Newspaper Page Text
#SDARK ALLIANCE
| August the San Jose Mercury News ran the
st article of a 3-part series called Dark Alli
ce. It documented the CIA-Contra involve
nt in dumping tons of cocaine into Los An
‘geles’ inner-city neighborhoods. What follows
, is an excerpt of the first of those articles.
! D e TS RN R S Ty
BY GARY WEBB
Mercury News Staff Writer
SAN JOSE
For the better part of a decade,
a San Francisco Bay Area drug
ring sold tons of cocaine to the
Cwips and Bloods street gangs of
gAngeles and funneled mil-
Al(x)gs in drug profits to a Latin
‘ erican guerrilla army run by
{the U.S. Central Intelligence
l Agency, a Mercury News investi
gation has found.
This drug network opened the
first pipeline between Colombia’s
cocaine cartels and the black
‘Yufigghborhoods of Los Angeles, a
city now known as the “crack”
_capital of the world.
The cocaine that flooded in
helped spark a crack explosion in
urban America ... and provided
the cash and connections needed
for L.A’s gangs to buy automatic
weapons.
. It is one of the most bizarre
dlliances in modern history: the
rnion of a U.S.-backed army at
téfipting to overthrow a revolu
pt%ggary socialist government and
é e Uzi-toting “gangstas” of
Cbinpton and South-Central Los
Rnfi%:eles.
Phe army’s financiers -- who
met with CIA agents both before
%fifl during the time they were
&dlling the drugs in L.A. - deliv
ered cut-rate cocaine to the gangs
ffiiiough a young South-Central
¢tack dealernamed Ricky Donnell
Ross.
:[-‘l'jnaware of his suppliers’ mili
t2ry and political connections,
"fleeway Rick” -- a dope dealer of
tfiYthic proportions in the L.A.
dtiig world -- turned the cocaine
pbwderintocrack and wholesaled
itto gangs across the country.
“ The cash Ross paid for the co
¢dine, court records show, was
fién used to buy weapons and
é’(ii.iipment for a guerrilla army
named the Fuerza Democratica
Nii;'araguense (Nicaraguan Demo
cz_)xi‘%’,t,ic Force) or FDN, the largest
qof Several anti-communist groups
¢ommonly called the Contras.
“"“While the FDN’s war is barely
a'temory today, black America is
é%fi' dealing with its poisonous
sidé effects. Urban neighborhoods
re grappling with legions of
g’&heless crack addicts. Thou
sapdsof'youngblack men are serv
ifig'long prison sentences for sell
ing cocaine -- a drug that was
virtually unobtainable in black
neighborhoods before members of
the ClA’s army started bringingit
into South-Centralin the 1980 s at
bargain-basement prices.
And the L.A. gangs, which used
their enormous cocaine profits to
arm themselves and spread crack
acruss the country, are still thriv
i) turning entire blocksof major
c{fi%s into occasional war zones.
Y Fhere is a saying that the ends
oS
CIA faces Justice
Department probe
Ffom page one
S ——————
H‘Zfifed a march on DEA head
quarters later Monday, demand
ing the release of records about
the drug shipments.
r Monday, Gregory, Lowery
amctivists Joe Madison and
Mgrk Thompson were arrested
by,the Federal Protective Service
forgllegedlyimpeding public traf
fic as they demonstrated outside
the building.
Ip, another development on
Mgpday, Los Angeles Mayor Ri
chapd Riordan released aletter to
President Clinton asking for a fed
eral investigation of issues raised
in the Mercury News report.
¢ Justice Department last
Fri announced it is investi
gating the Mercury Newsreport.
The (ClA’s inspector general and
thg House Intelligence Commit
justify the means,” former FDN
leader and drug dealer Oscar
Danilo Blandon Reyes testified
during a recent cocaine traffick
ing trial in San Diego. “And that’s
what Mr. Bermudez (the CIA
agent who commanded the FDN)
told us in Honduras, OK? So we
started raising money for the Con
tra revolution.”
Recently declassified reports,
federal court testimony, under
cover tapes, court records here
and abroad and hundreds ofhours
of interviews over the past 12
months leave no doubt that
Blandon was no ordinary drug
dealer.
Shortly before Blandon -- who
While the FDN’s war is barely a memory today, black America is
still dealing with its poisonous side effects. Urban neighborhoods
are grappling with legions of homeless crack addicts. Thousands
of young black men are serving long prison sentences for selling
cocaine -- a drug that was virtually unobtainable in black neigh
borhoods before members of the ClA’s army started bringing it
into South-Central in the 1980 s at bargain-basement prices.
had been the drug ring’s South
ern California distributor -- took
the stand in San Diego as a wit
ness for the U.S. Department of
Justice, federal prosecutors ob
tained a court order preventing
defenselawyers from delving into
his ties to the CIA.
Blandon, one of the FDN'’s
founders in California, “will ad
mit that he was a large-scale
dealer in cocaine, and there is no
additional benefit to any defen
dant to inquire as to the Central
Intelligence Agency,” Assistant
U.S. Attorney L.J. O’Neale ar
gued in his motion shortly before
Ross’ trial on cocaine trafficking
charges in March.
The most Blandon would say in
court about who called the shots
when he sold cocaine for the FDN
was that “we received orders from
the— from other people.”
The 5,000-man FDN, records
show, was created in mid-1981
when the CIA combined several
existing groups of anti-commu
nist exiles into a unified force it
hoped would topple the new so
cialist government of Nicaragua.
From 1982 to 1988, the FDN —
run by both American and Nica
raguan CIA agents — waged a
losing war against Nicaragua’s
Sandinista government, the Cu
ban-supported socialists who'd
overthrown U.S.-backed dictator
Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
Blandon, who began working
for the FDN’s drug operation in
late 1981, testified that the drug
ring sold almost a ton of cocaine in
the United States that year -- $54
million worth at prevailing whole
sale prices. It was not clear how
much of the money found its way
back to the ClA’s army, but
tee have also opened inquiries.
The series traced the crack co
caine explosion to two Nicara
guan cocaine dealers, Danilo
Blandon and Norwin Meneses,
who were civilian leaders of the
Frente Democratica Nicara
guense (FDN), an anti-commu
nist commando group formed and
run by the CIA during the 1980 s.
Blandon, whois now an under
cover informant for the Drug
Enforcement Administration,
admitted in federal court recently
that his biggest customer was a
South Central crack dealer
named “Freeway” Rick Ross, who
turned Blandon’s cocaine into
crack and distributed it to the
Crips and Bloods street gangs.
Blandon told the DEA in 1995
that, at the height ofhis business
with Ross, he was providing 100
kilos of cocaine a week tothe L.A.
gangs.
Closer Look
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Blandon testified that “whatever
we wererunninginL.A., the profit
was going to the Contra revolu
tion.”
At the time of that testimony,
Blandon wasa full-time informant
for the Drug Enforcement Admin
istration, a job the U.S. Depart
ment of Justice got him after re
leasing him from prison in 1994.
Though Blandon admitted to
crimes thathave sentothersaway
for life, the Justice Department
turned himloose on unsupervised
probation after only 28 months
behind bars and has paid him
more than $166,000 since, court
records show.
Motion for reduction of Os
car Danilo Blandon’ssentence
“He has been extraordinarily
helpful,” federal prosecutor
O’Neale told Blandon’s judge in a
plea for the trafficker’s release in
1994. Though O’Neale once de
scribed Blandon toagrandjury as
“the biggest Nicaraguan cocaine
dealer in the United States,” the
prosecutor would not discuss him
with the Mercury News.
Aknowndealersince’74 has
stayed out of U.S. jails
Blandon’s boss in the FDN’s
cocaine operation, Juan Norwin
Meneses Cantarero, has never
spent a day in a U.S. prison, even
though the federal government
hasbeen aware ofhis cocaine deal
ings since at least 1974, records
show.
Meneses -- who ran the drug
ring from his homes in the San
Francisco Bay Area -- is listed in
the DEA’s computers as a major
international drug smuggler and
wasimplicated in 45 separate fed
eralinvestigations. Yetheand his
cocaine-dealing relatives lived
quite openly in the Bay Area for
years, buying homes in Pacifica
and Burlingame, along with bars,
restaurants, car lots and factories
in San Francisco, Hayward and
Oakland.
“I even drove my own cars, reg
istered inmy name,” Meneses said
during arecent interviewin Nica
ragua.
Meneses’ organization was “the
target of unsuccessful investiga
tive attempts for many years,”
prosecutor O’Neale acknowledged
in a 1994 affidavit. But records
and interviews revealed that a
number of those probes were sty
mied not by the elusive Meneses,
but by agencies of the U.S. gov
ernment.
Agents from four organizations
—the DEA, U.S. Customs, the
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s De
partment and the California Bu
reau of Narcotic Enforcement —
have complained that investiga
tions were hampered by the CIA
or unnamed “national security”
interests.
1988 investigation stymied
One 1988investigationbyaU.S.
Senate subcommittee ran into a
wall of official secrecy at the Jus
tice Department.
In that case, congressional
records show, Senate investiga
tors were trying to determine why
the U.S. attorney in San Fran
cisco, Joseph Russoniello, had
given $36,000 back to a Nicara
guan cocaine dealer arrested by
the FBI.
The money was returned, court
records show, after two Contra
leaders sent letters to the court
swearingthat thedrugdealerhhad
been given the cash to buy weap
onsforguerrillas. Russoniellosaid
Ricky “Freeway” Rick, former crack
kingpin awaits sentencing for illegal
drug distribution. His attorneys are
alleging that he was an unwitting
dupe of a CIA-backed drug dealer
turned informant.
it was cheaper to give the money
back than to disprove that claim.
“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 subcommit
tee that investigated allegations
of Contra cocaine trafficking. “It
was one of the most frustrating
exercises that I can ever recall.”
It wasn’t until 1989, a few
months after the Contra-
Sandinista war ended and five
years after Meneses moved from
the Peninsula to a ranch in Costa
Rica, that the U.S. government
took action against him — sort of.
Federal prosecutors in San
Francisco charged Meneses with
conspiracy to distribute one kilo
of cocaine in 1984, a year in which
he was working publicly with the
FDN. ‘
Meneses’ work was so public,in
fact, that he posed for a picture in
June 1984 in a kitchen of a San
Francisco home with the FDN’s
political boss, Adolfo Calero, a
longtime CIA operative who be
came the publicface ofthe Contras
in the United States.
According to the indictment,
Meneses was in the midst of his
alleged cocaine conspiracy at the
time the picture was taken.
But the indictment was quickly
locked away in the vaults of the
San Francisco federal courthouse,
whereitremainstoday ... inexpli
cably secret for more than seven
years. Meneses was never ar
rested.
Reporters found a copy of the
secret indictment in Nicaragua,
along with a federal arrest war
rant issued Feb. 8, 1989. Records
show the no-bail warrant was
never entered into the national
law enforcement database called
NCIC, which police use to track
down fugitives. The former fed
eral prosecutor whoindicted him,
Eric Swenson, declined to be in
terviewed.
After Nicaraguan police ar
rested Meneses on cocaine charges
in Managua in 1991, his judge
expressed astonishment that the
infamous smuggler went unmo
lested by American drug agents
during his years in the United
States.
“How do you explain the fact
that Norwin Meneses, implicated
since 1974 in the trafficking of
drugs ... has not been detained in
the United States, a country in
which he has lived, entered and
departed many timessince 1974?”
Judge Martha Quezada asked
during a pretrial hearing. .
“Well, that question needstobe
asked to the authorities of the
United States,” replied Roger
Mayorga, thenchiefof Nicaragua’s
anti-drug agency.
U.S. officials amazed
Meneses remained free
His seeming invulnerability
amazed American authorities as
well.
A Customs agent who investi
gated Meneses in 1980 before
transferring elsewhere said he
was reassigned to San Francisco
seven years later “and I was sit
ting in some meetings and here’s
Meneses’ name again. And I can
remember thinking, “Holy cow, is
this guy still around?’.”
Blandon led an equally charmed
life. For at least five years he
brokered massive amounts of co
caine to the black gangs of Los
Angeles before he was finally ar
rested in 1986. :
AUGUSTA FOCUS September 26, 1996
|etters '
Calls all to repent from sin
Igreetyouinthe name of Jesus
our Lord and Savior. I'm writing
seeking your support in our ef
fort to make a difference in this
community and state. We all are
aware of the problems we’re fac
ing in the black community and
we all are seeking solutions and
answers. We've always had the
answer, Jesus Christ, but we
must repent and turn from our
wicked ways. Then we'll see a
change. Myself and some broth
ers in Christ here at Richmond
County Correctional have formed
Project Hope [for] helping other
people through education. The
function of education is to teach
one to think intensively and to
think critically. But education
which stops with efficiency may
prove the greatest menace to so
ciety. The most dangerous crim
inal may be the man gifted with
reason, but with no morals. We
All eyes on School Board
Unfortunately, all eyes are on
the Richmond County School
Board. Not only for the Novem
ber elections for the five School
Board candidates but also for the
irresponsible statements made
by Mrs. Kingsley Riley. Her last
statement about ifthe school bus
drivers were “aware that they
can use the element of common
sense” if a storm is coming up
and the child has to walk quite a
distance to get to his/her home.
If Mrs. Riley knew anything
about school bus driving, she
would not have made this igno
rant statement. When school bus
drivers are dropping off kids in
the afternoon, 95-98 percent of
the drivers have three schools
and crowded buses in the after
noon to go to pick up students
and deliver them safely home.
If a storm is coming up, or it is
has begun to rain when drivers
are dropping off students, if there
is a bus stop where only one or
two students are getting off, that
driver may be able to drop those
students in the front of their
homes. But if the stop consists of
7-10 students, the driver is not
able to go to each student’s home
and drop them off. Time will not
permit the driver to do this be
THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS ...
R 35
= R
Anti-celebration
-
rule a mood-killer
By Michael Thomas
Special to AUGUSTA FOCUS
Allow me to comment on the
anti-celebration rule presently
being enforced in college foot
ball. First, there was no need to
form a committee tolook into the
area in the name of sportsman
ship. Rules to address unsports
manlike conduct and taunting
have been in the rule books for
ever. In essence, the rules say
spontaneous celebration is okay
and taunting — i.e., pointing in
opposing players’ faces or ver
bally harassing them — is not.
And if the spontaneous celebra
tion goes beyond the allotted time
that is set aside to run the next
play, the official is to call a delay
of game penalty. The rules are
simple. One can argue that,
thoughit’stherule,itisn’t called.
Well, that’s the official’s fault,
not the fault of the rule commit
tees. Therefore, there isn’t any
need to make up new rules. Make
the officials enforce the rules we
already have.
Secondly, I find it inappropri
ate to choose Vince Dooley to
head such a committee — Mr.
Enthusiasm himself. Nothing
against Coach Dooley personal
ly. He seems to be a very fine
man and a heck of a coach. But
after all, what did we expect to
FOCUS your luncheons or dinners in a
fine restaurant. Visit BL’s Restaurant at
1117 Laney-Walker Bivd. or call (706)
828-7799 to arrange your celebrations.
mustrememberthat intelligence
plus character — this is the goal
of true education. God says in
the Bible, Hosea 4:6, My people
are destroyed from lack of knowl
edge. Each and every day ayoung
black male or female [is] de
stroyed because they don’t know
their purpose for living. ... Lord
willing we'll be going tothe Youth
Development Center toshare our
strength and hope [with] the
young men over there. We want
the black community in Rich
mond County toknow that there’s
still hope. Thank you for being a
voice in the black community.
Let us not be weary in our well
doing, for we shall reap if we
faint not. Galatians 6:9.
Thank you and God bless. Hope
to hear from you soon!
Inmate Frederick P. McKinney
Richmond Ccunty Correctional
Institution
cause it will be a total inconve
nience for the principal, the
teachers, and the parents who
are waiting for the students to
get home.
There are 300+ busdrivers and
attendants of which many of
them are God-fearing people who
are members of different com
munity churches here in Rich
mond County and they would all
like to know how Mrs. Riley could
begin her meetings at the School
Board with a prayer asking God
to lead all of us, guide us and
bless us with the ability to do our
job the best way we can and turn
around and stab the drivers and
attendants in the back as though
her heart was made out of ice.
Where is the love in prayer?
The drivers and attendants
think it is time for Mrs. Riley to
retire. If old age has not caught
up with her, the lack of common
sense has. And yes, we are look
ing at Mr. Stein, Mr. Jefferson,
Mr. Meyers, Ms. Foster, and Ms.
Oglesby in the next November
election, wondering ifthey share
the same view as Mrs. Riley.
Thanks be to God, Dr. Larke
does not.
Rev. L.A. Green
Augusta
come out of a committee on
sportsmanship and celebration
headed by Coach Dooley? In oth
er words, it is like asking
Lawrence Welk what’s wrong
with today’s pop and hip-hop
music. What would one expect?
“Tone it down,” of course ... “ A
one, and a two and a three ...”
Although there may be some
thing that needs addressing, Mr.
Welk wouldn’t be the one to ad
dress that situation.
Finally, I watched a game the
otherday on television with some
80,000 fans in the stands. One
team scored a touchdown. When
the television camera panned to
the sideline, the coaches all
jumped up and hugged each oth
er. They panned overtothe cheer
leaders, who were doing somer
saults and backward flips. Then,
they panned the stands and fans
were going bananas, yelling with
hand signs signifying “We're No.
1,” giving each other high fives,
grown men with their faces paint
ed in their team’s colors. All of
this while the announcers
screamed as they called the play
and described the action. Then
they panned to the player that
caused all of this commotion and
all he was allowed to do was
gently drop the ball and jog to
the sidelines. Question: What'’s
wrong with this picture?
9