in a case involving smuggler Julio Zavala. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings.[39]. It noted that Blandn and Meneses claimed to have donated money to Contra sympathizers in Los Angeles, but found no information to confirm that it was true or that the agency had heard of it. Federal prosecutors ordered the letter and other case evidence sealed for national security reasons. Based on a year-long investigation, reporter Gary Webb wrote that during the 1980s the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaragua's leftist government through sales of cut-rate cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer, Ricky Ross. More than a ton of cocaine was shipped into the country with the CIA's approval as part of an undercover program aimed at catching drug smugglers, an operation kept secret from other U.S. agencies. A 1998, a CIA inspector generals report denied any ties between the U.S. government and the drug dealers Webb named in his articles and book, but ultimately confirmed Webbs thesis that the CIA had worked with contras despite drug-dealing allegations against them. The story attracted hundreds of thousands of readers to the newspapers site at a time when going viral was still a twinkle in the Internets eye. _uacct = "UA-3263347-1"; (see June 1985) Matta's air transport firm, SETCO, receives $186,000 from the U.S. State Department to fly `humanitarian supplies' to the Nicaraguan Contras from 1983 to 1985. 
In fact, the 25-year DEA veteran maintains the agency actively abetted cocaine trafficking in Bolivia, where government official who sought to combat traffickers faced `torture and death at the hands of CIA-sponsored paramilitary terrorists under the command of fugitive Nazi war criminal (also protected by the CIA) Klaus Barbie. in Central America", "Prepared Statement of Frederick P. Hitz inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency Before The House Committee On Intelligence subject Investigation Of allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras In Drug Trafficking to the United States", "Inspector: CIA Kept Ties With Alleged Traffickers", "Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. Although the Carter administration suspends payments to Noriega, he returns to the U.S. payroll when President Reagan takes office in 1981. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3263347-1"); Guatemala, whose military intelligence serviceclosely associated with the CIAharbored many drug traffickers, according to the DEA, was another way station along the cocaine highway. 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 The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against Communist China, became the opium baron of The Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand, and Laos), the worlds largest source of opium and heroin. A 1996 Peter Dale Scott affidavit on CIA drugs trafficking explained his research into longstanding US government involvement. Among its officers were a network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including fommer CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. American officials say illicit fentanyl from labs in Mexico is driving a surge in overdose deaths. The series alleged that the three had relationships with the Contras and the CIA, and that law enforcement agencies failed to successfully prosecute them largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. 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 1986, the 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. [29] The Post ultimately refused to print his letter. The first article, by Katz, developed a different picture of the origins of the crack trade than Dark Alliance had described, with more gangs and smugglers participating. DEA, FBI and U.S. Customs Service investigators accuse the CIA of stonewalling during their investigation. Ironically drug trafficking through Panama increased after the US invasion. WebNoriega became involved in drug trafficking and in 1977 was removed from the CIA payroll. Representative Maxine Waters, a congresswoman for South Central Los Angeles the heart of the drug wars requested both federal and congressional inquiries into the role that the U.S. government played in bringing cocaine into her community. 
[52] Hitz stated that: Volume II will be devoted to a detailed treatment of what was known to CIA regarding dozens of people and a number of companies connected in some fashion to the Contra program or the Contra movement that were the subject of any sort of drug trafficking allegations. The San Jose Mercury News series documents just one thread of the interwoven operations linking the CIA, the contras and the cocaine cartels. 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. Let me be frank about what we are finding. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. CIA-supplied trucks and mules that had carried arms into Afghanistan were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border. 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. They identified the Cuban-Americans as members of Brigade 2506, an anti-Castro group that participated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The next year, he published a book titled Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion detailing his own reporting process and the controversy the series provoked. This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals' support. The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies, and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. GlobalResearch Center for Research on Globalization. "); We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. . Six weeks after the declassified and heavily censored first volume of the CIA report was made public, Inspector General Frederick Hitz testified before a House congressional committee. (See Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA, W.W. Norton & Co., 1 987. The agency was aware of trafficking, and (in some cases) dissuaded the DEA and other agencies from investigating the Contra supply networks involved. After being repelled from China with heavy losses, the KMT settles down with local population and organizes and expands the opium trade from Burma and Northern Thailand. The output provided up to one half of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the CIA's parent and sister organizations, cultivate relations with the leaders of the Italian Mafia, recruiting heavily from the New York and Chicago underworlds, whose members, including Charles `Lucky' Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis, and Frank Costello, help the agencies keep in touch with Sicilian Mafia leaders exiled by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. WebIn August 1985, the CIA received information that Miranda was in Los Angeles and wanted to provide information on Sandinista arms and drug smuggling in return for assistance in settling in the United States. in Central America", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Key Figures In CIA-Crack Cocaine Scandal Begin To Come Forward", The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Report of Investigation Concerning Allegations of Connections Between CIA and The Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Central Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General, Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, And The Crack Cocaine Explosion, "PBS Frontline: Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. In 1974, Sicilia's top aide, Jose Egozi, a CIA-trained intelligence officer and Bay of Pigs veteran, reportedly lined up agency support for a right-wing plot to overthrow the Portuguese government. [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 a follow up letter later Smith stated "I have been advised that a question arose regarding the need to add all narcotics violations to the list of "non-employee" crimes". From Left: Late journalist Gary Webb, Actor Jeremy Renner in 'Kill the Messenger', REVIEW: 'Whiplash' Moves to the Beat of a Driven Drummer, How We Can Learn to Live with COVID-19 After Vaccinations. 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. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras. The Mercury News Web page, with supporting documents and updates, received hundreds of thousands of hits a day. [41] The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. They, in turn, had long dominated the drug traffic in the area of north-east Afghanistan that they controlled during the Taliban years. CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting the Soviet-supported government, which had plans to reform Afghan society. [31], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. By the end of September, three federal investigations had been announced: an investigation into the CIA allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee. Several years later, the Japanese Yakuza emerges as a major source of methamphetamine in Hawaii. After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. ", The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. Southern Air Transport, [42] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). Magazines, Digital According to the report, "Twelve American, Nicaraguan and Cuban-American rebel backers interviewed by The Associated Press said they had been questioned over the past several months [about contra cocaine trafficking] by the FBI. The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies and banks) to these ClA-linked drug networks. [6], In 1984, U.S. officials began receiving reports of Contra cocaine trafficking. [52], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. He does, however, believe in real conspiracies: If I believe it, theres nothing theory about it. The true story on which the movie is based, however, makes it clear that its not always obvious whats a theory and whats the truth. 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. The Subcommittee's final report, issued in 1989, said that Contra drug links included: According to the report, the U.S. State Department paid over $806,000 to "four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers" to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras.[1]. For the related broader allegations of drug trafficking by the CIA, see, Alleged CIA support for cocaine smuggling and other related crimes, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, Early reports of Contra cocaine trafficking. WebAt least four transport companies under investigation for drug trafficking received US government contracts to carry non-lethal supplies to the contras. "[59] It also found no evidence to support Webb's suggestion that several other drug smugglers mentioned in the series were associated with the CIA, or that anyone associated with the CIA or other intelligence agencies was involved in supplying or selling drugs in Los Angeles.[59]. The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. When some authority wasnt clued in and made an arrest, powerful strings were pulled on behalf of dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or deportation. William Blum is author of Killing Hope: U.S Military and CIA Interventions Since World War ll available from Common Courage Press, P.O. [58] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." 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. The CIA-supported rebel Mujahedeen begins expanding production to finance their insurgency. The subject remains controversial. In Costa Rica, which served as the Southern Front for the contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several CIA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. As I said earlier, we have found no evidence in the course of this lengthy investigation of any conspiracy by CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States. During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. When Danilo Blandn was finally arrested in 1986, he admitted to drug crimes that would have sent others away for life. In fact, a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee corroborated this claim that the CIA actively supported Contra groups. US officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operabon because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies. The Agencys principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading drug lords and the biggest heroin refiner, who was also the largest recipient of CIA military support. By 1972, the KMT controls 80 percent of the Golden Triangle's opium trade. 
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Regarding issues raised in the series' shorter sidebar stories, it found that some in the government were "not eager" to have DEA agent Celerino Castillo "openly probe" activities at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador, where covert operations in support of the Contras were undertaken, and that the CIA had indeed intervened in a case involving smuggler Julio Zavala. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings.[39]. It noted that Blandn and Meneses claimed to have donated money to Contra sympathizers in Los Angeles, but found no information to confirm that it was true or that the agency had heard of it. Federal prosecutors ordered the letter and other case evidence sealed for national security reasons. Based on a year-long investigation, reporter Gary Webb wrote that during the 1980s the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaragua's leftist government through sales of cut-rate cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer, Ricky Ross. More than a ton of cocaine was shipped into the country with the CIA's approval as part of an undercover program aimed at catching drug smugglers, an operation kept secret from other U.S. agencies. A 1998, a CIA inspector generals report denied any ties between the U.S. government and the drug dealers Webb named in his articles and book, but ultimately confirmed Webbs thesis that the CIA had worked with contras despite drug-dealing allegations against them. The story attracted hundreds of thousands of readers to the newspapers site at a time when going viral was still a twinkle in the Internets eye. _uacct = "UA-3263347-1"; (see June 1985) Matta's air transport firm, SETCO, receives $186,000 from the U.S. State Department to fly `humanitarian supplies' to the Nicaraguan Contras from 1983 to 1985. In fact, the 25-year DEA veteran maintains the agency actively abetted cocaine trafficking in Bolivia, where government official who sought to combat traffickers faced `torture and death at the hands of CIA-sponsored paramilitary terrorists under the command of fugitive Nazi war criminal (also protected by the CIA) Klaus Barbie. in Central America", "Prepared Statement of Frederick P. Hitz inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency Before The House Committee On Intelligence subject Investigation Of allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras In Drug Trafficking to the United States", "Inspector: CIA Kept Ties With Alleged Traffickers", "Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. Although the Carter administration suspends payments to Noriega, he returns to the U.S. payroll when President Reagan takes office in 1981. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3263347-1"); Guatemala, whose military intelligence serviceclosely associated with the CIAharbored many drug traffickers, according to the DEA, was another way station along the cocaine highway. 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 The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against Communist China, became the opium baron of The Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand, and Laos), the worlds largest source of opium and heroin. A 1996 Peter Dale Scott affidavit on CIA drugs trafficking explained his research into longstanding US government involvement. Among its officers were a network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including fommer CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. American officials say illicit fentanyl from labs in Mexico is driving a surge in overdose deaths. The series alleged that the three had relationships with the Contras and the CIA, and that law enforcement agencies failed to successfully prosecute them largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. 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 1986, the 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. [29] The Post ultimately refused to print his letter. The first article, by Katz, developed a different picture of the origins of the crack trade than Dark Alliance had described, with more gangs and smugglers participating. DEA, FBI and U.S. Customs Service investigators accuse the CIA of stonewalling during their investigation. Ironically drug trafficking through Panama increased after the US invasion. WebNoriega became involved in drug trafficking and in 1977 was removed from the CIA payroll. Representative Maxine Waters, a congresswoman for South Central Los Angeles the heart of the drug wars requested both federal and congressional inquiries into the role that the U.S. government played in bringing cocaine into her community. [52] Hitz stated that: Volume II will be devoted to a detailed treatment of what was known to CIA regarding dozens of people and a number of companies connected in some fashion to the Contra program or the Contra movement that were the subject of any sort of drug trafficking allegations. The San Jose Mercury News series documents just one thread of the interwoven operations linking the CIA, the contras and the cocaine cartels. 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. Let me be frank about what we are finding. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. CIA-supplied trucks and mules that had carried arms into Afghanistan were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border. 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. They identified the Cuban-Americans as members of Brigade 2506, an anti-Castro group that participated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The next year, he published a book titled Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion detailing his own reporting process and the controversy the series provoked. This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals' support. The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies, and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. GlobalResearch Center for Research on Globalization. "); We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. . Six weeks after the declassified and heavily censored first volume of the CIA report was made public, Inspector General Frederick Hitz testified before a House congressional committee. (See Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA, W.W. Norton & Co., 1 987. The agency was aware of trafficking, and (in some cases) dissuaded the DEA and other agencies from investigating the Contra supply networks involved. After being repelled from China with heavy losses, the KMT settles down with local population and organizes and expands the opium trade from Burma and Northern Thailand. The output provided up to one half of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the CIA's parent and sister organizations, cultivate relations with the leaders of the Italian Mafia, recruiting heavily from the New York and Chicago underworlds, whose members, including Charles `Lucky' Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis, and Frank Costello, help the agencies keep in touch with Sicilian Mafia leaders exiled by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. WebIn August 1985, the CIA received information that Miranda was in Los Angeles and wanted to provide information on Sandinista arms and drug smuggling in return for assistance in settling in the United States. in Central America", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Key Figures In CIA-Crack Cocaine Scandal Begin To Come Forward", The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Report of Investigation Concerning Allegations of Connections Between CIA and The Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Central Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General, Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, And The Crack Cocaine Explosion, "PBS Frontline: Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. In 1974, Sicilia's top aide, Jose Egozi, a CIA-trained intelligence officer and Bay of Pigs veteran, reportedly lined up agency support for a right-wing plot to overthrow the Portuguese government. [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 a follow up letter later Smith stated "I have been advised that a question arose regarding the need to add all narcotics violations to the list of "non-employee" crimes". From Left: Late journalist Gary Webb, Actor Jeremy Renner in 'Kill the Messenger', REVIEW: 'Whiplash' Moves to the Beat of a Driven Drummer, How We Can Learn to Live with COVID-19 After Vaccinations. 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. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras. The Mercury News Web page, with supporting documents and updates, received hundreds of thousands of hits a day. [41] The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. They, in turn, had long dominated the drug traffic in the area of north-east Afghanistan that they controlled during the Taliban years. CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting the Soviet-supported government, which had plans to reform Afghan society. [31], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. By the end of September, three federal investigations had been announced: an investigation into the CIA allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee. Several years later, the Japanese Yakuza emerges as a major source of methamphetamine in Hawaii. After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. ", The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. Southern Air Transport, [42] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). Magazines, Digital According to the report, "Twelve American, Nicaraguan and Cuban-American rebel backers interviewed by The Associated Press said they had been questioned over the past several months [about contra cocaine trafficking] by the FBI. The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies and banks) to these ClA-linked drug networks. [6], In 1984, U.S. officials began receiving reports of Contra cocaine trafficking. [52], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. He does, however, believe in real conspiracies: If I believe it, theres nothing theory about it. The true story on which the movie is based, however, makes it clear that its not always obvious whats a theory and whats the truth. 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. The Subcommittee's final report, issued in 1989, said that Contra drug links included: According to the report, the U.S. State Department paid over $806,000 to "four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers" to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras.[1]. For the related broader allegations of drug trafficking by the CIA, see, Alleged CIA support for cocaine smuggling and other related crimes, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, Early reports of Contra cocaine trafficking. WebAt least four transport companies under investigation for drug trafficking received US government contracts to carry non-lethal supplies to the contras. "[59] It also found no evidence to support Webb's suggestion that several other drug smugglers mentioned in the series were associated with the CIA, or that anyone associated with the CIA or other intelligence agencies was involved in supplying or selling drugs in Los Angeles.[59]. The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. When some authority wasnt clued in and made an arrest, powerful strings were pulled on behalf of dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or deportation. William Blum is author of Killing Hope: U.S Military and CIA Interventions Since World War ll available from Common Courage Press, P.O. [58] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." 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. The CIA-supported rebel Mujahedeen begins expanding production to finance their insurgency. The subject remains controversial. In Costa Rica, which served as the Southern Front for the contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several CIA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. As I said earlier, we have found no evidence in the course of this lengthy investigation of any conspiracy by CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States. During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. When Danilo Blandn was finally arrested in 1986, he admitted to drug crimes that would have sent others away for life. In fact, a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee corroborated this claim that the CIA actively supported Contra groups. 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