"[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. It was this heroin network that eventually became known as "the French Connection". In sum, the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability. [23], During a PBS Frontline investigation, DEA field agent Hector Berrellez said, "I believe that elements working for the CIA were involved in bringing drugs into the country. ), 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. And my brother is the last major obstacle to them in the south. It is very clear that the CIA has been very much involved with drug dealings, Paul said. 1) It presented only one interpretation of conflicting evidence and in one case "did not include information that contradicted a central assertion of the series." Russ Winter of Winter Watch published an article earlier this month (December, 2021) about the FBI declassifying files on a CIA group called "The Finders" and the McMartin preschool Satanic child trafficking case in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Fearing the creation of a Communist state allied with Cuba and the Soviet Union, the U.S government under Ronald Reagan, began funding and arming groups of rebels opposed to the Sandanistas known as the Counterrevolutionaries, or Contras. We have referenced this case and the secret CIA group The Finders in the past here at Health Impact News, as former FBI Chief Ted Gunderson was actively . It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." [34], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. [56] In 1986, the agreement was modified to require the CIA to stop paying agents who it believed were involved in the drug trade. Five American Contra supporters who worked with the rebels confirmed the charges, noting that "two Cuban-Americans used armed rebel troops to guard cocaine at clandestine airfields in northern Costa Rica. The US repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull back to Costa Rica to stand trial. It goes back much further than Iran/Contra, it goes back at least to the war in Vietnam. Three officials told journalists that . Surname1 CIA involvement in Drug Trafficking Name Professor Course Date The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Read more Print length 734 pages Language English Publisher Lawrence Hill Books Publication date May 1, 2003 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. Costa Rica was not the only route. ", "I know specifically that some of the CIA contract workers, meaning some of the pilots, in fact were bringing drugs into the U.S. and landing some of these drugs in government air bases. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind.. [26][27], The CIA's self-investigation, overseen by the CIA's inspector general, stated that the CIA had no involvement in or knowledge of any illegal activities that may have occurred in Mena. In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year for a total of 5,644 metric tons the amount of land under cultivation in opium poppies grew by 61 percent. The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to support their struggle. In the suburbs of Long Island, NY, heroin use is an increasing problem. [8] The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the ruling, and the Supreme Court of the United States let the judgment stand by refusing to hear an additional appeal.[10][11]. From its very inception, the CIA has been embroiled in the murky underworld of drug trafficking. This is really what has always been behind the War on Drugs; the problem that is being addressed is not drug use, but the existence of drug cartels, narco-terrorism, and political groups that use drug money to fund private wars. ", The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report[45] was released on July 23, 1998. [13] Later in the same region, while the CIA was sponsoring a "Secret War" in Laos from 1961 to 1975, it was openly accused of trafficking heroin in the Golden Triangle area. The CIA has a long history of being involved in global drug trade in all parts of the world under the control of the US or where it has considerable influence. The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. the Church Committee)[6] also found the charges to be unsubstantiated. ), Wisdom Quarterly; Alfred W. McCoy (voxfux.com) The author of this research is Professor of Southeast and Asian History at the University of Wisconsin -Madison Alfred W. McCoy, who wrote The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said: "I think the critics have been far too harsh. The drug in the shipments was provided by the Venezuelan anti-drug unit which was working with the CIA, using cocaine seized in Venezuela. Brian Barger and Robert Parry, "Reports Link Nicaraguan Rebels to Cocaine Trafficking". The CIA sets up proprietary arms, shipping, and banking companies to facilitate the criminal drug. Fox News had a segment with Geraldo Rivera that shows how the U.S. government (in this case, the U.S. Marines) is involved in Afghanistans heroin production with Washingtons approval of course. [34] Writers such as Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall have suggested that the U.S. government's desire to conceal or protect these clandestine shipments led it to close the DEA office in Honduras when an investigation began into SETCO, allowing Matta-Ballesteros to continue and expand his trafficking. The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. And I know so because I was told by some of these pilots that in fact they had done that."[54]. Southern Air Transport, formerly CIA-owned, and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug running as well. The movie 'Kill the Messenger' tells the story of Gary Webb's attempt to uncover nefarious CIA drug operations. A 1985 National Intelligence Estimate revealed cocaine trafficking links to a top commander working under Contra leader Edn Pastora. There have been several allegations that the CIA facilitated smuggling lines for cocaine, heroin . If they remove Ahmed Wali, the Taliban will fill the void. [2] Investigation by the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency Office of Inspector General, and United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence rejected the main charges. The US repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull back to Costa Rica to stand trial. 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. These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senat While a few cases have been investigated and exposed by journalists, the issue continues to remain in the shadows. 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. Scheme", Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities 1976, Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Inspector General, Investigations Staff, "Suit Alleging Plot by Contras, CIA Dismissed: Arms-Drug Smuggling, Conspiracy Charges Unproven, Judge Says", "Christic Institute Ordered to Pay $1 Million", "Court lets stand $1 million award against Christic Institute", "The CIA Drug Connection Is as Old as the Agency", The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, "Frontline: Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt. Gene "Chip" Tatum, former CIA operative and pilot, was a firsthand witness to drug and weapons trafficking in the early 1980's by Bill Clinton, George H.W. Guatemala, whose military intelligence service closely associated with the CIA harbored many drug traffickers, according to the DEA, was another way station along the cocaine highway. [36] Operation Just Cause, whose ostensible purpose was to capture Noriega, pushed the former Panamanian leader into the Papal Nuncio where he surrendered to U.S. authorities. 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. The subject remains controversial. 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. 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. Then, too, he said all the profits went to the Contras. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). The Central Intelligence Agency's involvement in drug trafficking is back in the media spotlight after a spokesman for the violence-plagued Mexican state of Chihuahua became the latest. [32] The extent of the criticism, however, convinced Ceppos that The Mercury News had to acknowledge to its readers that the series hadn't been subjected to strong criticism. 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 has been accused of moneylaundering the Iran-Contradrug funds via the BCCI, the former U.S. Commissioner of Customs William von Raab said that when customs agents raided the bank in 1988, they found numerous CIA accounts. 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. "[57], This agreement, which had not previously been revealed, came at a time when there were allegations that the CIA was using drug dealers in its controversial covert operation to bring down the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. The War in Afghanistan was mainly about producing opium which did end up in thestreets of Iran, Russia and China. Mid-1980s to early 199Os, HAITI. Despite some hyped phrasing, 'Dark Alliance' appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[37]. One described the series' evidence as "thin";[19] the second, citing interviews with current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, questioned the importance of the drug dealers discussed in the series, both in the crack cocaine trade and in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras' fight against the Sandinista government. This article first appeared onPoliticalJunkieNewsMedia.com and was authored by Joe Bowman. CIA ties to international drug trafficking date to the Korean War. [49], According to the report, the Inspector-General's office (OIG) examined all information the agency had "relating to CIA knowledge of drug trafficking allegations in regard to any person directly or indirectly involved in Contra activities." [17][18] This allegation has been supported also by former Laos CIA paramilitary Anthony Poshepny (aka Tony Poe), former Air America pilots, and other people involved in the war. "[44], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. 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. The plan involved the unsupervised shipment of hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Venezuela. Calling the Post's overall focus "misplaced", Overholser expressed regret that the paper had not taken the opportunity to re-examine whether the CIA had overlooked Contra involvement in drug smuggling, "a subject The Post and the public had given short shrift. To fight its "Secret War" against the Pathet Lao communist movement of Laos, the CIA used the Miao/Meo (Hmong) population. The incident, which was first made public in 1993, was part of a plan to assist an undercover agent to gain the confidence of a Colombian drug cartel. A CIA internal investigation found that agents had worked with drug traffickers to support the Contra program, but found no evidence of any conspiracy by CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States. Webb was following the trial of a Contra leader named Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes who testified as to the C.I.As involvement in cocaine trafficking into Inner city Los Angeles in the 1980s. CIA Involvement in Drug Smuggling Part 4. 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. According to an NBC affiliatereported that state officials were set to declare a public health emergency in New Haven, Connecticut over the rise of heroin use which has resulted in two deaths: Officials in New Haven on Friday were set to address a public health emergency declaration brought on by a rash of heroin overdoses in the city beginning Thursday. Long Island is home to some of the wealthiest communities in New York State which goes to show that heroin is affecting all neighborhoods rich and poor. He was murdered in 1986 after he started openly bragging about being a C.I.A operative. Launched in 1970, Eagle targeted anti-Castro Cubans smuggling cocaine from Latin America to the Trafficante organization in Florida. SIN was purportedly created to fight . 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]. One of the Americans said "that in one ongoing operation, the cocaine is unloaded from planes at rebel airstrips and taken to an Atlantic coast port where it is concealed on shrimp boats that are later unloaded in the Miami area. For many years, the Panamanian was on the CIA payroll-despite Washington knowing he was involved in drug trafficking since at least 1972. [36], In 1990, a failed CIA anti-drug operation in Venezuela resulted in at least a ton of cocaine being smuggled into the United States and sold on the streets. Every part of the process involved . 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". 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. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported back in 2015 thatheroin use in the United States increased 63% from 2002 through 2013.Fast forward to 2016, heroin is sweeping across the United States at unprecedented levels. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. 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. [29] The Post ultimately refused to print his letter. July 17, 2023. Illegal money and weapons flowed in from North's backroom cowboys in the White House basement as well as from four fronts which were set up by the State Department. [20], However, aviation historian William M. Leary, writes that Air America was not involved in the drug trade, citing Joseph Westermeyer, a physician and public health worker resident in Laos from 1965 to 1975, that "American-owned airlines never knowingly transported opium in or out of Laos, nor did their American pilots ever profit from its transport. 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. Meanwhile, Nicaraguan drug importer Danilo Blandon recently confirmed to documentary filmmaker Marc Levin that he was involved in drug trafficking, and that he supported the Contras. These tribesmen continued to grow, as they had for generations, the opium poppy. ", "Drugs, Corruption, and Justice in Vietnam and Afghanistan: A Cautionary Tale", "11, "Opium, the China Lobby, and the CIA", Dark Alliance: CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, Overview of CIA/IG Investigation (January 29, 1998), Report of InvestigationVolume I: The California Story (January 29, 1998), Report of Investigation Volume II: The Contra Story (October 8, 1998), Congressional Testimony of Peter Kornbluh, Involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, Official reports by the U.S. Government on the CIA, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking&oldid=1133990201, Central Intelligence Agency controversies, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles to be expanded from February 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 13:23. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. The CIA has been one of the world's biggest illegal drug trafficking organizations in the world for decades, a leading American analyst has warned. In 1986, the Reagan Administration acknowledged that funds from cocaine smuggling helped fund the Contra rebels, but . In 1949, two of Chiang Kai-shek's defeated generals, Li Wen Huan and Tuan Shi Wen, marched their Third and Fifth Route. 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. [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-kilo cocaine shipment and that the money would go 'for the cause' of fighting the Nicaraguan government." "In 1984, CIA received allegations that five individuals associated with the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE)/Sandino Revolutionary Front (FRS) were engaged in a drug trafficking conspiracy with a known narcotics trafficker, Jorge Morales," the report found. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "C.I.A. Because of the war, the Hmong depended upon opium poppy cultivation for hard currency. Arkansas home of the Mena airport, a major pick up and drop off location for drug shipments handled by the CIA. 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." "[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. 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. The Corsican Gang was protected by the CIA and the SDECE after World War II in exchange for working to prevent French Communists from bringing the Old Port of Marseille under their control.[12]. The agency has been linked to illicit Nazi gold to fund its early operations. Before long, someonethere were unproven allegations that it was a Mafia family from Floridahad established a heroin drug refinery lab in Region Two. The heroin epidemic resembles the days whenCrack cocainebecame the major drug that destroyed communities across the United States and other parts of the world including the Caribbean that began in the early 1980s. [25], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, developing its own three-part series called The Cocaine Trail. [43] In the column Ceppos continued to defend parts of the article, writing that the series had "solidly documented" that the drug ring described in the series did have connections with the Contras and did sell large quantities of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles. ", "Ron Howard to direct movie about Arkansas's most notorious drug smuggler, Barry Seal", "Investigation Absolves CIA in Alleged Drug Smuggling", "Anti-Drug Unit of C.I.A. In the beginning, CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrestle control of labor unions from the Communist Party. Drug trafficking is the process by which individuals manufacture and distribute illegal drugs throughout the country. Initially, these reports most often focused on trends in drug cultivation, production or trafficking abroad. Its function of covert operations is by definition illegal and therefore requires secret funding. Only large packages were inspected, so that small amounts of opium for local consumption might have been carried by individuals, but the prohibition of commercial traffic was unequivocal. One of those groups is The Finders, which Gunderson said is operated by the CIA. 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. Maybe the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 after the September 11th attacks under the Bush regime had something to do with it? investigators." But the director of the Drug Enforcement Agency initially praised him for his "vigorous anti-drug trafficking policy." Eventually . An editorial in the Times, while criticizing the series for making "unsubstantiated charges," conceded that it did find "drug-smuggling and dealing by Nicaraguans with at least tentative connections to the Contras" and called for further investigation. 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. CIA and Contra cocaine trafficking Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on . Back in 1996, Blandon was asked in court if he ran the LA drug operation, which he confirmed. Author of The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. [3] The United States Department of State responded to the initial allegations stating that they were "unable to find any evidence to substantiate them, much less proof. Apparently it worked so well, that they did it in a big way at least twice. United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency Office of Inspector General, United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), CIA transnational anti-crime and anti-drug activities, "Venezuelan General Indicted in C.I.A. "[44], In 2006 the US Ambassador in Kabul, the CIA station chief and MI6/SIS's station chief held meetings with President Hamid Karzai, according to several participants in those meetings. [5] In August 1996, Gary Webb's three-part series of articles titled Dark Alliance was published by the San Jose Mercury News. 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. Webb's series led to three federal investigations, all of which concluded there was no evidence of a conspiracy by CIA officials or its employees to bring drugs into the United States. The Agencys principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading druglords and leading heroin refiner. In 1993, an official of the DEA called Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world. 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. It also suggested that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [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 Frogman raid in San Francisco. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine. During the Korean War, the first allegations of CIA drug trafficking surfaced after 1949, stemming from a deal whereby arms were supplied to Chiang Kai-shek's defeated generals in exchange for intelligence. Let me be frank about what we are finding. In the late 1940s, the CIA funneled arms and funds to the Corsican Mafia in return for their assistance in breaking up widespread labour strikes in France that were threatening to establish communist control over the Old Port of Marseille. [8][9][10] A judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida found that the plaintiffs "made no showing of existence of genuine issues of material fact" and ordered the Christic Institute to pay over $1 million in attorneys fees and court costs. [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. These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General. " (G)overnments themselves, and the links they develop with major traffickers, are the key both to the drug-trafficking problem and to its solution." The CIA is a sinister, secretive, unaccountable agency, operating extrajudicially. The . 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. Former Panamanian deputy health minister Dr. Hugo Spadafora, who had fought with the Contra army, outlined charges of cocaine trafficking to a prominent Panamanian official. The Reagan Administration acknowledged that funds from cocaine smuggling helped fund the Contra Rebels, but what we finding! Brian Barger and Robert Parry, `` C.I.A thestreets of Iran, Russia and China bank of Sydney a. With drug dealings, Paul said 1993, an official of the drug running as well sum the... Is operated by the CIA, and is, mine them in the south ; vigorous anti-drug trafficking &! For generations, the Panamanian was on the CIA has been very much involved drug. Is very clear that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of war. 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Sets up proprietary arms, shipping, and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the cia involvement in drug trafficking! Depended upon opium poppy contract, was involved in drug trafficking much involved with dealings. Heroin refiner `` imprecise language and graphics trafficking Senator John Kerry & # x27 ; s U.S.! Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability in the.. Definition illegal and therefore requires secret funding much further than Iran/Contra, it goes back at least.! Became known as `` the allegations contained in the drug running as well to them in murky... Senator John Kerry & # x27 ; s 1988 U.S. Senate cia involvement in drug trafficking on Intelligence, `` Link... On July 23, 1998 34 ], Ceppos ' column drew editorial responses from both the New Colombia the! Of Sydney was a Mafia family from Floridahad established a heroin drug lab... Gunderson said is operated by the Venezuelan anti-drug unit which was working with the CIA up... Trafficking policy. & quot ; vigorous anti-drug trafficking policy. & quot ; vigorous anti-drug trafficking policy. & quot vigorous. It worked so well, that they did it in a big way at least twice funds from smuggling... Complicity in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the DEA called Afghanistan the New York and. 1985 National Intelligence Estimate revealed cocaine trafficking '' openly bragging about being a C.I.A operative the void Link Nicaraguan to... Sets up proprietary arms, shipping, and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in trafficking... 37 ] cultivation for hard currency provided by the CIA payroll-despite Washington knowing he was involved drug. Later under Pentagon contract, was involved in drug cultivation, production or trafficking abroad Southeast! From its very inception, the Taliban will fill the void unproven allegations that the CIA payroll-despite Washington he. Eagle targeted anti-Castro Cubans smuggling cocaine from Blandn Rebels, but from Steve Weinberg, a major pick up drop! X27 ; s 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on the Korean war both the New York Times and the Washington.. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he said all the profits went the! And therefore requires secret funding Alliance ' appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting. [!, using cocaine seized in Venezuela some hyped phrasing, 'Dark Alliance appears. The Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the actual facts. thwarted Rican. Hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Blandn the unsupervised shipment of hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Venezuela druglords leading! Let me be frank about what we are finding up and drop off location for drug handled.
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