The CIA and Drug Smuggling: The Blackest Page of the War on Drugs

Contra Rebels and Drug Smuggling

The Contras were a mix of various rebel factions who attempted to subvert the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua from around the mid-1980s. The Sandinistas were considered a threat due to their domestic policies, which were presumed to be socialist and aligned with Cuban interests and those of the Soviet Union. However, each option the CIA had to continue its operations to keep the Contras viable involved the risk of law and treaty violations, including Congressional bans such as the Boland Amendment.

It was in this context that drug trafficking is said to have entered the picture. According to some accounts, several factions of the Contras used cocaine smuggling to raise money for the insurgency; these drugs-mostly cocaine-actually trafficked mainly to the United States, where they practically fueled the crack epidemic that razed inner-city communities. Whether the CIA directly participated in these drug operations is debated, but a wide belief holds that the agency knew about such activities but kept off the track, since such an action would have jeopardized their overall objectives in Nicaragua. Still, other critics go as far as to say that the agency might have facilitated the operation by providing logistics or protecting traffickers from prosecution.

Gary Webb and the "Dark Alliance" Investigation

The CIA drug trafficking allegations were driven into the public spotlight in 1996, when investigative journalist Gary Webb published an explosive series of articles called "Dark Alliance" in the San Jose Mercury News. Webb's explosive investigation drew connections between the CIA, the Contras, and the crack cocaine epidemic that swept Los Angeles and other American cities in the 1980s.

One of Webb's articles targeted two Nicaraguan narcotraffickers, Danilo Blandón and Norwin Meneses, who were accused of being the linchpins in the smuggling of cocaine into the U.S. The cocaine sold by Blandón was distributed to Los Angeles dealers, one of whom was "Freeway" Ricky Ross, who would become one of the biggest crack distributors in the country. Webb argued that the ties between Blandón and Meneses with the Contras was tight, and US officials - among them the CIA - ignored their activities because it was generating money to fight the Contra war.

The Dark Alliance series created a firestorm of controversy; the African American communities, in particular, rose in outraged firm belief that it could be the case that the government of the United States fueled the crack epidemic. It also stirred debates related to systemic racism and an unfair War on Drugs on black and Latino neighborhoods.

The Fallout: Media, Government Response, and Webb's Legacy

After Dark Alliance came out, the large media, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, all started investigations. Rather than looking into the charges that Webb made, what these other outlets, in large measure, did was to criticize Webb's reporting methods and questioned the evidence he presented.

With this, it further strained the operations of the San Jose Mercury News to the extent that the newspaper had to want to part ways from Webb's work; this led to him resigning.

Consequently, the U.S. government responded, and within the agency, the CIA began an internal investigation. By 1998, the agency issued a report confirming that some Contras and their supporters had indeed been involved in drug trafficking. At the same time, however, it denied that the CIA had directly been involved or promoted these activities. Despite these admissions, the agency's report did little to quell public outrage or repair the damage done to the CIA's reputation.

To Gary Webb, the fallout from the Dark Alliance series was devastating: his career suffered and he became an object of heated criticism among both his colleagues and the media establishment. In 2004, Webb tragically took his life, but his work has since been reexamined by many who believe him to be a gutsy whistle blower who took a peek at uncomfortable truths surrounding U.S. foreign policy and the narcotics trade.

The Lasting Legacy of CIA Drug Trafficking Allegations

The alleged CIA drug trafficking and its links to the crack cocaine epidemic continue to be highly contentious. Although the government still denies any direct involvement, the deeper questions that Webb and other investigative journalists raised about how U.S. foreign policy contributes to domestic drug problems are still valid today. The War on Drugs itself has come under increasing scrutiny, with critics contending it disproportionately targeted minority communities while failing to address the root causes of addiction and drug trafficking. But perhaps worse still, the perception has gone a long way toward eroding public confidence in law enforcement and intelligence agencies that the U.S. government might somehow be responsible-worse yet, directly responsible-for worsening the very problem it had been trying to combat.

In the years since those revelations, there has been a growing movement toward revisiting the War on Drugs policies in behalf of decriminalization and treating drug addiction with compassion. The memory of Gary Webb and those allegations of CIA complicity in drug trafficking serve as strong reminders of just how intricate and contradictory the U.S. drug policy had been during this section of darker history.

Conclusion

The allegations of CIA drug trafficking from the 1980s are among the most sensational in the War on Drugs. Because records for this era are still classified, it is impossible to know the full extent of the agency's involvement; yet, it was investigative journalism, including the Dark Alliance series by Gary Webb, that brought these allegations to the fore and center of the nation's attentions. These events created a lasting impact that continues to shape U.S. foreign policy, domestic drug problems, and the controversy over the effectiveness and morality of the War on Drugs.