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The involvement of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in cocaine trafficking in Central America during the Reagan Administration as part of the Contra war in Nicaragua has been the subject of several official and journalistic investigations since the mid-1980s.. The movie 'Kill the Messenger' tells the story of Gary Webb's attempt to uncover nefarious CIA drug operations. Clinton brought in C.I.A front companies by awarding them state-backed low interest loans to relocate to Arkansas. 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. The article also discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. It found that Blandn received permanent resident status "in a wholly improper manner" and that for some time the Department "was not certain whether to prosecute Meneses, or use him as a cooperating witness." Apparently it worked so well, that they did it in a big way at least twice. 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. [20] Maxine Waters, the Representative for California's 35th district, which includes South-Central Los Angeles, was also outraged by the articles and became one of Webb's strongest supporters. Journalist Gary Webb's expose of CIA involvement in Nicaraguan drugs trafficking, supporting the contras, dealing with Los Angeles crack dealers, made him a . They were operated by narcotics traffickers who provided weapons for the Contras. It was a way to raise large amounts of "hard to trace" cash. The show explores long-simmering accusations of the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking, including that the agency may have sponsored Rick Ross and scar Danilo Blandn, the Los Angeles wholesaler and his Nicaraguan supplier who helped spark the crack epidemic in the 1980s. According to unnamed sources in the mid 1980s, the CIA created a unit in Haiti, whose purported purpose was anti-drug activity, but was in reality "used as an instrument of political terror", and was heavily involved in drug trafficking. In 1999 Congress released a report on the history of CIA involvement in drug trafficking. However, not only heroin from Afghanistan is the major source for U.S. citizens,BigPharma,or thecorporate drug dealerswho selllegal drugsalso have a hand in the epidemic because they produce and sellOpioidssuch asOxyContinandPercocetwhich is similar to heroin. officers". The US repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull back to Costa Rica to stand trial. [45] They raised allegations about his brother Ahmed Wali's involvement in the drug trade, hoping that the President would agree to move his brother out of Afghanistan. The members of the unit were known to torture Aristide supporters, and threatened to kill the local head of . Air America, the CIAs principal airline proprietary, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia. ", Many follow-ups to the original series published over the next three months are in the series archive at. Rep. John Conyers, Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, convened a special seminar on Capitol Hill to focus on the issue. Books and investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by the historian Alfred McCoy, professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott, journalists Gary Webb and Alexander Cockburn, and writer Larry Collins. [28], In 1986, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations began investigating drug trafficking from Central and South America and the Caribbean to the United States. 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 1989, after the Costa Rica government indicted Hull for drug trafficking, a DEA-hired plane clandestinely and illegally flew the CIA operative to Miami, via Haiti. According to the three men, the CIA was collaborating with drug traffickers moving cocaine and marijuana to the United States, and using its share of the profits to finance Nicaraguan Contra rebels attempting to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking.Books and investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by the historian Alfred McCoy, professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott, journalists Gary Webb and Alexander Cockburn, and writer Larry Collins.These claims have led to investigations by the United States . California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein also took note and wrote to CIA director John Deutch and Attorney General Janet Reno, asking for investigations into the articles. [24], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. His articles asserted that the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). 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. Air America, a CIA front organization, was the only airline available in northern Laos. [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. The death rate could go much higher considering the increasing level of poverty in the U.S. especially in the inner cities where the highest unemployment rates is among the 18-34 year olds. 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. Another example of drug trafficking is that person then going out and selling his homemade meth to the public. [21] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. While a few cases have been investigated and exposed by journalists, the issue continues to remain in the shadows. The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. House Intelligence Committee members heard testimony concerning allegations of CIA drug trafficking. In exchange, the CIA allowed Trafficante to import tons of narcotics into America. In his book "Politics of Heroin",[43] McCoy alleges CIA complicity in the global drug trade in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, and Colombia, arguing that the CIA follows a similar pattern in all their drug involvement. In 1986, the Reagan Administration acknowledged that funds from cocaine smuggling helped fund the Contra rebels, but . New Haven police said emergency responders saw at least 15 overdoses since Thursday afternoon, and possibly up to 22. The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post launched their own investigations and rejected Webb's allegations. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, chaired at the time by Senator John Kerry, held a series of hearings from 1987 to 1988 on drug cartels and drug money laundering in South and Central America and the Caribbean. So How Did It Become the Cloak-and-Dagger Capital of America? A 1986 investigation by a sub-committee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (the Kerry Committee), found that "the Contra drug links included", among other connections, "[] payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. The CIA spokesman responding to the allegation called it "ridiculous" to suggest that the agency had anything to do with the murder of a US federal agent or the escape of his alleged killer. Ironically drug trafficking through Panama increased after the US invasion. [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. New chapters detail U.S. involvement in the narcotics trade in Afghanistan and Pakistan before and after the fall of the Taliban, and how U.S. drug policy in Central America and Colombia has increased the global supply of illicit drugs. For many years, the Panamanian was on the CIA payroll-despite Washington knowing he was involved in drug trafficking since at least 1972. [7] The Christic Institute then filed a $24 million civil suit on behalf of Avirgan and Honey 30 charging defendants including CIA officials of illegally participating in assassinations, as well as arms and drug trafficking. Its function of covert operations is by definition illegal and therefore requires secret funding. In fact, it is estimated by U.S. customs that at least 75% of all drug smuggling aircraft have passed through . The heroin epidemic is now affecting cities and towns across the U.S. Edstrom estimates that 165,000 Americans will die from the heroin epidemic in the next 10 years: The War in Afghanistan began as an opium war against Iran, Russia and China, the tables are turning into an opium war against Americans on track to kill 165,000 Americans (2016-2026). [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. Further documentation of CIA-connected Laotian opium trade was provided by Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, and by Alfred McCoy in 1972. They were hauling down weapons and drugs back. And in return, large shipments of narcotics flowed . Contents 1 Early reports 2 FBI probe 3 Reagan Administration admits Contra-cocaine connections 4 Kerry Committee 5 Gary Webb Why was the CIA involved in drug trafficking? Many GIs in Vietnam became addicts. Sent Ton of Cocaine to U.S. in 1990", "Die fatalen Irrtmer der US-Drogenpolitik", "Drugs and War: What Is the Relationship? The Politics of Heroin by Alfred McCoy. According to the series, Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles, and Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. 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. Other revelations also point strongly to massive but clandestine U.S. government involvement in drug trafficking. in Central America", "Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal", "Clandestination: Arkansas; Mena Is a Quiet Little Place. "[49][non-primary source needed] The two main Contra groups, US arms dealers, and a lieutenant of a drug ring which imported drugs from Latin America to the US west coast were set to attend the Costa Rica meeting. These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined. July 17, 2023. 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]. ", The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. Written by reporter Tim Golden of the unit were known to torture Aristide supporters, and to. Congress released a report on the series archive at Congressional Black Caucus convened! 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