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Subject: ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, "The CIA and Drugs"
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|| * -- RESEARCH -- * November 14, 1996 * -- RESEARCH -- * ||
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RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT
_____
_________________________________________________________________
T H E C I A A N D D R U G S
_________________________________________________________________
By William Blum
"In my 30-year history in the Drug Enforcement
Administration and related agencies, the major targets of my
investigations almost invariably turned out to be working
for the CIA."
-- Dennis Dayle, former chief of an elite DEA enforcement
unit. [1]
On August 18, the San Jose Mercury initiated an extended
series of articles about the CIA connection to the crack epidemic
in Los Angeles. Though the CIA and influential media like The
Washington Post and The New York Times have gone out of their way
to belittle the significance of the articles, the basic
ingredients of the story are not really new -- the CIA's Contra
army, fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua, turning to
smuggling cocaine into the U.S., under CIA protection, to raise
money for their military and personal use.
What's unique about the articles is 1) they've appeared in a
"respectable" daily newspaper and not an "alternative"
publication, which could have and would have been completely
ignored by the powers that be; and 2) they follow the cocaine
into Los Angeles' inner city, into the hands of the Crips and the
Bloods, at the time that street-level drug users were figuring
out how to make cocaine affordable: by changing the costly white
powder into powerful little nuggets of crack that could be smoked
cheaply.
The Contra dealers, principally Oscar Danilo Blandon and his
boss Juan Norwin Meneses, both from the Nicaraguan privileged
class, operated out of the San Francisco Bay Area and sold tons
of cocaine -- a drug that was virtually unobtainable in black
neighborhoods before -- to Los Angeles street gangs. They then
funneled millions in drug profits to the Contra cause, while
helping to fuel a disastrous crack explosion in L.A. and other
cities, and enabling the gangs to buy automatic weapons,
sometimes from Blandon himself.
The principal objection raised by the establishment critics
to this scenario is that, even if correct, it doesn't prove that
the CIA was complicit, or even had any knowledge of it. However,
to arrive at this conclusion, one must ignore things like the
following:
a) Cocaine flights from Central America landed with impunity in
various spots in the United States, including a U.S. Air
Force base in Texas. In 1985, a Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) agent assigned to El Salvador reported
to headquarters the details on cocaine flights from El
Salvador to the U.S. The DEA did nothing but force him out
of the agency. [2]
b) When Blandon was finally arrested in October 1986, after
congress resumed funding for the Contras, and he admitted to
crimes that have sent others away for life, the Justice
Department turned him loose on unsupervised probation after
only 28 months behind bars and has paid him more than
$166,000 since.
c) According to a legal motion filed in a 1990 police
corruption trial: In the 1986 raid on Blandon's money-
launderer, the police carted away numerous documents
purportedly linking the U.S. government to cocaine
trafficking and money-laundering on behalf of the Contras.
CIA personnel appeared at the sheriff's department within 48
hours of the raid and removed the seized files from the
evidence room. This motion drew media coverage in 1990 but,
at the request of the Justice Department, a federal judge
issued a gag order barring any discussion of the matter.
d) Blandon subsequently became a full-time informant for the
DEA. When he testified in 1996 as a prosecution witness,
the federal prosecutors obtained a court order preventing
defense lawyers from delving into Blandon's ties to the CIA.
e) Though Meneses is listed in the DEA's computers as a major
international drug smuggler and was implicated in 45
separate federal investigations since 1974, he lived openly
and conspicuously in California until 1989 and never spent a
day in a U.S. prison. The DEA, U.S. Customs, the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and the California
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement have complained that a number
of the probes of Meneses were stymied by the CIA or unnamed
"national security" interests.
f) The U.S. Attorney in San Francisco gave back to an arrested
Nicaraguan drug dealer the $36,000 found in his possession.
The money was returned after two Contra leaders sent letters
to the court swearing that the drug dealer had been given
the cash to buy supplies "for the reinstatement of democracy
in Nicaragua". The letters were hurriedly sealed after
prosecutors invoked the Classified Information Procedures
Act, a law designed to keep national security secrets from
leaking out during trials. When a U.S. Senate subcommittee
later inquired of the Justice Department the reason for this
unusual turn of events, they ran into a wall of secrecy.
"The Justice Department flipped out to prevent us from
getting access to people, records -- finding anything out
about it," recalled Jack Blum, former chief counsel to the
Senate subcommittee that investigated allegations of Contra
cocaine trafficking. "It was one of the most frustrating
exercises that I can ever recall."
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CIA INVOLVEMENT IN DRUG TRAFFICKING
1947 to 1951, FRANCE
CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican
criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrestle control of labor
unions from the Communist Party. The Corsicans gained political
influence and control over the docks -- ideal conditions for
cementing a long-term partnership with mafia drug distributors,
which turned Marseille into the postwar heroin capital of the
Western world. Marseille's first heroin laboratories were opened
in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took over the
waterfront. [3]
EARLY 1950s, SOUTHEAST ASIA
The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage
war against Communist China, became the opium barons of The
Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand and Laos), the world's
largest source of opium and heroin. Air America, the CIA's
principal airline proprietary, flew the drugs all over Southeast
Asia. [4]
1950s to early 1970s, INDOCHINA
During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of
Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area.
Many GI's in Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA
headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After a
decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had
become the source of 70 percent of the world's illicit opium and
the major supplier of raw materials for America's booming heroin
market. [5]
1973-80, AUSTRALIA
The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but
name. Among its officers were a network of US generals, admirals
and CIA men, including former CIA Director William Colby, who was
also one of its lawyers. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe,
Southeast Asia, South America and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank
financed drug trafficking, money laundering and international
arms dealings. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the
bank collapsed, $50 million in debt. [6]
1970s and 1980s, PANAMA
For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega
was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge
by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was
heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.
Noriega facilitated "guns-for-drugs" flights for the contras,
providing protection and pilots, as well as safe havens for drug
cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities. U.S.
officials, including then-CIA Director William Webster and
several DEA officers, sent Noriega letters of praise for efforts
to thwart drug trafficking (albeit only against competitors of
his Medellin Cartel patrons). 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. Ironically, drug
trafficking through Panama increased after the US invasion. [7]
1980s, CENTRAL AMERICA
The San Jose Mercury News series documents just one thread
of the interwoven operations linking the CIA, the contras and the
cocaine cartels. Obsessed with overthrowing the leftist
Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Reagan administration
officials tolerated drug trafficking as long as the traffickers
gave support to the contras. In 1989, the Senate Subcommittee on
Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations (the Kerry
committee) concluded a three-year investigation by stating:
"There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war
zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra
pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra
supporters throughout the region. ... U.S. officials involved in
Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of
jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. ... In each case,
one or another agency of the U.S. government had information
regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or
immediately thereafter. ... Senior U.S. policy makers were not
immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the
Contras' funding problems." [8]
In Costa Rica, which served as the "Southern Front" for the
contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several
different CIA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. In
addition to those servicing the Meneses-Blandon operation
detailed by the Mercury News, and Noriega's operation, there was
CIA operative John Hull, whose farms along Costa Rica's border
with Nicaragua were the main staging area for the contras. Hull
and other CIA-connected contra supporters and pilots teamed up
with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug
trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and
several planes to contra leaders. [9] 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. The US repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts
to extradite Hull back to Costa Rica to stand trial. [10]
Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of
Cuban Americans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for
the contras. Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug
trafficking. They used contra planes and a Costa Rican-based
shrimp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to move
cocaine to the U.S. [11]
Costa Rica was not the only route. 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. [12] Additionally,
the Medell!n Cartel's Miami accountant, Ramon Milian Rodriguez,
testified that he funneled nearly $10 million to Nicaraguan
contras through long-time CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, who was
based at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador. [13]
The contras provided both protection and infrastructure
(planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies and
banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. At least four
transport companies under investigation for drug trafficking
received US government contracts to carry non-lethal supplies to
the contras. [14] Southern Air Transport, "formerly" CIA-owned,
and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug
running as well. [15] 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. When some authority wasn't clued in and made an
arrest, powerful strings were pulled on behalf of dropping the
case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or deportation. [16]
1980s to early 1990s, AFGHANISTAN
CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug
trafficking while fighting against the Soviet-supported
government and its plans to reform the very backward Afghan
society. The Agency's principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,
one of the leading druglords and leading heroin refiner. CIA-
supplied trucks and mules, which had carried arms into
Afghanistan, were used to transport opium to laboratories along
the Afghan-Pakistan border. The output provided up to one half
of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-
quarters of that used in Western Europe. 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. [17] In 1993, an official of
the DEA called Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world.
[18]
MID-1980s to early 1990s, HAITI
While working to keep key Haitian military and political
leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients'
drug trafficking. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to
its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National
Intelligence Service (SIN). SIN was purportedly created to fight
the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselves engaged in the
trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some of the Haitian
military and political leaders. [19]
ENDNOTES
1. Peter Dale Scott & Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs,
Armies, and the CIA in Central America, Berkeley: U. of CA Press,
1991, pp. x-xi.
2. Celerino Castillo, Powder Burns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug
War, Mosaic Press, 1994, passim.
3. Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia,
New York: Harper & Row, 1972, chapter 2.
4. Christopher Robbins, Air America, New York: Avon Books, 1985,
chapter 9; McCoy, passim
5. McCoy, chapter 7; Robbins, p. 128 and chapter 9
6. Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope,
Dirty Money and the CIA, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987,
passim; William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War II, Maine: Common Courage Press,
1995, p. 420, note 33.
7. a) Scott & Marshall, passim
b) John Dinges, Our Man in Panama, New York: Random House, 1991,
passim
c) Murray Waas, "Cocaine and the White House Connection", Los
Angeles Weekly, Sept. 30-Oct. 6 and Oct. 7-13, 1988, passim
d) National Security Archive Documentation Packet: The Contras,
Cocaine, and Covert Operations (Washington, D.C.), passim
8. "Kerry Report": Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, a
Report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee
on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, 1989, pp.
2, 36, 41
9. Martha Honey, Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the
1980s, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994.
10. Martha Honey and David Myers, "U.S. Probing Drug Agent's
Activities in Costa Rica," San Francisco Chronicle, August 14,
1991.
11. Honey, Hostile Acts.
12. Frank Smyth, "In Guatemala, The DEA Fights the CIA", New
Republic, June 5, 1995; Blum, p. 239.
13. Washington Post, June 30, 1987; Martha Honey, "Cocaine's
Certified Public Accountant," 2-part series, The Source, August
and September, 1994.
14. Kerry report, passim.
15. Scott & Marshall, pp. 17-18
16. Scott & Marshall, passim; Waas, passim; NSA, passim.
17. Blum, p. 351; Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black
Budget, New York: Warner Books, 1990, pp. 151-2
18. Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 1993
19. New York Times, Nov. 14, 1993; The Nation, Oct. 3, 1994, p.
346
-----
Prepared by William Blum, author of Killing Hope: U.S.
Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II;
email: bblum6@aol.com
-----
{Editor's Note: I'd like to thank William Blum for making
his research available to Antifa Info-Bulletin. Mr. Blum's
powerful book, _Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War II_, was published in 1995.
It is a completely revised and updated edition of _The CIA:
A Forgotten History_, originally published in 1986 by Zed
Press. One of the most comprehensive source books available
on the Cold War and the U.S. state religion, anticommunism,
_Killing Hope_ provides a thorough documentation of
America's murderous pursuit of global empire at any price.
Available from Common Courage Press, P.O. Box 702, Monroe,
Maine, 04951, USA; tel: (207) 525-0900; fax: (207) 525-3068}
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