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Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: [NEWS]THE CIA AND CRACK: EVIDENCE IS LACKING OF CONTRA-TIED PLOT
From: Tung Nguyen 
Date: 4 Oct 1996 17:17:12 GMT





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Read a Post article about conspiracy theories.

Read the San Jose Mercury News =
series about the CIA's involvement in Nicaragua and the emergence of cr=
ack cocaine in the United States.

	

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   The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Contra-Tied Plot    
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	   Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus      =



Washington Post Staff Writers 

	Friday, October 04, 1996; Page A01

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 =

On March 2, 1995, Ricky Donnell Ross, a paroled crack dealer, thought he=
 was hooking up with an old-time supplier when he went to pick up $1 millio=
n worth of cocaine at a department store parking lot near San Diego. =

Instead, Ross found himself surrounded by federal agents--the supplier h=
ad turned government informant. The story might have ended there, but the i=
nformant was Oscar Danilo Blandon, a Nicaraguan who has claimed that he onc=
e sent cocaine profits to help contra rebels who later received CIA support=
 in his homeland's civil war. =

As recounted in three articles published in August by the San Jose Mercu=
ry News, the story of Ross, Blandon and another Nicaraguan drug dealer name=
d Norwin Meneses has become the basis for charges by politicians, commentat=
ors and others that the CIA helped launch and played a major role in promot=
ing the crack plague that swept America's largely black inner cities in the=
 1980s.  =

The articles alleged that Blandon and Meneses gave money to the contras =
and sometimes met with rebel leaders working closely with the CIA early in =
the decade when they also funneled massive amounts of cheap cocaine into Lo=
s Angeles's African American neighborhoods, leading to a nationwide epidemi=
c of addiction and violence. =

The articles did not say directly that the spy agency knew about the two=
 Nicaraguans' drug dealing, although they hinted strongly at CIA involvemen=
t. The stories echoed decade-old allegations about drug trafficking by some=
 contras, but triggered a national outcry by black political leaders and ot=
her activists with the new charges on the origins of crack. =

The Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP and Jesse L. Jackson were amon=
g those demanding an investigation. On radio talk shows and in other forums=
, some prominent African Americans have argued that the CIA, in an act of p=
ernicious racism, wanted blacks to become addicted to crack. The response l=
ed the CIA to open an inquiry even while denying the charges; the Justice D=
epartment also opened a probe. =

 A Washington Post investigation into Ross, Blandon, Meneses and the U.S=
=2E cocaine market in the 1980s found that the available information does n=
ot support the conclusion that the CIA-backed contras--or Nicaraguans in ge=
neral--played a major role in the emergence of crack as a narcotic in wides=
pread use across the United States. =

Instead, the available data from arrest records, hospitals, drug treatme=
nt centers and drug user surveys point to the rise of crack as a broad-base=
d phenomenon driven in numerous places by players of different nationalitie=
s, races and ethnic groups. =

Although Nicaraguans took part in the drug trade of that era, most of th=
e cocaine trade then can be attributed to Colombian and Mexican smugglers, =
and distributors within the United States including Jamaicans, Dominicans, =
Haitians and Americans of varying backgrounds, according to widely accepted=
 evidence from government reports and academic studies. =

The Mercury News articles provided what appears to be the first account =
of Nicaraguans with links to the contras selling drugs themselves in Americ=
an cities--as opposed to smugglers operating in Central America. That went =
beyond findings in the 1980s, by congressional investigators and journalist=
s, that a few of the contras, and some of the rebels' suppliers and support=
ers, were involved in drug smuggling in the region at a time when the CIA w=
as deeply involved in contra operations there. The CIA knew about some of t=
hese activities, and did little or nothing to stop them, according to accou=
nts from then-senior CIA officers and other government officials. =

However, even considering the total drug trafficking attributed to Bland=
on, Meneses, other contra sympathizers and contras themselves, the Nicaragu=
ans accounted for only a small portion of the nation's cocaine trade. =

The Mercury News characterized Blandon as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack=
 in California" and suggested that the drug later spread throughout the cou=
ntry as a result of his efforts. But Blandon's own accounts and law enforce=
ment estimates say Blandon handled a total of only about five tons of cocai=
ne during a decade-long career. That is enough to have damaged many lives, =
but it is a fraction of the nationwide cocaine trade during the 1980s, when=
 more than 250 tons of the drug were distributed every year, according to o=
fficial and academic estimates. =

Meneses, who was Blandon's original supplier, may have handled more coca=
ine than Blandon at times. But experts said no single drug network, much le=
ss a pair of dealers, can be held accountable for the rise of crack. =

"So many different individuals and operations were involved in the initi=
al spread of crack that you could eliminate any one person or group from th=
e picture and be certain that the outcome would have been the same," said J=
onathan Caulkins, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon Universit=
y, who has conducted extensive research on the dynamics of cocaine traffick=
ing. =

In addition, significant contradictions in testimony between Blandon and=
 Ross cast doubt on the articles' racially charged allegation that "the CIA=
's army" of contras deliberately targeted the black community in an effort =
to expand the market for a cheap form of cocaine. =

The hypothesis that the CIA was behind Blandon was undercut by a court f=
iling by federal prosecutors last month saying Blandon "was never involved =
in any drug dealing with or for the CIA." Blandon himself has denied workin=
g for the CIA on several occasions, since he became a Drug Enforcement Admi=
nistration informant, according to federal law enforcement officials. =

Gary Webb, the Mercury News reporter who wrote the articles, and Ross's =
lawyer, Alan Fenster, said that Webb gave Fenster the idea, several weeks b=
efore Ross's trial, that the CIA was involved with Blandon's drug sales. We=
bb met with an investigator on Ross's defense team and supplied him with in=
formation about Blandon, drugs and the CIA, according to an affidavit filed=
 in the case. Webb also suggested questions to Fenster in the courtroom, , =
according to Webb and Fenster.  =

 During Fenster's cross-examination of Blandon, Assistant U.S. Attorney =
L.J. O'Neale objected that the only foundation for Fenster's questions was =
suggestions that Webb made to him during breaks in the testimony, according=
 to a transcript of the trial. This took place five months before the artic=
les were published. =

Webb subsequently used some testimony by Blandon, elicited by Fenster, i=
n one of his articles to support the thesis of CIA involvement. Fenster sub=
sequently cited the Mercury News articles as the basis for a motion to dism=
iss the charges against his client on grounds of government misconduct. =

  Prosecutor O'Neale complained in a recent court filing that the articl=
es depend on the Ross case "as the primary source of information" and Ross =
"then waves the articles aloft as 'proof' that he was right." =

Asked in a telephone interview yesterday why he went to Fenster before t=
he trial and suggested questions to ask Blandon about the CIA, Webb said th=
at otherwise "I would not have had his testimony at the trial" to use in hi=
s stories. =

Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos said yesterday he did not kno=
w that Webb had met with Fenster's investigator or provided questions to be=
 asked of Blandon during the trial. But Ceppos said another editor, who sup=
ervised Webb and is now on vacation, "may have." Ceppos added, "I'm not sur=
e any of [Webb's] actions were central to the information that came out in =
the series." =

Since the eruption of public protests over the allegation that the CIA p=
layed a role in promoting crack, Ceppos and Webb have said that the article=
s did not draw the conclusion that the CIA was directly involved. =

The first article in the newspaper said that cocaine "was virtually unob=
tainable in black neighborhoods before members of the CIA's army started br=
inging it into South Central in the 1980's at bargain basement prices." An =
illustration for the series that appears on the newspaper's Internet Web si=
te has the CIA's insignia superimposed over a man smoking crack and below t=
he title, "Dark Alliance--The Story Behind the Crack Explosion." =

 An Issue Revisited  =

Regardless of how they were crafted, the Mercury News articles would not=
 have generated so much interest if the allegations had not fallen on ferti=
le ground. The contras have been associated with intrigue since the Iran-co=
ntra affair rocked the Reagan administration in late 1986 with the news tha=
t weapons were sold to Iran to help free hostages from Beirut, and the proc=
eeds ended up helping finance the contras. And since the earliest days of t=
he Cold War, the CIA has faced accusations that it tolerated drug trafficki=
ng by groups it supported, because it considered communism a greater evil. =
 =

All of these strands came together once before. Following a two-year inv=
estigation, a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee concluded in a 1989 rep=
ort that the turmoil created by the Nicaraguan civil war was "exploited eas=
ily by a variety of mercenaries, pilots and cartel members involved in drug=
 smuggling." In some cases the committee found that drug smugglers were hir=
ed to move contra supplies and that "individual contras accepted weapons, m=
oney and equipment from drug smugglers." =

Although it did not reach definitive conclusions about CIA involvement, =
the committee report stated, "there are serious questions as to whether or =
not U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug i=
ssue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua." =

Asked how the latest allegations squared with these findings, the subcom=
mittee chairman, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), said, "There is no question =
in my mind that people affiliated with, on the payroll of and carrying the =
credentials of the CIA were involved in drug trafficking while involved in =
support of the contras, but it is also important to note that we never foun=
d any evidence to suggest that these traffickers ever targeted any one geog=
raphic area or population group." =

 Among individuals cited in the latest case, the one with the best-docum=
ented links to both the contras and drug trafficking is Meneses. He alleged=
ly had a long history of criminal activity in Nicaragua before the leftist =
Sandinista takeover in 1979, and Blandon says Meneses recruited him to be a=
 drug dealer in 1982. Meneses is now in prison in Nicaragua on charges of t=
rying to smuggle 1,650 pounds of cocaine into the United States in 1991. Ea=
rlier, sometime around 1988, he began a sporadic, three-year relationship p=
roviding information to the DEA, according to knowledgeable sources. =

According to the Mercury News, Meneses went into exile in San Francisco =
while the Sandinistas were in power from 1979 to 1990, conducted a massive =
drug trade in California, and "funneled millions in drug profits" to the co=
ntras so they could buy weapons and equipment for their fight against the S=
andinistas. =

Nicaraguan court records reviewed by The Post show that a former associa=
te who turned informant against Meneses testified that Meneses had boasted =
about sending drug money to the contras, and about using Salvadoran air for=
ce facilities to transship the drugs. =

Adolfo Calero--the contras' chief political leader, who worked closely w=
ith the CIA in combating the Sandinista government--confirmed in an intervi=
ew that Meneses did attend a 1984 fund-raising dinner in San Francisco and =
was photographed with him in a group shot on that occasion, as described by=
 the Mercury News. And Calero said Meneses visited contra camps in the earl=
y 1980s and met with Enrique Bermudez, military leader of the Nicaraguan De=
mocratic Force--the contras' largest organization, known by its Spanish ini=
tial FDN--which the CIA actively supported. =

Calero denied having other dealings with Meneses or knowing of his crimi=
nal activities. =

  "We would arrive and be received by members of the community, and most=
 of the time we did not even know the names," Calero said. "We had no cryst=
al ball to know who they were or what they were doing." =

 He also said that neither Meneses nor Blandon were "leaders of the FDN,=
 any time or any place." =

The way Blandon has told the story of his life, the contras were the rea=
son he got into drug trafficking. =

As the Sandinistas completed their takeover of Nicaragua in the summer o=
f 1979, Blandon had worked on a U.S.-supported project by the Nicaraguan go=
vernment to develop wholesale agricultural markets. He fled to the United S=
tates, as did many Nicaraguans with ties to the collapsing government of st=
rongman Anastasio Somoza, according to his accounts in federal court testim=
ony when he was appearing as an informant. =

Shortly after he established himself in Los Angeles, Blandon said, he jo=
ined other exiles in raising money for the band of former Somoza soldiers a=
nd other Sandinista opponents who had joined to oppose the new leftist regi=
me. =

In 1982 Meneses, a distant relative then living in San Francisco, persua=
ded Blandon to sell a few pounds of cocaine to raise money for the contras =
and gave him a basic education in drug dealing, Blandon said. At one point =
in 1982 or 1983, Blandon said, he was with Meneses when Meneses went to the=
 contra base in Honduras and met with Bermudez.  =

Bermudez offered Blandon and Meneses instructions that Blandon summarize=
d as "the ends justify the means." Blandon said he took that as a kind of o=
rder that he should raise money for the contras, although drug trafficking =
was never mentioned.  =

According to law enforcement officials, Blandon sold $30,000 to $60,000 =
worth of cocaine in two transactions and delivered the money to Meneses for=
 shipment to the contras. A year or so after the visit to Honduras, Blandon=
 said, he broke off that relationship with Meneses so he could go into the =
drug dealing business for himself. He said he did so because the CIA had be=
gun financing the contras and they didn't need his money anymore. =

Once "Reagan got in power," Blandon testified in a San Francisco case in=
 1994, when he was a DEA informant, "the contras got a lot of money from th=
e United States . . . and the people that were in charge, it was the CIA, t=
hey didn't want to raise any money because they . . . had the money they wa=
nted." =

No evidence of specific transactions or of explicit financial links has =
emerged to back up Blandon's and Meneses's claims of sending money to the r=
ebels. =

But if the two did send funds, that would raise new allegations on the e=
xtent and the nature of drug operations associated with the rebels. It woul=
d implicate the contras and their direct supporters in the drug trade in U.=
S. territory, rather than merely as smugglers using remote air strips in Ce=
ntral America. =

Before the start of Ross's trial, prosecutors learned that his lawyer Fe=
nster was going to claim Blandon sold cocaine to raise money for the contra=
s and "did so in conjunction with, or for, the Central Intelligence Agency,=
" according to a motion filed in federal court. Government lawyers said the=
y believed such an allegation was "not true" and was being made to "dissuad=
e" the prosecution. =

Citing the Classified Information Procedures Act, the prosecutors asked =
the court to require Fenster to notify the court in advance if he was going=
 to bring up such an accusation because it would necessarily involve classi=
fied information, even to be disproved. The court agreed, and Fenster did n=
ot mention the CIA in the trial. =

Prosecutor O'Neale said he did not contact the CIA about the matter and =
that no agency personnel talked to him about his motion. =

 Contradictory Accounts  =

The fury provoked by the newspaper series has been fueled in large part =
by the allegation that Blandon, a member of the "CIA's army," helped Ross t=
o expand drug sales among African Americans in South-Central Los Angeles an=
d thus triggered a new drug epidemic among blacks. Last weekend a crowd of =
2,000 people, mostly African Americans, marched in Los Angeles demanding th=
at U.S. officials be held accountable for the damage done by crack. =

  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a leading member of the Congressional B=
lack Caucus, made the case in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno last =
month that reviewed the allegations posed by the Mercury News articles and =
concluded: "Thus, portions of this country may have been exposed, indeed in=
troduced, to the horror of crack cocaine because certain U.S.-government pa=
id or organized operatives smuggled, transported and sold it to American ci=
tizens. . . . As someone who has seen how the crack cocaine trade has devas=
tated the South Central Los Angeles community, I cannot exaggerate my feeli=
ngs of dismay that my own government may have played a part in the origins =
and history of this problem." =

This argument rests on the newspaper's contention that Meneses and Bland=
on "turned Rick Ross into L.A.'s first king of crack, the men who, for at l=
east five years, supplied him with enough Colombian cocaine to help spawn c=
rack markets in major cities nationwide." The story said Blandon achieved t=
his by charging Ross a low price for the cocaine. =

A review of sworn testimony by Blandon and Ross, and interviews with law=
 enforcement officers familiar with Ross's career, cast doubt on the allega=
tion that Blandon was the major cause of Ross's success. =

Testifying as a prosecution witness in Ross's federal court trial last M=
arch, Blandon said that he first met Ross and began selling cocaine to him =
in 1983 or 1984, by which time he had broken off with Meneses and had stopp=
ed sending money to the contras. While he was uncertain about the precise d=
ate, Blandon was consistent in claiming that Ross was already "a big coke d=
ealer" by the time they connected and that Ross immediately began buying se=
veral kilos of cocaine a day from him.  =

The relationship continued until 1986, when Blandon said he decided to l=
eave Los Angeles and give up drug trafficking after police searched his hom=
e. Blandon said that Ross had other sources of supply from the start and wa=
s acquiring large quantities of cocaine from these dealers all along. =

In 1992 Blandon was nabbed selling cocaine in an undercover sting by the=
 DEA. Because he became an informant, a possible life sentence and $4 milli=
on fine were reduced to 28 months in prison and no fine, and he retained th=
e right to remain in the United States. In exchange, Blandon offered inform=
ation that led to the indictment of a corrupt U.S. government official, hel=
ped solve a murder investigation and contributed to the prosecution of vari=
ous drug dealers, according to court records. The deal did not include Blan=
don's help in Ross's case. =

The Mercury News uses testimony from Blandon in establishing that Nicara=
guans selling drugs in California sent profits to the contras. But if the w=
hole of Blandon's testimony is to be believed, then the connection is not m=
ade between contras and African American drug dealers because Blandon said =
he had stopped sending money to the contras by the time he met Ross. =

And if Blandon is to believed, there is no connection between contras an=
d the cause of the crack epidemic because Blandon said Ross was already a w=
ell-established dealer with several ready sources of supply by the time he =
started buying cocaine from Blandon.  =

Ross, who was facing a mandatory life sentence on his third drug felony,=
 gave a very different account of his relationship with Blandon. Ross testi=
fied that he was just a poor street dealer in South-Central Los Angeles whe=
n he met Blandon in 1982. Ross said he idolized the Nicaraguan, who taught =
him how to weigh drugs, sold him his first guns and transformed him into a =
high-stakes trafficker. =

"Well, he was always the top--you know, he was the top man," Ross said o=
f Blandon. That account fit with Ross's contention that Blandon "made" him.=
 =

Ross's account is at odds with Blandon's testimony that in 1982 Blandon =
was a political refugee selling used cars who had just been recruited by Me=
neses to help finance the contras by selling cocaine. At the time that Ross=
 says Blandon was the "top man" handling 100 kilos at a time, Blandon said =
he was struggling to sell his first two kilos over the course of three or f=
our months a few grams at a time. =

The fact that Ross and Blandon are responsible for the sale of large qua=
ntities of cocaine to African Americans is not at issue. In his court testi=
mony, however, Blandon mentions that several of his customers were Mexicans=
 and other Latinos, while Ross appears to be the only African American iden=
tified as a client. Similar information appears in an affidavit by one of B=
landon's fellow Nicaraguan dealers. So, if Blandon had an overall marketing=
 strategy, it was not entirely based on race.  =

According to the Mercury News, Ross was able to jump-start the crack epi=
demic in Los Angeles because Blandon sold him vast amounts of cocaine at ba=
rgain prices and taught him how to market crack by constantly undercutting =
his competition. However, Blandon testified that he gave Ross good prices b=
ecause Ross bought in large quantities and because Ross always bargained do=
wn prices. =

In addition, under cross-examination, Ross contradicted his own assertio=
n that Blandon made him a successful crack dealer. Ross admitted that he fi=
rst started selling crack in 1979--years before he met Blandon--and rapidly=
 expanded his business by emphasizing volume sales and offering prices that=
 undercut his competitors. Confirming the contents of a 1994 interview with=
 the Los Angeles Times, Ross said he felt that God "put me down to be the c=
ocaine man"; that lengthy autobiographical account by Ross makes no mention=
 of Blandon or any other Nicaraguans. =

Moreover, the idea that Blandon and Ross alone could have launched the c=
rack epidemic is contradicted by well-documented evidence about the nature =
of the cocaine trade and the emergence of crack. In Los Angeles, the initia=
l usage of crack appears to have been concentrated in black communities but=
 was distributed through widespread networks, according to Malcolm Klein, d=
irector of the Social Science Research Institute at the University of South=
ern California. =

Klein and his colleagues have made detailed searches of arrest records i=
n an effort to trace the origins of crack in the city. The rapid expansion =
of crack use from 1982 to 1985 in the black communities "does not fit any c=
learly recognizable patterns such as gang territory," Klein said. =

Ross, who was associated with the Crips gang throughout his career, woul=
d not have been able to work in all these areas, Klein said. Instead, he sa=
id, "there were several well-known and highly visible middle men, like Ross=
, and probably several more that are unknown. Crack became so widespread so=
 quickly within South Central alone that there must have been multiple rout=
es into that community." =

The Mercury News articles alleged that Ross was responsible not only for=
 bringing cheap crack to Los Angeles but to major cities nationwide. Ross p=
leaded guilty to federal charges that he set up a group of Crips to sell cr=
ack in Cincinnati in 1987 and that he sold cocaine to relatives in Texas, b=
ut otherwise there is no evidence that Ross conducted large transactions ou=
tside Los Angeles. Moreover, the mere idea that any one person could have p=
layed a decisive role in the nationwide crack epidemic is rejected out of h=
and by academic experts and law enforcement officials. =

"If Freeway Ricky Ross had become a born-again Christian and gone to bui=
ld Habitat for Humanity houses, crack would still have happened," Carnegie =
Mellon's Caulkins said. "We are talking about mid-level operators who were =
not causes of these events but rather participants in something that would =
have occurred without them." =

 Correspondent Douglas Farah in Managua and researcher Nathan Abse co=
ntributed to this report.
     	
© 1996 The Washington Post Company

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