He concluded: "How did these shortcomings occur? [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. Then, too, he said all the profits went to the Contras. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. in Central America", "Managing a Nightmare: CIA Public Affairs and the Drug Conspiracy Story", Involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, Official reports by the U.S. Government on the CIA, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking&oldid=1133985828, History of the foreign relations of the United States, Investigations and hearings of the United States Congress, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Allegations of official involvement in drug trafficking. His trial took place in Miami, where he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. But the director of the Drug Enforcement Agency initially praised him for his "vigorous anti-drug trafficking policy." Eventually . CIA Drug Trafficking - Independent News Articles ~ A Drug Kingpin, the CIA, and Prisoners- Freeway Rick Ross and America's Mass Incarceration Problem - Daily Beast . The "multinational" business of drug trafficking can be traced back to the 1940s, even before the CIA was created following World War II. The CIA's history began in the 1980s. 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. Blandn and Meneses high-volume supply of low-priced cocaine allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. The CIA sets up proprietary arms, shipping, and banking companies to facilitate the criminal drug. 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. And in return, large shipments of narcotics flowed . While a few cases have been investigated and exposed by journalists, the issue continues to remain in the shadows. The article also discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine. CIA and Contra cocaine trafficking Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on . After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. Senior U S policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras funding problems. (Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, a Report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and Intemational Operations, 1989). 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. BNDD agents immediately felt the impact of the CIA's involvement in drug law enforcement operations within the United States. In 1984, U.S. officials began receiving reports of Contra cocaine trafficking. [7][8][9] Pastora had complained about such charges as early as March 1985, claiming that "two 'political figures' in Washington told him last week that State Department and CIA personnel were spreading the rumor that he is linked to drug trafficking in order to isolate his movement. These labs were run by Corsican gang leader Paul Carbone. The report said that the agency had conducted a training exercise at the airport in partnership with another Federal agency and that companies located at the airport had performed "routine aviation-related services on equipment owned by the CIA". 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. House Intelligence Committee members heard testimony concerning allegations of CIA drug trafficking. [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. [36] However, when CIA pilot Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, documents aboard the plane revealed many of the CIA's activities in Latin America, and the CIA's connections with Noriega became a public relations "liability" for the U.S. government, which finally allowed the DEA to indict him for drug trafficking, after decades of allowing his drug operations to proceed unchecked. Clinton brought in C.I.A front companies by awarding them state-backed low interest loans to relocate to Arkansas. The NBC news report said that the CDC admitted that heroin has become an epidemic since 2002, The CDC reports that between 2002 and 2014 the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths more than quadrupled and more than 10,500 died nationwide in 2014.. For many years, the Panamanian was on the CIA payroll-despite Washington knowing he was involved in drug trafficking since at least 1972. In addition to those servicing the Meneses-Blandon operation detailed by the Mercury News, and Noriegas operation, there was CIA operative John Hull, whose farms along Costa Ricas border with Nicaragua were the main staging area for the contras. 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. View Essay - CIA & drug trafficking from ECONOMICS 11023 at Michigan State University. officers". Some sources say that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been involved in several drug trafficking operations. Mid-1980s to early 199Os, HAITI. [51], It found nothing to support the claim that "the drug trafficking activities of Blandn and Meneses were motivated by any commitment to support the Contra cause or Contra activities undertaken by CIA." Attorneys' Offices. Webbs Dark Alliance series, appeared in the. Noriega facilitated guns-for-drugs flights for the contras, providing protection and pilots, as well as safe havens for drug cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities. 24 Jul 2012. "[30] Webb later published a book based on the series, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Some of these reports claim that congressional evidence indicates that the CIA worked with groups which it knew were involved in drug trafficking, so that these groups would provide them with useful intelligence and material support . Im not making up the stories; we saw it on television. Arkansas home of the Mena airport, a major pick up and drop off location for drug shipments handled by the CIA. For the CIA, the need to cover its involvement in the My Lai massacre became acute in August 1970, when Sergeant David Mitchell, a member of Task Force Barker, was put on trial for killing. [30] Ceppos also asked reporter Pete Carey to write a critique of the series for publication in The Mercury News, and had the controversial website artwork changed. [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]. Mexicos heroin trade is small in comparison although it has been increasing its production capabilities. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt. I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. [32], In October 2013, two former federal agents and an ex-CIA contractor told an American television network that CIA operatives were involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA covert agent Enrique Camarena, because he was a threat to the agency's drug operations in Mexico in the 1980s. ", The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. A 1985 National Intelligence Estimate revealed cocaine trafficking links to a top commander working under Contra leader Edn Pastora. African Americans, especially in South Central Los Angeles where the dealers discussed in the series had been active, responded with outrage to the series' charges.[18][19]. 2) The series' estimates of the money involved was presented as fact instead of an estimate. Launched in 1970, Eagle targeted anti-Castro Cubans smuggling cocaine from Latin America to the Trafficante organization in Florida. 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. Former contract analyst for the CIA David MacMichael[14]. Why was the CIA involved in drug trafficking? [This drug ring] opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles [and, as a result,] the cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America.[17]. Several also said they supplied information about the smuggling to U.S. And I know so because I was told by some of these pilots that in fact they had done that."[54]. When the failed plan came to light, the CIA officer in charge of the operation resigned, and his supervisor was transferred. In Costa Rica, which served as the Southern Front for the contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several different CIA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, Miami and New York City experienced a rise in crime and disease. Bush lost patience with his brutal, drug . The Agencys principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading druglords and leading heroin refiner. In 1949, two of Chiang Kai-shek's defeated generals, Li Wen Huan and Tuan Shi Wen, marched their Third and Fifth Route. Although the Carter administration suspends payments to Noriega, he returns to the U.S. payroll when President Reagan takes office in 1981. Now the question is why heroin use has dramatically increased since 2002? The CIA's front company, Air America was alleged to have profited from transporting opium and heroin on behalf of Hmong leader Vang Pao,[15][16] or of "turning a blind eye" to the Laotian military doing it. [46] Mahmud Karzai told Gerald Posner: "This is being coordinated by the ISI (Pakistani intelligence service). A pair of BNDD [the predecessor of the US Drug Enforcement Administration] agents tried to seize an Air America."[13]. The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. 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. US officials admitted in 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. [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 agency has been linked to illicit Nazi gold to fund its early operations. 2023 We Are Change | Website by Dave Cahill, er Ronald Reagan, began funding and arming groups of rebels opposed to the Sandanistas known as the Counterrevolutionaries, or Contras. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. Among its officers were a network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including former CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. [52], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. The movie 'Kill the Messenger' tells the story of Gary Webb's attempt to uncover nefarious CIA drug operations. Despite some hyped phrasing, 'Dark Alliance' appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[37]. Theres a movie coming out this year staring Tom Cruise called Mena about a pilot named Barry Seal who was a known DEA informant responsible for flying TONS of coke into the U.S working with the Sandanistas and Medellin cartel from Columbia, I.E the Ochoa brothers, Pablo Escobar, etc This rabbit hole can lead you all the way to George H.W Bush, who oversaw the Federal Drug Task Force commissioned by Reagan to Bill Clinton who was Governor of Arkansas at the time where Mena (population roughly 5,000 people) is located in a quiet, mountainous region of western Arkansas. The US repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull back to Costa Rica to stand trial. [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. Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana and other locations, including several military bases Designated as Contra Craft, these shipments were not to be inspected. [34], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. 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. [45], Then in October 2009, the New York Times published an article by Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen who reported that unnamed former and current American officials had said Ahmed Wali Karzai had received regular payments from the CIA for eight years starting shortly after his brother was elected President and was involved in opium trafficking in Afghanistan. The Central Intelligence Agency has involved itself in drug trafficking since the spy agency was formed in 1947, journalist and political analyst Stephen Lendman claims. [59], 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. " (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. 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. [40] Because Venezuela does not extradite its citizens, Guillen was not tried in the U.S., but his civilian aide was arrested while in the United States and sentenced to 20 years. [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. [58] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." Americans, 5% of Earths population, take 60% of painkillers on Earth. [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. [25][26] Some theories even invoke the involvement of political figures, including Oliver North, then vice president and former CIA director George H. W. Bush and then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. 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