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In 1984, U.S. ocials began receiving reports of Contra cocaine tracking. Three ocials told journalists that they considered these reports reliable. Former
Panamanian deputy health minister Dr. Hugo Spadafora,
who had fought with the Contra army, outlined charges
of cocaine tracking to a prominent Panamanian ocial and was later found murdered. The charges linked
the Contra tracking to Sebastin Gonzlez Mendiola,
who was charged with cocaine tracking on November
26, 1984, in Costa Rica.[2]
In 1985, another Contra leader told U.S. authorities
that his group was being paid $50,000 by Colombian
trackers for help with a 100-kilo cocaine shipment
and that the money would go 'for the cause' of ghting the Nicaraguan government. A 1985 National Intelligence Estimate revealed cocaine tracking links to a
top commander working under Contra leader Edn Pastora.[2][3][4] Pastora had complained about such charges
as early as March 1985, claiming that two 'political gures in Washington told him last week that State Department and CIA personnel were spreading the rumor
that he is linked to drug tracking in order to isolate his
movement.[5]
Carlos Cabezas, convicted of conspiracy to trac cocaine, said that the prots from his crimes belonged to
... the Contra revolution. He told the Examiner, I just
wanted to get the Communists out of my country. Julio
Zavala, also convicted on tracking charges, said that
he supplied $500,000 to two Costa Rican-based Contra
groups and that the majority of it came from cocaine trafcking in the San Francisco Bay area, Miami and New
Orleans.[6]
FBI probe
Kerry Committee
INVESTIGATION
5 Gary Webb
Former DEA agent Celerino Castillo alleged that during
the 1980s, Ilopango Airport in El Salvador was used by
Contras for drug smuggling ights with the knowledge
and complicity of the CIA. These allegations were part
of an investigation by the United States Department of
Justice Oce of the Inspector General.[10] Castillo also
testied before the House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence. Between 1996 and 1998 the Central Intelligence Agency investigated and then published a report about its alleged involvement in cocaine sales in the
US. This was prompted by the journalist Gary Webb's
report[11] in the San Jose Mercury News alleging that the
CIA was behind the 1980s crack epidemic. Gary Webb
alleged through his Dark Alliance series that the government had been complicit in the trade of drugs in the inner
city through the use of a kingpin named Freeway Ricky
Ross. According to the Oakland Tribune, In the course
of his rise, prosecutors estimate that Ross exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania
and elsewhere, and made more than $600 million in the
process.[12][13][14]
6 Investigation
After the Gary Webb report in the Mercury News, the
CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz was assigned to
investigate these allegations in 1996. The CIA director
John Deutch pledged that Hitz would present his ndings in three months. But for almost a year and a half,
there was little news. Then on December 18, 1997, stories in the Washington Post and New York Times appeared,
stating that Hitz had found no direct or indirect links
between the CIA and cocaine trackers, despite the reporters never seeing the report. This story of no links between the CIA and cocaine trackers was quickly picked
up by the networks.[15]
Six weeks later, the new CIA director, George Tenet
declared that he was releasing the report. Tenet denied the Gary Webb allegations, which were reported
nationally.[15]
did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut o relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged
to have engaged in drug tracking activity or
take action to resolve the allegations.[17][18]
Hitz also said that under an agreement in 1982 between
Ronald Reagan's Attorney General William French Smith
and the CIA, agency ocers were not required to report
allegations of drug tracking involving non-employees,
dened as paid and non-paid assetspilots who ferried supplies to the contras, as well as contra ocials and
others.[17][18]
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.[18] Only after Congressional funds were restored in 1986 was the agreement modied to require the
CIA to stop paying agents whom it believed were involved
in the drug trade.[15]
9 See also
8
Six weeks after the declassied and heavily censored report was made public, Inspector General Hitz testied
before a House congressional committee.[15] Hitz stated
that:
Volume II ... will be devoted to a detailed
treatment of what was known to CIA regarding dozens of people and a number of companies connected in some fashion to the Contra program or the Contra movement that were
the subject of any sort of drug tracking allegations. Each is closely examined in terms of
their relationship with CIA, the drug tracking 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.
As I said earlier, we have found no evidence in
the course of this lengthy investigation of any
conspiracy by CIA or its employees to bring
drugs into the United States. However, during the Contra era, CIA worked with a variety of people to support the Contra program.
These included CIA assets, pilots who ferried
supplies to the Contras, as well as Contra ocials and others. Let me be frank about what
we are nding. There are instances where CIA
10 References
[1] John Licheld and Tim Cornwell, "'America has fought
the wrong war': Did US policy in central America in the
1980s assist the growth of the Colombian cocaine cartels?" The Independent (26 August 1989) p. 8.
[2] Brian Barger and Robert Parry, Reports Link Nicaraguan
Rebels to Cocaine Tracking, Associated Press (December 20, 1985).
[3] Scott, Peter Dale & Marshall, Jonathan (1998). Cocaine
politics: drugs, armies, and the CIA in Central America.
University of California Press. pp. 89. ISBN 978-0520-21449-1.
[4] Marcy, William L. (2010). The politics of cocaine: how
U.S. policy has created a thriving drug industry in Central
and South America. Chicago Review Press. pp. 108109.
ISBN 978-1-55652-949-8.
[5] John E. Newhagen, Commander Zero blasts CIA, State
Department, United Press International (March 25,
1985).
11 FURTHER READING
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