Newspaper Page Text
Monday, October 14
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 7
Central Intelligence Agency: America’s #1 Drug Dealer
News Analysis
By Jlikhia Hawkins
Staff Writer
According to reports
which appeared in The San
Jose Mercury News, after
several years of caching the
truth, the continued
suppression of Blacks by at
least one instrument of the
government is clearly evident.
After investigating the
CIA's alleged involvement in
the distribution of cocaine
from Nicaragua to Black
neighborhoods in Los
Angeles, Gary Webb, a
reporter for The Mercury
News, wrote a series of articles
presenting the facts and details
of the allegations. According
to his findings, with the help
of the CIA the Fuerza
Democratica Nicaraguense
(FDN), Nicaraguan
Democratic Force, led by
Adolfo Calero, indirectly sold
$54 million worth of cocaine
for unusually low prices to
Crips and Bloods in Los
Angeles for the purposes of
financial support of their anti
communist struggle in
Nicaragua.
BEAR
STEARNS
The once exclusive drug
was now more accessible to
urban drug dealers as it
flooded into the ghettoes of
Los Angeles, causing a chain
reaction. Wholesale prices of
the cocaine pipeline between
Columbia, now the largest
producer of cocaine, and the
U.S prices dropped.
Juan Norwin Meneses,
leader of the drug ring and
advisor to the military
commander of the U.S.-trained
Contra guerilla army,
delivered the cocaine to L.A.
gangs through "Freeway"
Rick Ross, a Bay Area crack
cocaine dealer. Much of the
money obtained from these
transactions was channeled to
the Contra forces in Nicaragua
to be used to purchase
weapons.
After the Cuban-backed,
pro-communist Sandinistas
had overthrown the
Nicaraguan army and
removed the dictator,
Anastasio Somoza, in 1979,
Blandon and Meneses fled the
country and conferred with
Somoza's liaison to the U.S.
military. This occurrence
initiated the consolidation
between the CIA and the FDN.
The CIA began their
covert operations against the
Sandinista government after
Ronald Reagan, then U.S.
President, allowed them to do
so. The CIA proceeded to
assist the FDN Contras by
providing military training
and facilitating their attempts
to raise money for their
revolutionary endeavors.
UP to $100 million dollars
was then allocated to the
Contra forces by Congress;
however, the CIA believed that
the FDN needed more money
to contend with the
Communist Nicaraguan
government. To compensate
for the lack of necessary funds,
the CIA and the adversaries of
the Sadinista government
turned to the cocaine market
to gamer the financial means
necessary for effective military
revolt.
Blandon, now an
informant for the Drug
Enforcement Agency receiving
$166,000 for his assistance,
spent only 28 months in prison
for cocaine distribution
charges. As a witness for the
U.S. Department of Justice,
s
Blandon admitted at a trial in
August that he had dealt
cocaine to Ross, who was
convicted of conspiracy to
distribute drugs in 1995 and is
Knight-Ridder
now awaiting sentencing.
"When Mr. Reagan get in
the power, we start receiving
a lot of money," Blandon
testified. "And the people that
were in charge, it was the CIA,
so they didn't want to raise
any [more drug] money
because they have, they had
the money they wanted,"
continued Blandon.
Since Webb's articles were
published, more evidence
linking the CIA to Meneses'
drug ring has surfaced.
Celerino Castillo III, a former
DEA agent, stated at a news
conference that, in 1985 and
1986, he had reported drug
flights out of Ilopango, a U.S.
air base in El Salvador that CIA
officials used for logistical
support of the Contras.
According to Castillo the
planes were flown by U.S.
pilots hired by the FDN. When
he made further reports to the
U.S. Embassy, Castillo told
news reporters, Ambassador
Edwin G. Corr responded by
saying, "My hands are tied
because these are Contra
operations being run by the
White House."
In a Sept. 4 letter to Sen.
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., CIA
Director John Deutch wrote
that "the agency neither
participated nor condoned
drug trafficking by Contra
forces." Deutch said, however,
that the CIA's Inspector
General will be conducting a
further investigation of the
allegations.
Bear Stearns cordially invites all juniors
and seniors to meet representatives from
our Investment Banking Department to
discuss our Two Year Analyst Program.
Date:
Place:
Time:
Wednesday, October 30, 1996
Congress Room, Ritz Carlton Hotel
6:00-8:00 p.m.
Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.
245 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10167
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