Cia dealing crack cocaine

How the cia watched over the destruction of gary webb. Blandon and meneses were said to have used their drug trafficking profits to help fund the contra armys war effort. The subject of todays hearings involves the allegations of cia in volvement in the u. Eighteen years after it was published, dark alliance, the san jose mercury newss bombshell investigation into links between the cocaine. The united states central intelligence agency cia has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the nicaraguan contra rebels, l. In 1996 the agency was accused of being a crack dealer. It refuted charges that cia officials knew that their nicaraguan allies were dealing drugs. Cia involvement in contra cocaine trafficking wikipedia. Special reports cocaine, conspiracy theories and the cia. During the korean war, the first allegations of cia drug trafficking surfaced after 1949, stemming from a deal whereby arms were supplied to chiang kaisheks defeated generals in exchange for intelligence.

Ciacontracrack cocaine controversy department of justice. A number of writers have alleged that the united states central intelligence agency cia was involved in cocaine trafficking during the 1980s. A widely read newspaper series leads many americans to believe cia is guilty of at least complicity, if not conspiracy, in the outbreak of crack cocaine in americas inner cities. 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 area then known as the. According to the series, blandon was the johnny appleseed of crack in californiadistributing thousands of kilos of colombian cocaine to black dealers like ricky ross. The igs report cleared the cia of complicity with the innercity crack cocaine trade. The cia, contras, gangs, and crack institute for policy studies. Gary webb on the cia, the contras, and the crack cocaine explosion, audio interviews 19971998 with gary webb from democracy now. 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. A powerful series by investigative reporter gary webb of the san jose mercury news says the answer may be yesand the charge. Oig analysis of allegations regarding blandons and meneses relationship with the contras and the cia.

The cia, contras, gangs, and crack institute for policy. The cia, contras, gangs, and crack based on a yearlong investigation, reporter gary webb wrote that during the 1980s the cia helped finance its covert war against nicaraguas leftist government through sales of cutrate cocaine to south central l. In more extreme versions of the story circulating on talk radio and the internet, the agency was the instrument of a consistent strategy by the us government to destroy the black community and to keep black americans from advancing. Allegations of a cia connection to crack cocaine epidemic select. In his own words 2004, video of interview with gary webb from guerrilla news network inside the dark alliance. On august 18, 1996, the san jose mercury news published the first installment of a threepart series of articles concerning crack cocaine, the central intelligence agency cia, and the nicaraguan contra. Webbs series led to three federal investigations, none of which found evidence of any conspiracy by the cia or its employees to bring drugs into the united states. The cia, the contras, and the crack cocaine explosion. Key figures in ciacrack cocaine scandal begin to come.

Special reports cocaine, conspiracy theories and the cia in. In october 1998, the cia released a declassified version of hitzs twovolume report. Ciacontracrack cocaine controversy table of contents. A series of expose articles in the san jose mercurynews by reporter gary webb told tales of a drug. Many readers interpreted the series to assert that the cia and other agencies of the united states government had intentionally funneled crack cocaine into black communities by either permitting or endorsing cocaine trafficking by blandon and meneses. Ross also denies that cia or the contras had anything to do with his drug trafficking.