The members of the unit were known to torture Aristide supporters, and threatened to kill the local head of . Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Bernthal Votes: 430,211 | Gross: $46.89M 3. And the CIA and government officials were closing their eyes, fighting a war that was technically illegal.. If they remove Ahmed Wali, the Taliban will fill the void. [28], In 1986, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations began investigating drug trafficking from Central and South America and the Caribbean to the United States. The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking.Books and investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by the historian Alfred McCoy, professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott, journalists Gary Webb and Alexander Cockburn, and writer Larry Collins.These claims have led to investigations by the United States . [13] Later in the same region, while the CIA was sponsoring a "Secret War" in Laos from 1961 to 1975, it was openly accused of trafficking heroin in the Golden Triangle area. Initially, these reports most often focused on trends in drug cultivation, production or trafficking abroad. Meanwhile, Nicaraguan drug importer Danilo Blandon recently confirmed to documentary filmmaker Marc Levin that he was involved in drug trafficking, and that he supported the Contras. The Central Intelligence Agency's involvement in drug trafficking is back in the media spotlight after a spokesman for the violence-plagued Mexican state of Chihuahua became the latest. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind.. The . John E. Newhagen, "Commander Zero blasts CIA, State Department". Gunderson discovered that in the U.S. there is a secret widespread network of groups who kidnap children and infants, and subject them to Satanic ritual abuse and subsequent human sacrifice. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 2003. The Report concluded that "it is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers. [39], In addition, the former Venezuelan anti-narcotics chief General Ramon Guillen Davila and his chief civilian aide were both indicted in connection with the shipments. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the worlds illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for Americas booming heroin market. He enlisted 30,000 Hmong tribesmen in the service of the CIA. One described the series' evidence as "thin";[19] the second, citing interviews with current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, questioned the importance of the drug dealers discussed in the series, both in the crack cocaine trade and in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras' fight against the Sandinista government. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, chaired at the time by Senator John Kerry, held a series of hearings from 1987 to 1988 on drug cartels and drug money laundering in South and Central America and the Caribbean. ", The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. Ironically drug trafficking through Panama increased after the US invasion. The first book to prove CIA and U.S. government complicity in global drug trafficking, The Politics of Heroin includes meticulous documentation of dishonesty and dirty dealings at the highest levels from the Cold War until today. The sanctuary that Cuba provides to drug traffick- ers complicates drug-enforcement efforts in the Caribbean: - Vessels carrying drugs from South America to the United States frequently use Cuban waters to avoid interdiction, with and without official Cuban sanction. The CIA's history began in the 1980s. Hallucinogens are drugs that affect sensation, thinking, self-awareness, and emotion. A two-year investigation produced a 1,166-page report in 1989 analyzing the involvement of Contra groups and supporters in drug trafficking, and the role of United States government officials in these activities. Rep. John Conyers, Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, convened a special seminar on Capitol Hill to focus on the issue. US officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies. The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. We have referenced this case and the secret CIA group The Finders in the past here at Health Impact News, as former FBI Chief Ted Gunderson was actively . CIA supplied trucks and mules, which had carried arms into Afghanistan, were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan Pakistan border. CIA ties to international drug trafficking date to the Korean War. [28], Surprised by The Washington Post article, Mercury News executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. In the suburbs of Long Island, NY, heroin use is an increasing problem. [32], In October 2013, two former federal agents and an ex-CIA contractor told an American television network that CIA operatives were involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA covert agent Enrique Camarena, because he was a threat to the agency's drug operations in Mexico in the 1980s. A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in cocaine trafficking during the 1980s. One of those groups is The Finders, which Gunderson said is operated by the CIA. Bush lost patience with his brutal, drug . The third article, by Mitchell and Fulwood, covered the effects of crack on African Americans and how it affected their reaction to some of the rumors that arose after the Dark Alliance series. PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was for years a useful tool of the United States, until President George H.W. officers". Washington claims that Mexico is the source of the heroin that is flooding U.S. streetswith 10,500 hectares under poppy cultivation in 2012while Afghanistan had224,000 hectaresaccording to theUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) in a 2014 report but the numbers tell a different story. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. [31], The 2014 movie Kill the Messenger depicted actor Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb. [31], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. [59], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of 'millions', contrary to the claims of the "Dark Alliance" series. Spadafora was later found murdered. The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. [55][56], Also revealed was a letter between the Attorney General William French Smith and the CIA that omitted narcotics violations among the list of crimes agency officers were required to report. Once you set up a covert operation to supply arms and money, it's very difficult to separate it from the kind of people who are involved in other forms of trade, and especially drugs. Fearing the creation of a Communist state allied with Cuba and the Soviet Union, the U.S government under Ronald Reagan, began funding and arming groups of rebels opposed to the Sandanistas known as the Counterrevolutionaries, or Contras. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. ", "I know specifically that some of the CIA contract workers, meaning some of the pilots, in fact were bringing drugs into the U.S. and landing some of these drugs in government air bases. The CIA has been accused of moneylaundering the Iran-Contradrug funds via the BCCI, the former U.S. Commissioner of Customs William von Raab said that when customs agents raided the bank in 1988, they found numerous CIA accounts. The plan involved the unsupervised shipment of hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Venezuela. [35], The Post response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. A 1986 investigation by a sub-committee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (the Kerry Committee), found that "the Contra drug links included", among other connections, "[] payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. [36] However, when CIA pilot Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, documents aboard the plane revealed many of the CIA's activities in Latin America, and the CIA's connections with Noriega became a public relations "liability" for the U.S. government, which finally allowed the DEA to indict him for drug trafficking, after decades of allowing his drug operations to proceed unchecked. ", "I know specifically that some of the CIA contract workers, meaning some of the pilots, in fact were bringing drugs into the U.S. and landing some of these drugs in government military air bases. Mid-1980s to early 199Os, HAITI. 2023 We Are Change | Website by Dave Cahill, er Ronald Reagan, began funding and arming groups of rebels opposed to the Sandanistas known as the Counterrevolutionaries, or Contras. The joint Lansky-CIA operations in the international drug racket were a lucrative venture that thrived as a consequence of deep U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia as a cover for drug smuggling activities." Piper's simple one-paragraph explanation may be the most concise overview of the Vietnam War ever written. In the interviews, some covering several days and being conducted in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado and California, several of the Contra backers told AP of firsthand knowledge of cocaine trafficking. ), Wisdom Quarterly; Alfred W. McCoy (voxfux.com) The author of this research is Professor of Southeast and Asian History at the University of Wisconsin -Madison Alfred W. McCoy, who wrote The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. [2] Investigation by the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency Office of Inspector General, and United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence rejected the main charges. [30] Ceppos also asked reporter Pete Carey to write a critique of the series for publication in The Mercury News, and had the controversial website artwork changed. Julio Zavala, also convicted on trafficking charges, said "that he supplied $500,000 to two Costa Rican-based Contra groups and that the majority of it came from cocaine trafficking in the San Francisco Bay area, Miami and New Orleans. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. Allegations of official involvement in drug trafficking. [45] This was reported in 2008 by The New York Times. Calling the Post's overall focus "misplaced", Overholser expressed regret that the paper had not taken the opportunity to re-examine whether the CIA had overlooked Contra involvement in drug smuggling, "a subject The Post and the public had given short shrift. Webbs Dark Alliance series, appeared in the Mercury News in 1996. The death rate could go much higher considering the increasing level of poverty in the U.S. especially in the inner cities where the highest unemployment rates is among the 18-34 year olds. This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals' support. Now the question is why heroin use has dramatically increased since 2002? [23], During a PBS Frontline investigation, DEA field agent Hector Berrellez said, "I believe that elements working for the CIA were involved in bringing drugs into the country. 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