Because I find footnotes extraordinarily distracting, I have elected not to use them. The information is sourced in the chapter notes in the order of its appearance in the text; each note is preceded by the page number it refers to, and an identifying phrase.
This book is based primarily upon public record sources: declassified U.S. government documents, mostly from the files of Iran-Contra Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh at the National Archives; unclassified records released under the Freedom of Information Act (a mere shadow of what it once was); DEA tapes and DEA and FBI reports released to various defense attorneys under pre-trial discovery; congressional reports and hearing transcripts; transcripts and pleadings in state and federal courts (mainly in California and Florida); corporate records from California, Florida, and Nicaragua; records of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court; and reports of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly and the Costa Rican Organization de Investigation judicial (OIJ), a law enforcement body similar in function to the FBI in the United States.
In the text, when the words “said in an interview” are used, it refers to an interview done by the author and/or his colleague Georg Hodel. Interviews conducted by other journalists, when more than one direct quotation is used, are noted in the text. In other cases, the source of the quotation is listed in the chapter notes.
The use of unidentified sources has been kept to an absolute minimum because I do not trust unsourced information as a general rule. If a source is unidentified, it was at the source’s insistence, and I have attempted to identify the source’s position as specifically as possible. At times, it may seem as if the sources are unnamed (i.e., “aquaintances say”), but normally their names will be disclosed in the chapter notes.
After the first mention, the following abbreviations are used in the chapter notes:
FBIS—Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a remarkable resource provided by our more useful friends at the CIA. FBIS microfiche is available at federal repository libraries across the country.
LACSO reports—Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office exhibits and interviews, most of them tape-recorded, conducted by investigators for Sheriff Sherman Block in the fall of 1996. In the text, when someone is quoted as having “told police,” “told police investigators,” or “told L.A. detectives,” the quotation or information can safely be assumed to have come from the LACSO reports and appendices. Those reports are summaries of interviews and usually not the subject’s verbatim statement. However, I have assumed that the sheriffs accurately reported the spirit of the subject’s statement. When possible the accuracy was checked with the subject.
CIA-IG—Cables, interviews, and summaries contained in the Central Intelligence Agency Inspector General Report of Investigation, Allegations of Connections between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States (96–0143-IG), Vol. 1, The California Story, January 29, 1998, Frederick P Hitz, Inspector General. This is a declassified version of a much longer report released to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, which has never been released to the public. From my reading of the declassified version, it is obvious that considerable information has been censored. In the text, when a source is quoted as having “told the CIA,” “told CIA inspectors,” or “told CIA investigators,” it is almost always a reference to an interview summarized in this report. Again, I can only assume the CIA related the interviews accurately and fairly, since the actual transcripts have not been made public.
CIA-IG2—Volume 2: The Contra Story , L. Britt Snyder, Inspector General, October 8, 1998. This is the second volume of the above report, released by Fred Hitz’s successor. Like the first volume, it was heavily censored before it was made public.
DOJ-IG—The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department’s Investigations and Prosecutions, Michael Bromwich, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C., December 1997. This report, which was censored and withheld from public release for six months on orders of Attorney General Janet Reno (allegedly for Danilo Blandón’s protection), focused on the many fruitless investigations of the Contra traffickers by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Quotes attributed to the Justice Department’s Inspector General are taken from this report.
U.S . v. James —The March 1996 criminal trial of Curtis James, Ricky Ross, and Michael McLaurin, 95 CR 353H, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California. If Danilo Blandón is quoted directly in the text, it is a quotation taken from either the court reporter’s transcript of his sworn testimony as a government witness or the actual tape of his testimony, as I found there were sometimes substantive differences. In many cases, quotations from Ricky Ross came from his sworn testimony in U.S. v . James , though other quotations came from his interviews with the author and/or other journalists. Those other sources are separately noted.
Blandón GJ—The February 1994 testimony of Danilo Blandón before a federal grand jury for the Northern District of California, taken as part of a federal investigation of Norwin Meneses. At the time of this testimony, Blandón was cooperating with the government. In the text, if Blandón is quoted as having “told a grand jury,” or “testified secretly,” it is this testimony to which the text is referring.
CR Pros—The Public Prosecutor’s Investigation on “La Penca” Case , San José, Costa Rica, December 26, 1989. This was a report of an investigation by Jorge Chavarria Guzman, then the prosecuting attorney for San José. Chavarria investigated the attempted assassination of Contra commander Edén Pastora at the La Penca rebel camp on May 30, 1984, but he also examined a host of other cases of Costa Rican-based Contras involved in drug trafficking. Included as exhibits are numerous court records from Costa Rican criminal cases. In the text, if information is attributed to “a Costa Rican prosecutor’s report,” it is a reference to this report.
CR Assy 2—Segundo Informe de la Comision sobre el Narcotrafico, Asamblea Legislativa , August 1989. This is the second report of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly’s Commission on Narcotics Trafficking, which examined the explosion of cocaine trafficking in that country during the mid-1980s. After studying the involvement of Contras and U.S. officials with illegal arms running and drug trafficking, the commission recommended that former ambassador Lewis Tambs, CIA station chief Joe Fernández, Lt. Col. Oliver North, former national security adviser John Poindexter, and former air force general Richard Secord be forever denied entry to Costa Rica, a recommendation that was adopted by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias and largely ignored by the U.S. media.
Kerry Report—Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy (Washington, DC.: Government Printing Office, 1988), 1,166-page report by Sen. John Kerry’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations (Kerry Committee), December 1988.
Prologue: “It was like they didn’t want to know”
piece...about a convicted cocaine trafficker: Gary Webb, “Blunder Jeopardizes Drug Cases,” San lose Mercury News , June 11, 1995.
The Forfeiture Racket: Gary Webb, “The Forfeiture Racket,” San lose Mercury News , August 29, 1993; and Webb, “The Money Tree,” San Jose Mercury News , August 30, 1993.
Jim Doyle, “4 Indicted in Prison Breakout Plot,” San Francisco Chronicle , April 29, 1994.
Seth Rosenfeld, “Federal Jailbreak Plot Charged,” San Francisco Examiner , April 19, 1994.
“it is not the first time”: Howard Mintz, “Prosecutor’s Missteps Place Prison Escape Case in Jeopardy,” San Francisco Daily Recorder , February 1996.
People did more time for burglary: In 1992 the average federal prison sentence for burglary was 52 months. For pornography, it was 41 months; for robbery, 101 months; and 43 months for assault (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1996], 445).
Though his court files say Blandón was sentenced to 28 months, it’s not certain he was in jail all that time. When U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles asked the Bureau of Prisons in 1996 for his prison records from San Diego, the San Diego facility reported it had no record of him ever being confined there.
strongly suggested that Meneses, too, had been dealing: Jonathan Marshall, “Nicaraguans Arrest Ex-Bay Man Linked to Cocaine, Contras,” San Francisco Chronicle , December 16, 1991; and Seth Rosenfeld, “Nicaraguan Exile’s Cocaine-Contra Connections,” San Francisco Examiner , June 23, 1986.
1. “A pretty secret kind of thing”
“let’s talk like friends”: Anastasio Somoza, Nicaragua Betrayed (Boston: Western Islands Publishers, 1980), 333–55; this autobiography also provides a detailed chronology of Somoza’s last days in power. His historical relationship and cooperation with the CIA are explained on 169–75.
Additional conversations between Somoza and Pezzullo in Anthony Lake, Somoza Falling (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1989), 231–36.
vaunted National Guard collapsed: Details of the collapse of the National Guard and the final days of the Somoza regime were drawn from the June-July 1979 Central American reports of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
“Recent developments concerning the state of cocaine”: Tennyson Guyer, quoted in House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, Cocaine, a Major Drug Issue of the Seventies: Hearings before the House of Representatives , 96th Cong., 1st sess.; the hearings took place July 24 and 26 and October 10, 1979.
“rediscovery of cocaine in the Seventies”: Psychiatrist Ronald Siegel, quoted in Dr. Gabriel Nahas, Cocaine: The Great White Plague (Middlebury, Vt.: Paul Eriksson Publisher, 1989), 129.
“My first ten years”: Jerald Smith, interview by author.
And that brought Byck: Dr. Robert Byck, interview by author.
Dr. Raul Jeri had been insisting: Jeri reported his conclusions in “Consumption of Dangerous Drugs by Members of the Armed Forces and the Police in Peru,” Rev. Sanid. Minist. Int . 37 (1976): 104–12; “The Syndrome of Coca Paste,” Rev. Sanid. Minist. Int . 39 (1978): 1–18; and “Further Experience with the Syndromes Produced by Coca Paste Smoking,” in Cocaine 1980: Proceedings of the Interamerican Seminar on Medical and Sociological Aspects of coca and cocaine (Lime, Peru: Pacific Press, 1980).
Dr. Nils Noya...began making similar claims: Noya, “Coca and Cocaine, a Perspective from Bolivia,” in The International Challenge of Drug Abuse, NIDA research monograph no. 19 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1978), 82–90.
some of America’s leading researchers: An excellent summary of early research reports can be found in R. K. Siegel, “Cocaine Smoking,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs , winter 1982, 301–10.
“Immediately after smoking”: “Pure Cocaine Proves Devastating,” Journal , January 1, 1978, 1; cited in Siegel, “Cocaine Smoking,” 304.
“fairly rudimentary proposal”: Dr. David Paly, interview by author. Paly’s study was published as “Cocaine Plasma Levels after Cocaine Paste Smoking,” in Cocaine 1980 , 106–10.
“a growing trend”: Ronald K. Siegel, letter to the editor, New England Journal of Medicine 300, no. 7 (February 15, 1979), 373. Siegel was interviewed by the author.
“increased happiness and contentment with life”: Ronald K. Siegel, “Cocaine: Recreational use and intoxication,” in Cocaine 1977 , NIDA research monograph no. 13 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1977).
“most expensive of all mood changers”: Dr. Sidney Cohen, “Coca Paste and Freebase: New Fashions in Cocaine Use,” Drug Abuse and Alcoholism Newsletter (Vista Hill Foundation) 9, no.3 (April 1980).
“‘I have had to sell even my clothes’”: Gregorio Aramayo and Mario Sánchez, in Cocaine 1980 , 120–26.
“impact of these experiences”: Siegel, “Cocaine Smoking,” 293.
California Conference on Cocaine: Details of the Santa Monica conference in Nahas, Cocaine , 128–37.
2. “We were the first”
the world on a platter: Details of Danilo Blandón’s life in prerevolutionary Nicaragua came from his testimony in U.S. v. James , March 7, 1996. Additional details of Blandón’s family history as well as the family history of his wife, Chepita Murillo, were gained from the author’s interviews of Blandón’s cousin Flor Reyes, his attorney Jose Macario Estrada, his supplier Norwin Meneses, and his wife’s uncle Orlando Murillo. More details were gained from Georg Hodel’s interviews of Moises Hassan, Edén Pastora, Roger Mayorga, Orlando Murillo, Blanca Margarita Meneses, and Norwin Meneses.
Though Somoza’s army had beaten them down: The final days of the struggle with the Sandinistas are described in Anthony Lake, Somoza Falling (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1989), 219; and Robert Kagan, A Twilight Struggle (New York: Free Press, 1996), 84.
“I cannot think of a single thing”: Exchange between Ed Koch and Lucy Benson before the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations and Appropropriations of the House Appropriations Committee, March 24,1977.
“Somoza is known to have instructed”: Sally Shelton’s statements were made before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the House International Relations Committee, February 16, 1978.
Gustavo “El Tigre” Medina: Details of Medina’s background and Sandinista views regarding him were gained during author’s interviews with Gustavo Medina, Juan C. Wong, Leonardo Hernandez ,and Jose Macario Estrada; additional information in Oleg Ignatiev and Genrykh Borovik, The Agony of a Dictatorship (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1980), 80.
“allegations of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”: State Department report submitted to the House Committee on International Relations and the Senate Comittee on Foreign Relations, February 3, 1978.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights...did its own inspection: Organization of American States, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Nicaragua , findings of on-site observation in the Republic of Nicaragua, October 3–12, 1978.
“Hundred of Nicaraguans struggle daily”: Panamanian radio report, in FBIS daily summary for Central America, June 11, 1979, 11.
Blandón’s job was to award grants: Danilo Blandón, testimony in U.S. v. James .
“I want the U.S. people to help me”: Somoza’s radio address, in FBIS daily summary for Central America, June 19, 1979, 16.
Blandón fell in with a Red Cross convoy: Blandón, testimony in U.S. v. James .
brothers named Torres: Ibid.
cousins of Pablo Escobar: The Torres’s relationship with Escobar was obtained from 1996 L.A. County Sheriff’s Office (LACSO) interviews of retired Bell police detective Jerry Guzzetta, author’s interviews with Guzzetta, and Georg Hodel’s interviews with Norwin Meneses.
blossoming Miami cocaine market: Description of early Miami cocaine market taken from Kerry Report, 27, and from Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen, Kings of Cocaine (New York: Harper and Row, 1990): 14–15.
“I was the first”: Details of Blandón’s early involvement with the Contras in L.A. came from his testimony in U.S. v. James , and his interviews with the Central Intelligence Agency Inspector General’s Office, January 1998, CIA-IG, 69–70.
“You Americans have no idea”: Jose Macario Estrada, interview by author.
Blandón applied for political asylum: Danilo Blandón, INS Application for Permanent Residence , December 10, 1986.
one of the earliest founders of the FDN: Details of Blandón’s pro-Contra activities in L.A. obtained from Georg Hodel’s interviews with William Fonseca.
“He fit the profile”: Sam Dillon, Comandos (New York: Henry Holt, 1991), 65. Details of Enrique Bermúdez’s background are on p. 62; sec also Christopher Dickey, With the Contras (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), 62, 80.
Americans thought so highly of him: U.S. recommendation of Bermúdez to Somoza reported in Anastasio Somoza, Nicaragua Betrayed (Boston: Western Islands Publishers, 1980), 383.
invited Bermúdez to the Pentagon: Bermúdez’s recruitment into CIA reported by Dillon, Comandos , 62–63.
telephone number of Colonel Ricardo Lau: Dickey, With the Contras , 88.
“we had to provide some cars”: Danilo Blandón, testimony in U.S. v. James .
3. “The brotherhood of military minds”
“He had to talk to me”: Danilo Blandón’s descriptions of his early involvement with Norwin Meneses are taken from his testimony in U.S. v. James, his testimony before the Grand Jury for the Northern District of California, Grand Jury 93–5, Grand Jury investigation 9301035, February 3, 1994, and his statements in DOJ-IG, Ch.2, b. FBI report on Meneses cited at DOJ-IG, Ch.3, c.
People who know Barrios describe him: Descriptions of Donald Barrios from author’s interviews with Jose Macario Estrada and Ariel Solorzano Jr., and from Georg Hodel’s interview with Moises Hassan.
a partner of Violeta Chamorro: Norwin Meneses’s business partnership with Chamorro was discovered by Georg Hodel in the corporate records of Inversiones Financieras S.A.
“I was in the plane”: Gustavo Medina, interview by author.
a restaurant and an investment company: Barrios and Medina were partners in Los Ranchos de Miami, Inc., and BMS Investments Inc.
a career criminal: Details of Norwin Meneses’s early career as a trafficker were taken from author’s and Georg Hodel’s interviews with Roger Mayorga; Mayorga’s declarations to the Fifth District Criminal Court, Managua, November 21, 1991; November 16, 1981, affidavit of DEA agent Sandra Smith in U.S. v . 60 Plymouth Circle, Daly City, California , 1828-MW, Northern District of California; Eduardo Marenco, “History of a Nicaraguan Godfather,” El Semanario , August 15, 1996; Roberto Fonseca, “Meneses: King of Drugs,” Barricada , November 16, 1991; and Eloisa Ibarra, ‘Arce Refuses to Testify in Cocaine Case,” La Prensa , November 22, 1991.
“one of the most totally corrupt military establishments in the world”: Richard Millett, Guardians of the Dynasty (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1977), 251.
another brother, Brigadier General Fermin Meneses, commanded the Guardia garrison: Organization of American States, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Nicaragua , findings of on-site observation in the Republic of Nicaragua, October 3–12, 1978, 14; FBIS daily summary for Central America, August 16, 1978, 4; and Juan C. Wong, interview by author.
“anti-Sandinista to the death”: Marenco, “History of a Nicaraguan Godfather.”
“Nicaragua is one of the few countries”: Sally Shelton, statement before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the House International Relations Committee, February 16, 1978.
“Gambling, alcoholism, drugs, prostitution”: Pastoral letter, in exhibits to hearing of House Committee on International Relations, February 16, 1978, 108–10.
“...used a Nicaraguan Air Force plane...”: DOJ-IG, Ch.4, 4a.
starting up an armed guerrilla group: Marenco, “History of a Nicaraguan Godfather.”
Norwin appears to have literally gotten away with murder: Ernesto Aburto, “An Old Crime in the History of Norwin,” Barricada, November 26, 1991; “Arrest Order for Norwin Meneses,” La Prensa, June 10, 1977; “Threats to Norwin’s family?” La Prensa , June 17, 1977; and Rafael Corñejo, interview by author.
Jairo Meneses debriefing, DOJ-IG, Ch.3, c; FBI Mexico City request, DOJ-IG, Ch.3, c.
Ambassador Meneses was machine-gunned: FBIS daily summary for Central America, September 18, 1978, September 19, 1978, and October 2, 1978; and Oleg Ignatiev and Genrykh Borovik, The Agony of a Dictatorship (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1980), 68.
“guerillas of Pancasan”: Marenco, “History of a Nicaraguan Godfather.”
Norwin...left Nicaragua in early June 1979: Norwin Meneses, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
Meneses played a key role...: DEA informant quoted in DOJ-IG, Ch.4, pt.2.
posed as a successful businessman: Information about Norwin’s businesses in San Francisco from author’s interviews of Meneses; Seth Rosenfeld, “Nicaraguan Exile’s Cocaine-Contra Connection,” San Francisco Examiner, June 23, 1986; and Guillermo Fernández, “Nica Resident Here Is Supposed Head of Ring,” La Nacion, December 1, 1986. Records of Norwin’s property purchases were found by author in San Mateo County Clerk’s Office.
Court records show: Special Agent Ronald J. Kimball, Costa Rican DEA report, DEA file GFR3–76–4001, December 29, 1976.
One of the men...: CIA-IG2, 62–4.
“an interesting combination”: Sandra Smith, interview by author.
arrested for cocaine sales: Details of Roger Meneses’s and Omar Meneses’s arrests contained in Smith affidavit, U.S. v. 60 Plymouth Circle.
Smith got a break: Information about Baldwin Park investigation, Julio Bermúdez’s arrest, and Jairo Meneses search was contained in Smith affidavit, U.S. v. 60 Plymouth Circle.
Blandón accepted Meneses’s pitch: Blandón, testimony in U.S. v. James. The visit by Bermúdez was contained in his CIA-IG interview.
Adolfo Calero...denied: Farah, “Nicaraguan is Reputed Link.”
“brotherhood of military minds”: Edgar Chamorro, interview by author.
“the ends justify the means”: Details of Blandón’s meeting with Bermúdez came from Blandón’s testimony in U.S. v. James, and his CIA-IG interviews.
“illicit or dirty business”: Senate Intelligence Committee, November 1996.
Langley was informed by cable: CIA-IG2, 66–7.
“escorted to Tegucigalpa airport”: CIA-IG, 71.
“Mr. Meneses explained to me”: Blandón’s training sessions as a cocaine dealer were detailed in both his testimony in U.S. v James and Blandón GJ.
“Blandón was introduced”: Torres brothers’ statements reported by Agents Bruce A. Burroughs and Don A. Allen, FBI-302 report, case file 245B-SF-96287, May 5, 1992.
denies traveling with Blandón: Frank Vigil, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“Chepita called me”: Orlando Murillo, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“Blandón fled Nicaragua”: Chuck Jones’s affidavit, filed in In the Matter of the Search of Premises Commonly Known as Storage Unit L- 7, Security First Self Storage, 3089 Main St. Chula Vista, California, 92–2083-M, Southern District of California, May 18, 1992.
4. “I never sent cash”
The generals there had a deal for them: Roy Gutman, Banana Diplomacy (New York: Touchstone, 1988), 52–54. The assault on the radio station is described by Christopher Dickey, With the Contras (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), 90–92; and Garvin, His Own Gringo, 33—34.
Reagan...authorized the CIA: Dickey, With the Contras, 104.
“We were practically official guests”: A transcript of William Baltodano Herrera’s tape-recorded interview was contained in Dieter Eich and Carlos Rincon, The Contras: Interviews with Anti-Sandinistas (San Francisco: Synthesis Publications, 1984), 17–29.
“It was in Buenos Aires”: Pedro Javier Nuñez Cabezas, cited in Eich and Rincon, The Contras, 45—55.
Jairo confessed to federal prosecutors: DOJ-IG, Ch.3, pt.l, e.
indications that Bermúdez was personally corrupt: Anne Manuel, “Nicaragua: New U.S. Aid Won’t End Contra Investigation,” Inter Press Service, July 1, 1986.
“agree to join efforts”: Details of the creation of FDN taken from Peter Kornbluh, Nicaragua: The Price of Intervention (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Policy Studies, 1987), 26; Garvin, His Own Gringo, 38; and Gutman, Banana Diplomacy, 56.
“single most detested group of Nicaraguans”: Stephen Kinzer, Blood of Brothers (New York: Doubleday, 1991).
partners in a Miami restaurant: Enrique Sánchez was a partner in Los Ranchos De Miami, Inc.
“Calero’s hatchet man”: Oliver North, notebook entry for January 28, 1986.
“Sánchez became one of the Contras’ top...strategists”: Aminda Marques González, “Aristides Sánchez Dies,” Miami Herald, September 8, 1993.
“$29 million isn’t going to buy you much”: Bobby Inman, quoted in Bob Woodward, Veil (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), 192.
“role of American mercenary”: Alfonso Chardy, “CIA-backed Fighters No Longer Boast of Toppling Sandinistas, Agency Says,” Miami Herald, May 23, 1983.
“deny having met with any U.S. government officials”: Edgar Chamorro, Packaging the Contras (New York: Institute for Media Analysis, 1987).
“just for sitting around at a desk”: Hector Frances’s statements were published as an appendix to Chamorro, Packaging the Contras.
“Torres stated”: FBI report, 1992.
5. “God, Fatherland and Freedom”
FBI had joined the chase: Most of the details of the FBI’s investigation of Cabezas and Zavala were contained in the Master Affidavit of FBI agent David E. Alba, filed in support of an application for electronic surveillance. Alba’s August 1982 affidavit is part of the ease file in U.S. v. Zavala.
recently declassified CIA Inspector General’s report: The CIA’s early interest in Zavala was disclosed in CIA-IG, 84.
Sánchez said he flew for the CIA: Troilo Sánchez, interview by author, Georg Hodel, and Nicaraguan reporter Roberto Orosco, who was later fired by La Prensa for investigating the Blandón-Meneses money-laundering operations in Managua.
“We are like family”: Meneses, interview by Guillermo Fernández R., La Nacion (Costa Rica), December 1, 1986. Fernández was forced to flee Costa Rica because of death threats after publishing his extensive 1986 series in Contra-related drug trafficking.
FBI teletype shows that by November 1982: Reprinted in Kerry Report, 400–409.
“Troilo sold 200 pounds”: “Contra Accuses Other Rebels of Corruption, Drug Trafficking,” UPI, April 26, 1986. The story was datelined Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
interview with a British television crew: Dewey Clarridge’s comments about Ivan Gómez were made to a film crew from ITV, London, The Big Story, which aired in December 1996.
The CIA report confirms: CIA-IG2, 207–229. During the CIA polygraph tests, Gómez changed his story about the money laundering several times. The polygraphers concluded Gómez had been involved in illegal drug deals, drug money laundering, and may have been conducting these activities after joining the CIA. They also believed he was not telling them the whole story about the crimes to which he’d confessed.
“well known to ‘The Company’”: Agent Sandalio González, DEA-6, File Opening Report—Debriefing of STF-78–0006 (CI), February 6, 1984, file GFTF-84–4004.
Pereira was arrested in Miami: Details of Pereira’s arrest are contained in a January 10, 1983, application for an extension of a wiretap by FBI special agent David Alba.
FBI started taking the operation apart: Details of the surveillance and arrests at Pier 96 are contained in an application for a search warrant dated February 14, 1983, by FBI special agent David Alba, filed as part of the pleadings in U.S. v . Zavala. Other details came from a story by Maitland Zane, “Cocaine Seized from Frogmen at S.F. Pier,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 18, 1983.
The very same ship...was found in Houston: The Houston raid on the Cuidad de Cucuta was reported by UPI on May 17, 1984. UPI reported three other Gran Colombiana line drug seizures in Los Angeles on May 14, 1986; January 18, 1984; and January 30, 1983; and reported on the Frogman case seizure on January 17, 1983.
At 7 a.m. on February 15: Search warrant return was found in case file of U.S. v. Zavala, currently on file at the National Archives, San Bruno, Calif.
Iverson handed Peckham two letters: Details of Iverson’s meetings with Peckham and the court squabble over the depositions were filed in numerous documents, U.S. v. Zavala. The conversations between Iverson, Peckham, and Mark Zanides were taken from the trial transcripts in U.S. v . Zavala.
Costa Rican CIA station fired off a cable: A summary of the CIA cables was contained in CIA-IG.
The Justice Department Inspector General’s conclusions are contained in DOJ-IG, Ch.8, pt.2, e.
6. “They were doing their patriotic duty”
All of the quotes from Blandón came from either his testimony in U.S. v. James or Blandón GJ.
“I keeping the books from LA.”: The Q&A was from an exchange between Ricky Ross’s defense attorney Alan Fenster and Blandón during U.S. v. James.
“I went one time”: John Lacome, interview by author.
nephews all drove flashy new cars: Gloria Lopez, interview by author.
“Jaime Sr., I respected him”: Rafael Corñejo, interview by author.
murdered in 1990: Jaime Meneses’s murder was reported by Rodrigo Peralta, “Crimen en asalto a financicra,” La Nacion , June 27, 1990; and Tomas Zamora, “Aclaran crimen de empresario,” La Nacion, August 31, 1990.
JDM Artwork: Records on file at the Division of Corporations of the California Secretary of State.
Edén Pastora said he visited the firm: Edén Pastora, interview by Georg Hodel.
Pastora aide Carol Prado claimed: Carol Prado, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
former associate of Blandón: Puerto Rican associate, interview by author. He declined to be named because, he says, he was frightened of Blandón. He provided the author with a copy of the photograph of Blandón in the FDN office in L.A.
CIA cables filed in federal court: The 1984 CIA cable was filed as an exhibit in U.S. v. James and later summarized more thoroughly in CIA-IG.
1986 interview: The interview with Meneses was conducted by Seth Rosenfeld of the San Francisco Examiner.
“appeared like a fund-raiser”: Edgar Chamorro, quoted in Seth Rosenfeld, “Nicaraguan Exile’s Cocaine-Contra Connection,” San Francisco Examiner , June 23, 1986.
Renato Peña interview, DOJ-IG, Ch.4, pt.2, 5b. Meneses interview with CIA, CIA-IG, 76.
“It’s true, it was widely spread around”: Juan C. Wong, interview by author.
“People were being arrested”: Bradley Brunon, interview by author.
Ronald Jay Lister: Lister’s military service records were exhibits to LACSO report, November 1996.
“always very successful”: Lt. Danielle Adams, interview by author.
“You hear lots of things about Ron Lister”: Chief Neil Purcell, interview by author.
“through a Beverly Hills business connection”: Ronald Lister was interviewed four separate times by LACSO investigators: November 6, 1996, by Lt. Michael Bornman and Sgt. Axel Anderson; again on November 6, by Bornman; on November 7, 1996 by Bornman; and on November 23, 1996, by Bornman and Anderson. He was also interviewed in CIA-IG, 55–59. He refused two written interview requests by author.
Blandón described his partnership with Lister in DOJ-IG, Ch.5, pt.lb.
“I think I was actually an officer”: Christopher Moore, interview by author.
“the ‘Reagan Doctrine’ may have been born in El Salvador”: Robert Kagan, A Twilight Struggle (New York: Free Press, 1996), 209.
reason...William Casey gave to Congress: Casey’s briefing described by Roy Gutman, Banana Diplomacy (New York: Touchstone, 1988), p. 85
“Under the guise of anti-Communism”: Oliver L. North, Under Fire (New York: HarperCollins,1991), 224.
Colonel Nicholas Carranza: Carranza’s role with the death squads and the CIA was reported by Bob Woodward, Veil (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), 262.
The interviews with Lister and the FBI informant are summarized in DOJ-IG, Ch. 5, pt.lB.
Lister’s company...made a security proposal: A copy of the Pyramid proposal was provided to the author by a member of the raid team, Robert Juarez.
“We need the know-how”: The Cabazon letters to Tim LaFrance were published by John Connoly, Spy magazine, April 1992, as was the quote from the Wackenhut employee. The Cabazon projects were reported by Jonathan Littman in a series in the San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, September 6, and September 13, 1991.
“spies, arms merchants and others”: Casolaro’s involvement with the Cabazon investigation is detailed in Michael Taylor and Jonathan Littman, “Death of Conspiracy Investigator Probed,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 11, 1994.
his memoirs, Compromised: Terry Reed and John Cummings, Compromised (Kew Gardens, N.Y.: Clandestine Publishing, 1995).
attempt to portray Reed as a crackpot conspiracy theorist: Howard Schneider, “Clandestination Arkansas,” Washington Post, July 21, 1994. For a considerably more intelligent look at the goings-on at Mena, see Alexander Cockburn’s columns from the Nation, March 12, 1992, and March 28, 1992, reprinted in Cockburn, The Golden Age Is in Us (New York: Verso, 1995), 264–68.
Reed’s book contains transcripts of interviews Time magazine reporter Richard Behar did while putting together his appalling hatchet job on Reed. The story, which appeared in Time, April 20, 1992, resulted in a libel suit against Behar, during which his interview tapes were produced. To get a flavor of how diligently and open-mindedly the national news media has checked out allegations of government complicity in narcotics trafficking, Behar’s obsequious interview with Oliver North (642–44), a pardoned criminal, is illuminating.
The only national media outlets to take Mena seriously have been Penthouse and the Wall Street Journal Penthouse, in July 1995, published Sally Denton and Roger Morris’s heavily documented story, “The Crimes of Mena,” after the Washington Post once again lost its nerve and sat on it. (For a mealy-mouthed and self-serving explanation of that act of courage, see “Put on Hold,” Washington Post , February 12, 1995.) The WSJ has printed Micah Morrison’s reporting on its much-maligned editorial page. See, for example, “Mysterious Mena: CIA Discloses, Leach Disposes,” January 29, 1997.
“Seal detailed his cocaine-smuggling activities”: “IRS Says Smuggler Owes $29 Million, Seizes His Property,” Baton Rouge State Times, February 5, 1986. The letter to Meese was reported by Denton and Morris, “Crimes of Mena,” 60.
Hondu Carib Cargo Inc.: Details of Hondu Carib’s involvement with Barry Seal and the Contras were in the Kerry Report, 44–45 and 278–97.
One DC-4 Moss used: The April 28, 1987 cable reporting discovery of CIA phone numbers in a suspected drug plane is summarized in CIA-IG2, 283. North’s notebook entry for August 9, 1985, shows Owen’s warning about the New Orleans—based DC-6.
North was being regularly briefed: North’s notebooks, entries for June and July 1984. Copies are on file at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, Washington. North was briefed by CIA official Duane “Dewey” Clarridge, another Iran-Contra indictee, who was then in charge of the Contra project.
Much of the information about North’s involvement with the Seal DEA/CIA sting can be found in Enforcement of Narcotics, Firearms and Money Laundering Laws, a record of the oversight hearings of the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee, July 28, September 23, 29 and October 5, 1988 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1989).
“the murder...of a DEA agent”: FBI report from the special agent in charge of the Washington FBI field office to the director of the FBI, Nicaraguan Active Measures Program Directed against Lt. Col. Oliver North, June 11, 1986. The report was found in the microfiche of the National Security Archive’s Iran-Contra compendium, Making of a Scandal.
“a contract CIA operative”: Roger Morris, Partners in Power (New York: Henry Holt, 1996), 389–427.
“associates of Seal”: Kerry Report, 121.
“it was a CIA operation”: Larry Patterson, cited in Morris, Partners in Power, 426.
John Bender...swore in a deposition: R. Emmett Tyrell Jr., “The Arkansas Drug Shuttle,” American Spectator, August 1995; this article also contains Brown’s statements about Clinton’s knowledge.
FBI’s description of its investigation: FBI, National Narcotics Report for 1988, 254. It is an exhibit to the official report of the June 6 and August 8, 1988, hearings of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Committee on the Judiciary.
“Whatever the limits”: Morris, Partners in Power, 425.
“darkest backwater”: Susan Schmidt, “CIA Probed in Alleged Arms Shipments,” Washington Post, August 7, 1996.
“joint training operation”: Kathy Kiely, “CIA Admits 2-Week Training ‘Exercise’ at Mena,” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, August 9, 1996.
“coded records”: Morris, Partners in Power, 392.
“DIA wanted them to happen”: Tim LaFrance, interview by L.A. journalist Nick Schou.
“It was kind of touchy”: John Vandewerker, interview by Nick Schou.
“FDN couldn’t collect sufficient funds”: Norwin Meneses, interview by Georg Hodel and the author.
“contacts with the Contras”: Tim Golden, “Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players,” New York Times, October 20, 1996.
“led a sales team”: Victor Merina and William Rempel, “Ex-Associates Doubt Onetime Drug Trafficker’s Claim of CIA Ties,” Los AngelesTimes, October 21, 1996. (In 1990 Merina was given a copy of some of the evidence seized from Lister’s house during a 1986 drug raid and either threw it away, lost it, or gave it to another reporter who lost it. Reporter Jim Newton told the LA County Sheriff’s Office in 1996 that the Times was “administratively embarassed” that the documents given to Merina for safekeeping could no longer be found.)
a federal prosecutor immediately objected: This was Asst. U.S. Attorney L. J. O’Neale, during U.S. v. James.
7. “Something happened to Ivan”
‘onto something new’: Jesse Katz, “Deposed King of Crack,” L.A. Times, December 20, 1994, A20.
“his polyester shirt had melted”: Time, June 23, 1980, 10. Pryor’s explanations for the accident were made to People Weekly, June 29, 1981, 74–78; and Ebony, October 1980, 42.
“When Cocaine Can Kill,” Newsweek, June 23, 1980, 30.
NBA freebase use: “NBA and Cocaine: Nothing to Snort At,” L.A . Times, August 19, 1980.
“pre-Harrison Act yellow journalism”: Ronald Siegel, “Cocaine Smoking,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, October-December 1982, 296.
“relatively high cost and difficulty”: Steven R. Belenko, Crack and Evolution of Anti-Drug Policy (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993), 4.
Rand Institute study: Jonathan P Caulkins, Developing Price Series for Cocaine, Drug Policy Research Series (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Institute, 1994).
“You heard Tootie’s name”: Steven Polak, interview by author.
“ain’t never been big”: Ronald L. Soble, “Drug Dealer Admits: ‘I Sold Them,’” L.A. Times, June 11, 1984.
“amounts of cocaine he allegedly dealt”: William Overend, “Adventures in the Drug Trade,” L.A. Times Magazine, May 7, 1989.
sometime thief, sometime student: Details of Ross’s background and childhood came from interviews with Ross, his mother, Annie Ross, and his brother, David Ross, which were conducted by the author.
“There exists no information to substantiate your membership”: Ross’s lack of gang affiliation was reported in a memo from B. Davis, Pima Unit Manager, FCI, Phoenix to Ricky Ross, May 24, 1993 Subject: Inmate request of staff member.
“culture of a gang member”: Jesse Katz, interview by author.
“He was a very good player”: Pete Brown, interview by author.
“There was no evidence”: Alan Fenster, interview by author.
8. “A million hits is not enough”
“one or two keys”: All quotes from Blandón in this chapter are taken from his testimony in U.S. v . James or Blandón GJ.
“Henry was kind of a knucklehead”: Ross’s quotes in this chapter come either from his interviews with the author, his testimony in U.S. v. James, or his 1996 LACSO interview.
“a saucer, a glass, a paper towel”: Dr. Franklin Sher, testimony from House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, Cocaine, a Major Drug Issue of the Seventies: Hearings before the House of Representatives, 96th Cong., 1st sess.
The Natural Process: The information about the 1981 crack pamphlet was contained in Ronald Siegel, “Cocaine Smoking,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, October–December 1982, 309.
“what made us start smoking”: The interview with Big Shiphead was contained in Yusuf Jah and Sister Shah’Keyah, Uprising (New York: Scribner, 1995), 241.
1985 study: Malcolm Klein and Cheryl Maxson, “Rock Sales in South Los Angeles,” Sociology and Social Research 69, no. 4 (July 1985): 561. Their final report was published as National Institute of Justice, Gang Involvement in Cocaine “Rock” Trafficking, NIJ #85-IJ-LX-0057, April 1988.
“We didn’t know what it was”: Steve Polak, interview by author.
“limited to the Caribbean and Haitian communities”: James Inciardi, “Beyond Cocaine: Basuco, Crack and Other Coca Products,” Contemporary Drug Problems, fall 1987, 475–77.
“most effective trafficking groups”: The information regarding the political roots of the Jamaican crack gangs appeared as U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, Intelligence Division, Crack Cocaine, Drug Intelligence Report, DEA-94016, 1994, 8.
The Jamaican CIA destabilization program was exposed by Ernest Volkman and John Cummings in “Murder As Usual,” Penthouse, December 1977. This program was summarized in William Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), 263–67.
“more-or-less standard sizes”: David Allen and James Jekel, Crack: The Broken Promise (London: MacMillan Press, 1991), 17.
“not just a matter of smoking freebase”: Byck, interview by author.
“first crack millionaire”: Jesse Katz, interview; Katz, “Deposed King of Crack,” L.A. Times, December 20, 1994.
“The thing about Rick”: James Galipeau, interview by author.
visiting one of Ross’s “cookhouses”: Chico Brown, interview by author.
“Wal-Mart of cocaine”: L.A. Times, December 20, 1994.
“rocks hit the streets hard”: Leibo, quoted in Jah and Shah’Keyah, Uprising, 183.
9. “He would have had me by the tail”
none other than CIA director William Casey: Casey’s leaks to Newsweek were reported by Roy Gutman, Banana Diplomacy (New York: Touchstone, 1988), 116.
“perhaps the most hated group of Nicaraguans”: Tom Harkin, cited in Robert Kagan, A Twilight Struggle (New York: Free Press, 1996), 242.
“hit the roof”: Oliver L. North, Under Fire (New York: HarperCollins,1991), 237.
“to keep the nation’s secrets”: Edward P Boland, cited in Kagan, Twilight Struggle, 243.
“an elegant two-story place”: Sam Dillon, Comandos (New York: Henry Holt, 1991), 127.
“The FDN needed people”: Blandón, cited in CIA-IG, 72.
“principal group is controlled by Blandón”: DEA report, Debriefing of SRP-86–0018, August 25–27, 1986, by agent Thomas A. Schrcttner of the Riverside, Calif., office. The report is from DEA file #GFRP-86–4020, titled, Blandón, Danilo. The file has never been released to the public. The single report was released as an exhibit to the LACSO report.
“As of approximately 1984”: The Torres brothers’ statements about Blandón and Meneses are contained in an FBI-302 report by Agents Bruce A. Burroughs and Don A, Allen, May 5, 1992, file 245B-SF- 96287. 1990 DEA report cited in DOJ-IG, ch.2, pt.6 Kl.
“It was going to be a big party”: “Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales,” L.A. Times, October 21, 1996.
“he was with Norwin in ’84”: Rafael Corñejo, interview by author.
“arresting officers also found a small vial”: Andy Furillo, L.A. Herald-Examiner, “Maury Wills Caught Driving Stolen Car,” December 27, 1983.
“Norwin was a target”: Jerry Smith, interview by author.
“the target of unsuccessful investigative attempts”: The federal prosecutor was Asst. U.S. Attorney L. J. O’Neale, of San Diego, in a motion for downward reduction of Blandón’s sentence, 1993.
“totally protected by the U.S. government”: Dennis Ainsworth, interview by author.
“I got a reputation”: Don Sinicco, who died in 1996, was interviewed by the author at his home in Fairfield, Calif., in November 1995. He provided author with numerous documents and photographs.
Calero “had been working for the CIA in Nicaragua”: Edgar Chamorro, Packaging the Contras (New York: Institute for Media Analysis, 1987).
“The cocktail party went very smoothly”: FBI 302, Record of Interview with Dennis Ainsworth, San Francisco, January 22, 1987, file IC 600–1, sub. F-9, released by the National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act.
“He assisted the Cuban Legion”: Jack Terrell, interview by author.
showed the author attendance records: Among other attendees at USACA meetings was Sacramento TV news anchorman Stan Atkinson. Sinicco said Atkinson attended not as a journalist but as a Contra supporter, “but you couldn’t tell he was for the Contras from his news reports.”
“run through an obscure bureau in the Department of State”: The House staff report, which is chilling reading, is entitled State Department and Intelligence Community Involvement in Domestic Activities Related to the Iran-Contra Affair. It was written by Spencer Oliver, Bert Hammond, and Vic Zangla of the Committee of Foreign Affairs staff in October 20, 1992. It documents how the CIA and Oliver North ran “highly questionable, improper and illegal” covert propaganda operations against the American public. Naturally, it was ignored by the national media, who were the dupes of this operation.
“to affect public opinion favorably”: Thomas Dowling’s statements were made during the congressional Iran-Contra committees in the once top-secret Deposition of Father Thomas Dowling, August 4, 1987. Though ostensibly declassified, huge chunks of Dowling’s deposition are still secret. For an excellent article on the bizarre Father Dowling, sec Dan Noyes and Ellen Morris, “The Trouble with Father Tom: The Strange Tale of San Francisco’s Contra Priest,” San Francisco Examiner “Image” Magazine, November 8, 1987.
“I really did retire”: G. James Quesada, interview by author.
“there are indications of links”: The cables can be found in CIA-IG, 79.
Peña was dating Blandón’s sister, Leysla: Leysla Balladares, interview by author.
“made from six to eight trips”: C1A-1G, 78.
Peña was extensively debriefed: Summaries of his debriefings and interviews are contained in DOJ-IG, Ch. 4, pt.2, 5b. Jairo Meneses’ debriefings are in DOJ-IG, Ch.4, pt.2, 5c.
“I don’t know anything”: Calero cited in Guillermo Fernández, “Nica Resident Here Is Supposed Head of Ring,” La Nacion, December 1, 1986.
“If Jairo supposedly was my accountant”: La Nacion, December 1, 1986.
10. “Teach a man a craft and he’s liable to practice it”
Contra forces were at their lowest ebb: Robert Kagan, A Twilight Struggle (New York: Free Press, 1996), 356–57; Glenn Garvin, Everybody Had His Own Gringo (McLean, Va.: Brassey’s, 1992), 163; Sam Dillon, Comandos (New York: Henry Holt, 1991), 140–45; Oliver L. North, Under Fire (New York: HarperCollins,1991), 249–50.
“cutting both our losses and theirs”: Robert McFarlane, cited in Kagan, Twilight Struggle, 347.
“The CIA knows about this guy”: Eric Swenson, interview by author.
the agency had information tying Meneses: 1984 CIA cable, CIA-IG, 48.
1984 had been a terrifie year: In U.S. v . James, Blandón testified that 1984–85 was when his dealings with Ricky Ross were at their height, a time frame Ross also confirmed.
decided to approve his application for political asylum: Blandón testified to his immigration status in U.S. v. James, and it was confirmed by author’s interview with Jose Macario Estrada, who represented Blandón before the INS in Miami.
opened a NADDIS file on Blandón: Danilo’s and Chepita’s NADDIS reports circa August 1986 were released as exhibits to the LACSO report.
“I have some 300 DEA-6 reports”: Brunon’s comments came during Blandón’s detention hearing in U.S. v . Blandón, May 30, 1992.
“I’ve had clients deported”: The immigration lawyer requested his name not be used because he was revealing information gained as a result of an attorney-client relationship.
blanket zero-tolerance policy: The State Department official, Tom Casey, was interviewed by the author.
Condition of Blandón’s immigration files cited in DOJ-IG, Ch.2, pt.7, L2. DEA’s failure to investigate Blandón cited in DOJ-IG, Ch. 2 pt.lB.
bought the house under his name: Blandón described the purchase of the home during his testimony in U.S. v. James, and it was confirmed by Orlando Murillo during an interview with the author.
valued its worth at around $29 million: The DEA had an appraisal done on Guerra’s parking lot in 1992—presumably for forfeiture purposes—while he was under investigation for money laundering.
$2,000 in drug profits had a legitimate pedigree: The example of money laundering through used car lots was taken from the notes of LACSO Sgt. Ed Huffman, made during a January 1987 meeting with the FBI and DEA regarding Blandón’s drug ring. The notes were released as exhibits to the LACSO report.
“Blandón became very close to Ricky Ross”: The Torres brothers’ police interview was conducted by LACSO Sgts. Daniel Cruz and Joseph Hartshorne, November 14, 1996.
“the black people”: A conversation secretly taped by DEA informant John P Arman on July 21, 1990. The tapes were released during discovery in U.S.v . Blandón.
Jacinto Torres quickly got into trouble: Details of Jacinto Torres’s arrest are contained in People v . Robert Joseph Andreas and Jacinto Jose Torres, case A590516, Municipal Court of Burbank.
“You know your client’s guilty”: The probation officer’s complaints were contained in Declaration of Alan R. Freedman, August 6, 1986, part of the case file in People v . Andreas.
“Police say hundreds”: Andy Furillo, “South Central Cocaine Sales Explode into $25 Rocks,” L.A. Times, November 25, 1984. Furillo was interviewed by the author.
“marketing breakthrough”: Jay Matthews, “Drug Abuse Takes New Form; Rock Cocaine is Peddled to Poor in Los Angeles,” Washington Post, December 23, 1984, A15.
“Crack first came to the attention”: Statement of Robert M. Stutman before the Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, U.S. House of Representatives, Crack Situation in New York City, July 18, 1986.
“fewer than fifteen arrests for crack”: Ward, testimony before the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control.
“throughout the Black residential areas”: Malcolm Klein and Cheryl Maxson, “Rock Sales in South Los Angeles,” Sociology and Social Research 69, no. 4 (July 1985): 561.
That South Central L.A. was the nation’s first major crack market is fairly well established. Only after I reported in 1996 that much of the cocaine fueling the crack market there came by way of the Contras did the historical record, which had gone unchallenged for years, suddenly become suspect. For the edification of the reader, I am including here some of the many historical references to crack’s L.A. roots:
“Sometime during the 1980s rock cocaine was formulated for the first time in South Central Los Angeles. Two or three years passed before it appeared under a different name, crack, on the East Coast” (Robert Conot, “L.A. Gangs: Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1987).
“L.A. may be the model for other cities around the country: rockcocaine first appeared there nearly three years ago. Houston has been flooded with it for the past two years; Detroit about 18 months; New York police have discovered the crack crisis within the past six months” (Newsweek, June 16, 1986).
“In Los Angeles, where the drug was introduced around 1981, more than two-thirds of the 2,500 coke arrests made this year have involved crack” (Time, June 2, 1986).
“Rock made its L.A. debut around 1980....By 1982, Los Angeleshospital emergency rooms reported the nation’s greatest increases in cocaine overdoses, a 90 percent rise over the previous year” (U.S. News and World Report , August 19, 1991).
“We find that crack came to New York City from Los Angeles, where it made its first appearance in 1981” (Wilhemina E. Holliday, deputy commissioner, New York Police Department, testimony before House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, July 15, 1986).
“Rock cocaine, or crack as it is termed on the east coast, was first encountered in the Los Angeles area in 1981” (Ted Hunter, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles DEA office, testimony before House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, October 31, 1986).
“It perhaps started here” (L.A. County sheriff Sherman Block, testimony before House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse, October 31, 1986).
“Crack is thought to have first appeared in the early 1980s on the West Coast” (Rick Hampton, “Crack: Spreading across America,” AP, May 25, 1986).
“Crack has been available in southern California now for about five years” (Rep. Mel Levine, California, July 15, 1986, House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control).
“After crack first became available in Los Angeles in 1981, the lure of huge profits from crack sales attracted local African-American street gangs into the crack trade” (DEA, Crack Cocaine Drug Intelligence Report, April 1994).
A handful of researchers, James Inciardi for example, maintain that the crack market in Miami developed simultaneously with that in L.A., but the historical record to support this is much thinner. One of the journalistic advocates of this scenario is Jeff Leen, a self-styled cocaine expert formerly with the Miami Herald. If Leen is correct, however, it means he missed the story by about four years. His first article on crack (which he erroneously referred to as “free-base” throughout) didn’t appear until December 30, 1985, a month after the New York Times announced its presence on the Eastern seaboard. See Jeff Leen, “Freebase Coke Use Sweeping South Florida,” Miami Herald, December 30, 1985; and “A New Purified Form of Cocaine Causes Alarm as Abuse Increases,” New York Times, November 29, 1985.
“law enforcement perceptions of gang involvement”: Jerome II. Skolnick, The Social Structure of Street Drug Dealing (State of California, Office of the Attorney General, 1988); and Skolnick, Gang Organization and Migration (State of California, Office of the Attorney General, 1989).
“In the early 1980s the gangs began selling crack cocaine”: Nontraditional Organized Crime, GAO Report #OSI-89–19, 47–49.
“came up empty-handed”: Nick Kozel’s futile crack hunt in Miami was recounted in Dan Baum’s excellent book on the drug war, Smoke and Mirrors (Boston: Little, Brown, 1996), 213.
“By the time the market exploded in 1984”: Jesse Katz, “Deposed King of Crack,” L.A. Times, December 20, 1994.
“a cartel”: The L.A. detective was Robert Sobel, and the quote comes from his taped administrative interview with LACSO Internal Affairs, June 15, 1988. The transcript was filed as an exhibit to U.S. v. Polak, 94 CR 00283, Central District of California.
“You name it, you could get it”: Leibo, cited in Yusuf Jah and Sister Shah’Keyah, Uprising (New York: Scribner, 1995), 183.
“‘my friends down South’”: Lister, in CIA-IG, 56–57.
“several top Contra leaders were also in attendance”: Blandón, in CIA-IG, 72–73.
Montealgre, a CIA-trained Contra pilot: For Mariano Montealgre’s background, see Martha Honey, Hostile Acts (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1994), 262, 355, 371–72.
“off the rack”: Blandón’s Q&A was with defense attorney Alan Fenster during U.S. v. James.
Mundy Security Group Inc.: Corporate records on file at California Secretary of State’s Office, Sacramento.
business card found in a drug raid: Inventory of search warrant returns, LACSO, October 27, 1986.
“looking down the barrel of a gun”: Chris Moore, interview by author.
“screaming and yelling”: Gary Shapiro, interview by author.
Green was prosecuted and disbarred: “Attorney Quits State Bar,” Orange County Register, March 17, 1987; and “Ex-attorney Given 2-year Sentence,” Orange County Register, September 3, 1992.
“This firm received three DSP-73s”: Memorandum from Customs Coordinator Office of Defense Trade Controls to Sgt. Robert Rifkin, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, Subject: Analysis of Flow Chart, December 2, 1996. The memo was released as an exhibit to the LACSO report.
“better equipment than we have”: Sobel, cited in “L.A. Law: Gangs and Crack,” Newsweek, April 27, 1987, 35.
Sobel’s description of Ross raid from IA interview cited above.
“numerous 9-mm Uzies”: Glenn Levant, quoted in LAPD intradepartmental memo from Levant to Detective Steven Polak, Commendation LASD/LAPD Rock Cocaine Supplier Task Force, January 13, 1988. Filed as exhibit to U.S. v. Polak.
“hammered on who I might know”: Lister’s notes of the FBI encounter were seized during a drug raid on October 27, 1986, and released as exhibit to LACSO report.
“my relationship with Soviet agents”: LACSO interview with Lister, November 23, 1996.
“Lister was attempting to sell classified electronic equipment”: Richard Smith, interview by Sgt. Axel Anderson, LACSO, November 13, 1996.
“They came down to see me”: Neil Purcell, interview by author.
“personnel jacket for Ronald J. Lister”: Memo from Cruz and Hartshorne, LACSO, to Neal B. Tyler, Contact with Maywood Police Department Personnel Department, November 13, 1996.
“actual personnel files related to Ronald Lister”: Memo from Cruz and Hartshorne, LACSO, to Tyler, Contact with Laguna Beach PD.Personnel Department Director, November 12, 1996.
Fluor spokeswoman initially denied: Nick Schou, “Tracks in the Snow,” L.A. Weekly, May 23–29, 1997.
a CIA officer since 1948: Bill Nelson’s background came from the Department of State’s Biographical Register, 1973, and from CIA-BASE, a computer database operated by former CIA officer Ralph McGehee.
‘Operation Feature’: Nelson’s role in Angola was reported by John Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars (New York: Morrow and Co., 1986), 338–47.
civil suit filed by the widow: The lawsuit against Nelson was reported by Jay Perkins of the Associated Press, June 28, 1978.
North...frequently used phony EUCs: “U.S. Government Stipulation on Quid Pro Quos with Other Governments as Part of Contra Operations,” filed April 6, 1989, in U.S.v . North. Reprinted in Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne, The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History (Washington, D.C.: National Security Archives, 1993), 85–97.
“Contras can’t buy weapons”: Alan Fiers, testimony in U.S. vs . Clair George, CR91–521, U.S. District Court of the District of Colombia, July 28, 1992, 1120–21.
11. “They were looking in the other direction”
parried with two journalists: Meneses, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“I’ll be right up front”: James McGivney, interview by author, December 12, 1995.
“Mr. Blandón was considered”: Charles Jones’s grand jury testimony obtained from “Transcript of Proceedings, San Diego, California, March 15, 1995.” Jones appeared before Grand Jury No. 94–4, Southern District of California.
“I went to Costa Rica”: John Lacome, interview by author.
“Norwin receives political protection”: Agent Sandalio González, DEA-6, File Opening Report—Debriefing of STF-78–0006 (CI), February 13, 1984, file GFTF-84–4004.
Jose Marti Figueres: Charles Walston, Nancy Nusser, “$6 million lottery ticket scam alleged in Costa Rica,” Orange County Register, May 11, 1991, A18; “Fraud Charge,” Latin American Weekly Report, March 16, 1995, 120; “Vesco Political Financing Scandal,” Facts on File, July 2, 1977, 506.
“one of the most important traffickers”: The OIJ description of Meneses was contained in a summary of wiretaps compiled during the OIJ’s 1985–86 investigation of Horacio Pereira. Provided to author by investigative journalist Douglas Vaughan.
Victor Harrison and Hector Berrellez were interviewed by the author.
Relations between the CIA and DEA offices in Costa Rica explained in DOJ-IG, Ch.l1, pt.l.
The former Central American station chief is quoted in CIA-IG2, 54.
FBI agent Donald Hale’s cable about Meneses and the CIA is cited at DOJ-IG, Ch.3, pt.3, sec. H.
Meneses’ partnership with a CIA operative is detailed in DOJ-IG, Ch.2, pt.4, sec. G b(l).
“dedicated themselves to international cocaine trafficking”: Costa Rican Legislative Assembly, Special Commission Appointed to Investigate the Acts Reported on Drug Trafficking, July 10, 1989. English translation by Library of Congress.
DEA. investigation of Manuel Noriega: Steve Albert, The Case against the General (New York: Scribner’s, 1993), 5–13.
“The people who were flying in the weapons”: Lotz’s questioning by Jack Blum is attached as an exhibit to the Kerry Committee hearings, on CIS microfiche.
told a friend that he was doing it for the CIA: Manfred T. DeRewal, letter to the author, October 29, 1996.
“Despite obvious and widespread trafficking”: Kerry Report, 122.
“looking in the other direction”: Chavarria, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“no credible evidence”: Jack Lawn, testimony in Kerry Report, 144. Jack Blum confirmed to the author that the DEA officer interviewed by him in Costa Rica was Nieves.
OIJ raided the San José home of...Troilo and Isanaqui Sánchez: Guillermo Fernández, “Trafficker Condemned to 12 Years Paid Bail and Escaped,” La Nacion, November 26, 1986.
“pillows full of cocaine”: Leonardo Zeledon Rodriguez, cited in “Contra Accuses other Rebels of Corruption and Drug Trafficking,” UPI, April 26, 1986. He was interviewed in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, from his bed at the Military Hospital School, where he wound up after being savagely beaten and paralyzed.
“help move drugs to the U.S.”: Meneses and Chamorro, CIA-IG, 49.
Among those captured on the wiretaps: The list of men captured on the Pereira tapes is from the OIJ summary of wiretapped conversations, which contains a description of each caller.
“a personal friend of Manuel Noriega”: Pastora’s description of González was contained in CR Pros.
“drug trafficking activities of Sebastian González”: CIA cable summarized at 48, CIA-IG.
CBS Evening News: The transcript of the CBS broadcast was an exhibit to the Kerry Report, 410.
“precisely in that period”: CR Assy 2, 70.
“there were certainly substantiated cases”: Joseph Fernández, testimony to the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran and U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, May 29, 1987, in executive session as declassified, 84.
Pastora admits all that: Edén Pastora, interview by Georg Hodel.
Pastora’s relationship with the CIA, CIA-IG2, 74–5.
“We attempted to diminish his influence”: Fernández joint testimony, 84.
Octaviano César’s relationship with the CIA, CIA-IG2, 105.
“they told me they were CIA agents”: Morales testified before the Kerry Committee, April 7, 1986, and March 27, 1987.
close associate of...John Hull: Marcos Aguado’s relationship with John Hull is discussed in a January 12, 1989, report from Jorge Calderon Gómez, Chief of Various Crimes Section; Alfredo Chacon, Judge of Crimes of Transit, and Norman Moya Orrieta, Chief, Department of Criminal Investigation, OIJ, to Jorge Chavarria, No. Info. 052DV-8.
Morales later passed a DEA-administered lie detector test: Letter from DEA regarding results of test reprinted in Kerry Report, 382.
planeloads of weapons were flown: Fabio Ernesto Carrasco and Gary Wayne Betzner testified as government witnesses in U.S. v . Jose Rafael Abello Silva, 87 CR 140B, Northern District of Oklahoma, 1990. All quotes from Carrasco and Betzner in the text are from a transcript of their sworn testimony.
“There is no doubt in Fiers’s mind”: FBI Special Agent Michael S. Foster, Record of Interview of Alan D. Fiers, July 27, 1991, file IC 600-1, 10. Partly declassified and released to author by the National Archives.
“it’s my own government”: Hull, interview by author.
“I called our contact at the CIA”: Douglas Farah and Walter Pincus, “CIA, Contras and Drugs: Questions in Links Linger,” Washington Post, October 21, 1996. This story, done in response to my series, reported something that the Post had known for a decade.
Chamorro identified him in an interview: Chamorro, interview by Georg Hodel.
“two individuals who were associated with Pastora”: Fernández joint hearing testimony, 84–85.
an aged C-47 cargo plane: The C-47 is discussed in the Kerry Report, 51.
“repeatedly piloted”: Jonathan Kwitny, “Money, Drugs and the Contras,” Nation, August 29, 1987.
when he quit the war: Marcos Aguado, interview by Georg Hodel.
“a man who always had money”: Pastora testified about Blandón’s background to the Senate Intelligence Committee, November 1996.
“We reported it”: Fiers’testimony was to the Iran-Contra Committees.
Saborio was frequently quoted: “Commander Zero Wages Battle for Cash on the Air,” Miami Herald, February 20, 1985; “Zero Pleads for Army Funds,” Miami Herald, February 16, 1985; “Sandinista Foes Tentatively Agree on Unity, Rebel Says,” Miami Herald, February 6, 1985; and “Pastora Secretly Visits Miami, Washington Seeking Aid from US,” Miami Herald, February 21, 1984.
“Saborio was a close friend of Blandón”: Carol Prado, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“a Contra member named ‘Dr. Sabario’”: Ronald Lister’s contact with Saborio reported in CIA-IG, 57.
posted part of Chepita Blandón’s bond: U.S. v. Chepita Blandón et al, “Short Form Deed of Trust and Assignment of Rents Securing a Personal Surety Bond to the United States of America,” Trustor, Felix Saborio, July 29, 1992.
two Associated Press reporters: The AP story was written by Robert Parry and Brian Barger and moved in the U.S. on December 20, 1985, appearing in several American newspapers in truncated form. It was the first report by an American journalist of Contra involvement in drug trafficking. Interestingly, the AP thought it necessary to add Parry’s and Barger’s journalism awards and experience to the end of the story, apparently to persuade newspaper editors that the report should be taken seriously.
editors sat on the piece for weeks: Robert Parry, interview by author.
“diminish Pastora’s influence”: Fernández testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, April 20, 1987, 269.
“responsive to the CIA”: Lawrence Walsh, Firewall (New York: Norton, 1997), 278.
“The concern about Chamorro”: Owen memo to North, Subject:Southern Front, April 1, 1985. Released as an exhibit, RW07, to Owen’s testimony before the Iran-Contra Committees.
“most of them were true”: Secord’s comments to Leslie Cockburn were reported in the U.S. District Court opinion in Secord v . Cockburn, Civil Action 88–0727, District of Colombia Federal Court, dismissing Secord’s libel suit against Cockburn for suggesting he knew of Contra drug trafficking in her book Out of Control (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989).
“They certainly had to get their act together”: Fernández Senate testimony, 306.
“they wanted them moved out”: Owen’s testimony regarding UDN-FARN comes from his deposition in Avirgan v . Hull, Civil Action 86–1146 and 87–1545, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, February 9, 1988, 607–8.
“the last time I remember Negro Chamorro”: Fernández Senate tesimony, 307.
12. “This guy talks to God”
“reportedly the best known guerrilla fighter”: DEA description of Spadafora was contained in a heavily censored DEA-6, file G3–85–0094, September 12, 1986, released to author under FOIA.
story that first exposed Noriega: Seymour Hersh, “Panama Strongman Said to Trade in Drugs, Arms and Illicit Money,” New York Times, June 12, 1986.
“Dr. Spadafora was a very honest man”: Floyd Carlton testified before the Kerry Committee on February 10, 1988. His quotes are taken from a transcript of that testimony.
had lost $1.8 million in cash: Some of the details of Carlton’s operations in Costa Rica were reported by Martha Honey, Hostile Acts (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1994), 358–63.
ordered González arrested: Details of González’s alleged involvement in Spadafora’s death, his arrest and denials, were contained in interviews conducted with González by investigative reporter Douglas Vaughan during González’s imprisonment in Panama in March 1990.
North and Noriega struck a very important bargain: North’s involvement with Noriega summarized in Kerry Report, 91–97. See also “U.S. Government Stipulation on Quid Pro Quos with Other Government as Part of Contra Operations,” filed April 6, 1989, in U.S. v. North. Reprinted in Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne, The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History (Washington, D.C.: National Security Archives, 1993), 85–97.
“I took the initiative myself”: Norman Bailey testified before the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, March 29,1988.
“he was the top gun”: Alan Fiers, testimony at U.S. v. Clair Elroy George, 91 CR 521, 92 CR 215, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia trial, July 28, 1992.
“The CIA’s strategy determined what North would do”: Lawrence Walsh, Firewall (New York: Norton, 1997), 275. Walsh was not the only one who believed this. In Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA (New York: William Morrow, 1992), Mark Perry wrote, “While many CIA officers who became entangled in the Iran-contra scandal disagree about many of its details, they are convinced that Casey used Oliver North in order to circumvent the agency’s unwillingness to participate in high-risk activities. North became Caseys’ unofficial director for operations and the acknowledged inheritor of his activist dream” (48).
“turned out to be absolute truth”: Fiers, testimony at U.S. v. George, July 31, 1992.
During one late-night conversation: Ibid., July 28, 1992.
“to a GS-15, this guy talks to God”: Fernández, testimony to Senate, 505.
“Air resupply of the Contras was the key”: Fiers, testimony at U.S. v. George, October 28, 1992.
North simply “hijacked” it: North’s plans for controlling NHAO were spelled out in a secret July 29, 1985, memo entitled “Concept for Providing Humanitarian Aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance,” on file at National Security Archives.
Robert W Owen: Owen’s background came from his immunized testimony to the Iran-Contra committees.
“That man has all of the attributes”: Fernández on Owen, joint Committee testimony, 62.
“I might have gone with the CIA”: Owen’s plans regarding the CIA were contained in his testimony in U.S. v. North, 88 CR 80, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, February 24, 1989.
“I did ask him to find out about things”: Fernández, Senate testimony, 319.
“I certainly didn’t see the necessity”: Deposition of Robert W Duemling before the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, August 30, 1987, 68.
“what, in fact, Rob Owen could do”: Deposition of Chris Arcos, Senate Iran-Contra Committee, 41.
“Owen will be expendable”: “Highlights of RIG meeting of October 17, 1985,” memo by Duemling, reprinted in Kornbluh and Byrne, Iran-Contra Scandal, 144–45.
“He probably had the most extensive network”: Fernández on Owen’s contacts, Senate testimony, 447.
Frigorificos de Puntarenas: Kerry Report, 43.
congressional testimony of former Medellín cartel accountant: Ramon Milian Rodriguez testimony, February 11, 1988, Kerry Report, 260–61.
cartel had given the Contras $10 million: Carlos Lehder’s testimony at Noriega’s trial, in Albert, Case against the General, 332–34.
investigation of a 1983 bombing of a Miami bank: Reprinted in Kerry Report, 371–81.
Frigorificos was being used by the Contras: Fabio Ernesto Carrasco testimony from U.S. v. Jose Rafael A hello Silva, case 87 CR 140B, Northern District of Oklahoma, 1990.
“helpful to the cause”: Owen’s testimony regarding Frigorificos contained in his deposition in Avirgan v. Hull, Civil Action 86–1146 and 87–1545, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, February 8, 1988.
Aviles...notarized affidavits: The Aviles notarizations were reprinted in the Kerry Report, 411. Author found additional document in NHAO records on microfiche at National Security Archives.
never-explained transfers: The record of the Frigorificos bank account wire transfers was reprinted in the Kerry Report, 364.
The GAO findings regarding the laundered humanitarian aid money were revealed at a May 1, 1986, hearing of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. When the GAO attempted to find out where the broker accounts had sent the money, the State Department objected on grounds that the information was classified.
manager, Moises Nuñez, was a CIA agent: Brian Barger, “CIA Officer Linked to Surveillance on Two Reporters,” UPI, February 12, 1988.
“small, professionally managed rebel naval force”: Vidal, Projections for a Naval Force in the Atlantic Coast, memo proposing a Contra maritime operation, February 10, 1986, on file at the National Security Archives.
Felipe Vidal’s criminal history and association with the Contras, CIA-IG2, 160–165.
“person who might help with the boats”: Owen, memo to North, Overall Perspective, March 17, 1986, reprinted in Kornbluh and Byrne, The Iran-Contra Scandal, 56. Owen updated North on the progress of the operation again on April 7, 1986, in a memo introduced as exhibit TC-15 to Fernández’s joint testimony.
Interrogation of Moises Nuñez and the CIA’s responses, CIA-IG2, 152–56.
“a shell entity”: Fiers on NHAO, testimony at U.S. v. George, October 28, 1992.
DIACSA was run by a Cuban drug dealer: DEA records regarding DIACSA are reprinted in Kerry Report, 342–61.
“deposits arranged by...Oliver North”: Kerry Report, 47–48.
“Caballero was CIA and still is”: Carol Prado, interview by author and Georg Hodel. 1985 CIA cable cited in CIA-IG2, 261.
Floyd Carlton testified: “Drug Smuggler Admits Flying Arms to Contras,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 2, 1991.
“largest marijuana business cartel”: Testimony regarding Palmer was delivered by U.S. Attorney Roy Hays at a hearing in Detroit on gangs, before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, August 1, 1988, 279.
“Palmer’s people got caught”: Ficrs, FBI interview with Iran-Contra investigators, 10.
“Nice group the Boys chose”: Owen, memo to North, February 10, 1986.
Foley was reportedly overseeing Palmer’s operations: Pat Foley’s alleged involvement with Palmer came from author’s interview with Ronald Lippert, an ex-CIA pilot who flew briefly for Palmer.
“A stop at San Andrés Island”: Francis McNeil, testimony to Kerry Committee, April 4, 1988.
imprisonment...in 1963 for espionage: “Cuban Tribunal Gives Canadian Pilot 30 Years,” Houston Chronicle, November 24, 1963; and David Weber, “JFK Death Spoils Propaganda Circus,” Dallas Morning News, December 2, 1963.
arranged to buy Lippert’s DC-4: Documents regarding the sale of the plane to Insua and Kelley were provided to the author by Lippert.
“powerful gang of drug-smugglers”: La Opinion, January 25, 1987.
“Can’t we close a bank”: Barry Gladden, cited by David Satterfield, “Even Latest Fraud Probe has Contra Tie,” Miami Herald, September 2, 1987.
later exposed as a drug trafficker: José Insua’s criminal background was admitted by him during his cross-examination at U.S. v. Alfredo Duran, 89 CR 802, Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, April 13, 1990.
Fiers quoted in CIA-IG2, pg. 253.
“One of the policy guidelines”: Duemling deposition, 46.
“The transportation channel got established”: Brunon, interview by author.
Meneses’s drug-laden planes were flying out: Enrique Miranda, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“practically unfettered”: Walsh, Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters , August 4, 1993, 1:157.
13. “The Wrong Kinds of Friends”
agent-in-charge, Robert Stia, took him aside: Castillo, Powderburns , 112–13.
Cuban named Socrates Sofi-Perez: Ibid., 126–27.
bounced the Cuban’s story off...Ramiro Guerra: Ibid., 127–28. Guerra is identified in Castillo’s book by a pseudonym, Luis Aparicio.
“The woman selling tortillas”: FBI agent Michael Foster’s interview with assistant regional security officer, name deleted, December 24, 1991, declassified and released to author by National Archives.
“We had a capability”: Alan Fiers, testimony at U.S. v. George, July 31, 1992.
“Felix Rodriguez was put into”: Ibid., October 28, 1992.
“a client who could compromise”: Felix Rodriguez and John Weisman, Shadow Warrior (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 220–21.
Milian tells a very different story: Milian Rodriguez, testimony before the Kerry Committee, February 11, 1988.
“I knew him by his real name: Luis Posada Carriles”: Rodriguez, Shadow Warrior, 239.
Much of the information on Posada and his connections with the Mob, drugs, and the CIA comes from notes and memos by investigators for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which examined Posada’s CIA files as part of the 1970s reinvestigation of the Kennedy assassination. The files were released by the National Archives.
“Posada may have been moonlighting for Rosenthal”: Posada’s Mob ties appear in a June 26, 1967, memo for record regarding a DOJ investigation of Lefty Rosenthal. Other CIA memos reflecting that information were dated June 28, 1967. The memos make it clear Posada was being controlled by the Miami CIA office, JMWAVE, and at the same time was the subject of numerous investigative reports by the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the DEA’s predecessor.
“get out of Venezuela and relocate in El Salvador”: Posada’s version of his arrival in El Salvador was contained in his interview by FBI agents Michael Foster and George Kiszynski for the Iran-Contra investigation, February 3, 1992, released to the author by the National Archives. His association with Col. Levia was contained in that and in a subsequent interview on March 16, 1992.
“seeking access to Ilopango”: Charles Lane, “The Pilot Shark of El Salvador,” New Republic, September 20, 1990.
How Chico Guirola wound up at Ilopango: The section on Chico Guirola was pieced together from several sources: Peter Cary, “Money Smuggling Charges Dropped Against Pilot,” Miami Herald, June 13, 1985; David Sedeno, “Two Given Probation, Fine in Money-Smuggling Scheme,” AP, June 13, 1985; “Boca Man, 2 Others Face Sentencing Today,” Miami Herald, June 12, 1985; “2 Men Plead to Federal Charges of Trying to Smuggle $6 Million,” Miami Herald, May 2, 1985; Frank Greve, “Some Latin Politicians Cashing In on Cocaine Smuggling Profits,” Miami Herald, April 29, 1985; Craig Pyes and Laurie Becklund, “Inside Dope in El Salvador,” New Republic, April 1985; John MacCormack, “US Hasn’t Solved $6 Million Riddle,” Miami Herald, March 11, 1985; “The Six Million Dollar Man,” Time, March 4, 1985, 50; Laurie Becklund, “Illicit Money Figure Linked to D’Aubuisson,” L.A. Times, February 19, 1985; Joanne Omang, “D’Aubuisson Associate Arrested,” Washington Post, February 16, 1985; “Bond Set for Smuggling Scheme Suspect,” Miami Herald, February 12, 1985; and Phil Ward, “Men Nabbed in Money Smuggling Scheme,” Miami Herald, February 8, 1985.
“Norwin was selling drugs”: Enrique Miranda’s testimony contained in Nicaraguan drug trafficking case against Norwin Meneses, filed in 1991. In addition to his court testimony, Miranda was interviewed extensively by Georg Hodel.
“a very articulate individual”: Memorandum from Walter E. Furr, Assistant U.S. Attorney, to Robert W Merkle, United States Attorney, Subject: Debriefing of Allen Raul Rudd with Regard to a Conversation with Pablo Escobar and Others regarding a Photograph, February 18, 1988, released by National Archives.
Miami FBI informant, Wanda Palacios: Portions of the Wanda Palacios story reported in “Informant’s Smuggling Tale Heart of WPLG Libel Trial,” Miami Herald, July 22, 1991.
Justice Department officials reached the same discouraging conclusion: Justice Department memo from Blair Dorminey to Terry Eastland, Subject: Difficulty in Obtaining Information from Official Sources on Cuban, Nicaraguan and Soviet Involvement in Drug Trafficking , May 19, 1986, reprinted in the Kerry Report, 869–71.
a 1988 congressional investigation raised troubling questions: The hearings regarding the Seal sting were held by the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee, July 28, September 23, 29, and October 5, 1988.
“house belonged to a U.S. Embassy employee”: Larry Margasak, “DEA Agent: White House Leaked Cocaine Sting to Implicate Sandinistas,” AP, July 28, 1988.
In March 1985 the CIA reported: Meneses and Vaughn relationship reported by CIA-IG, 48–49.
“no action is being taken”: Letter from Stephen S. Trott, Associate Attorney General, to Guy L. Struve, Associate Independent Counsel, March 29, 1988.
“drug trafficking activity would have been ‘stumbled on’”: CIA-IG, 38.
Walsh said he tried to stay away: Lawrence Walsh, interview by author.
Edwin Corr’s machinations concerning Castillo’s investigation detailed in DOJ-IG, Ch. 10 (b)(2).
Walter “Wally” Grasheim: Background obtained from December13, 1990, interview of Grasheim by FBI Agent Michael Foster, for the Iran-Contra Independent Counsel. Grasheim was also interviewed by author.
“Some of the rooms in the house”: Castillo, interview by FBI Agent Michael Foster on September 20, 1991, for the Iran-Contra Independent Counsel.
Grasheim...says that the weapons were legally his: Grasheim, interview by author.
14. “It’s bigger than I can handle”
Victor Gill: Details of the Gill investigation obtained during author’s interviews with Jerry Guzzetta.
glowing piece in the Los Angeles Times: Jerry Belcher, “One-Man Narcotics Squad Cracks Major Drug Ring,” Los Angeles Times, November 7, 1985.
loose cannon and a publicity hound: Complaints about Guzzetta were contained in interviews done with current and former Bell PD officers by LACSO investigators in 1996.
“He hated dope dealers”: Tom McReynolds, interview by Lt. Michael Bornman, LACSO, November 20, 1996.
“did some very good work together”: Retired U.S. Customs agent Fred Ghio, interview by Sgt. Axel Anderson, LACSO, November 18, 1996.
Guzzetta and the federal agents began debriefing the brothers: During the investigation in which the Torres brothers served as informants, Guzzetta prepared a series of debriefings and progress reports under the code name “Project Sahara.” The LACSO detectives found some of the reports, which were released as exhibits to the LACSO report in late 1996 and cited here. But Guzzetta insists that many additional “Project Sahara” reports have been suppressed or destroyed. Indeed, some of the reports that were released reference other, earlier reports that were never released. In addition, it is obvious that some of the released reports once contained additional pages that are missing. Guzzetta said most of the missing reports dealt with the Contras.
“reliability of the CI has been substantiated”: Ghio’s statements were contained in a U.S. Customs Service “Significant Activity Report” dated August 9, 1986, case LA02PR6LA005. It was released as an exhibit to the LACSO report.
Roberto Orlando Murillo, the uncle of Blandón’s wife: Orlando Murillo’s background came from his Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration dated July 24, 1984, on file with the Florida Comptroller’s Office, file 018432, and from interviews with Murillo by the author and Georg Hodel.
“cream of the crop”: Jay Lichtman’s quote appeared in Victor Merina, “Deputies Portrayed as Criminals,” Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1990.
a hard man to impress: Tom Gordon, interview by author.
one of the biggest cases he’d ever handled: Lt. Dale Gene (Mike) Fosscy, interview by Sgts. David Silversparre and Robert Rifkin, LACSO, October 22, 1996.
“We haven’t encountered any major network”: “New York City Being Swamped by Crack,” Los Angeles Times, August 1, 1986.
Robert Stutman, the head of the DEA office: Robert Stutman and Richard Esposito, Dead on Delivery (New York: Warner Books, 1992), 213.
15. “This thing is a tidal wave”
“fueled with evocative words such as ‘epidemic’”: Donna M. Hartman and Andrew L. Golub, The Social Construction of the Crack Epidemic in the Print Media, monograph, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, March 10, 1997. Other academic studies relied on by the author in describing the media hysteria in the summer of 1986 are Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine, “Crack in Context: Politics and Media in the Making of a Drug Scare,” Contemporary Drug Problems, winter 1989, 535; Steven Belenko, Crack and the Evolution of Anti-Drug Policy (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993); and James Inciardi, “Beyond Cocaine: Basuco, Crack and Other Coca Products,” Contemporary Drug Problems, fall 1987,461.
“a suddenness unprecedented”: Sam Nunn’s comments were made during a July 15, 1986, hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.
“never heard of crack”: Lawton Chiles’s comments were made at the same hearing.
“nine months ago, addiction to crack was virtually unheard of”: Hamilton Fish, at a Joint Hearing on the Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control and the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, July 15, 1986.
“We have not had enough time elapse”: Charles Schuster testified at the Senate crack hearings, cited above.
“crack has emerged”: David Westrate testified at the House crack hearings.
“We have no current data, is that correct?”: The dialogue between Benjamin Gilman and the experts took place at the House crack hearings.
“it was going to be the use of free-base cocaine”: Robert Byck testified at the Senate crack hearings.
“that 50 is the number that got doubled”: Robert Byck, interview by author.
“real vacuum of knowledge”: Belenko, Crack and the Evolution , 8.
“a hoax”: Chicago reseacher quote in Inciardi, “Beyond Cocaine,” 484.
“phenomenon isolated to the inner cities”: Ibid.
“least-used drug”: Belenko, Crack and the Evolution, 13.
In Miami...few cocaine customers wanted crack: “94 Arrested in Drug Sting,” Miami Herald, April 4, 1986.
“growing public outcry”: New York Times, June 27, 1986. The Times’s stories on Reagan and crack appeared July 9, July 11, July 12, July 29, July 31, August 5, and August 7. The “frenzy” comment appeared August 10.
Robert Stutman, chief of: Robert Stutman and Richard Esposito, Dead on Delivery (New York: Warner Books, 1992), 217–19.
“just in time for a crucial election”: Reinarman and Levine, “Crack in Context,” 563.
“those who stand to gain the most”: Golub and Hartman, Social Construction of Crack.
“quietly disbanding”: “Police Quietly Disbanding South LA Anti-Drug Unit,” L.A. Times, October 11, 1986.
“They didn’t treat it like a major issue”: Jack Lawn, cited in U.S. News and World Report, August 19, 1991.
“obvious intent of Senator Kerry”: Memo from Ken Bergquist to Trott, Subject: Upcoming “Contra” Hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, May 13, 1986, reprinted in Kerry Report, 531. Bergquist was also in contact with San Francisco U.S. attorney Joe Russoniello, who’d collaborated with the CIA to keep the details of the Frogman case from becoming public. Bergquist’s contacts with Russoniello were reported in an interview of Justice Department official Mark M. Richard, December 31, 1988, by FBI agent Michael Foster of the Walsh investigative team.
head off attempts to obtain certain records: The attempts to discredit Kerry’s witnesses and investigators and to stonewall the investigation reported in Kerry Report, 147–67; and in Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 125–64.
broke the story of the Frogman case: Seth Rosenfeld, “Big Bay Area Cocaine Ring Tied to Contras,” San Francisco Examiner, March 16, 1986.
“one of the most blatant attempts at contrived news-making”: Russoniello’s letter reprinted in Kerry Report, 396.
White Paper subsequently circulated to Congress: State Department document, July 26, 1986, Allegations of Drug Trafficking and the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance, reprinted in Kerry Report, 266.
interview with former Contra official Leonardo Zeledon Rodriguez: United Press International, April 26, 1986, in a 320-word story date-lined Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Few, if any, U.S. newspapers carried the UPI report.
“We had a terrible, terrible time getting information”: Jack Blum, interview by author.
“Justice never provided”: Page from North’s diary on file at National Security Archives, Washington, D.C.
16. “It’s a burn”
Jaime Ramos: Details of the Ramos investigation were contained in Guzzetta’s “Project Sahara” reports and in People v . Ramos et al., A789038, L.A. Superior Court.
asked the Torres brothers to show him around South Central: Guzzetta’s trip to South Central with the Torreses was detailed in “Project Sahara” report, September 11, 1986.
Edner confirmed that “Freeway Rick” had a name: John Edner’s investigation of Ross was contained in an affidavit for a search warrant filed by Sgt. Robert Tolmairc, March 1987.
“Mauldin showed up”: The Stubblefield search was discussed by Sgt. Robert Sobel during his June 15, 1988, interrogation by LACSO Internal Affairs Sgt. James Mulay.
both specifically denied: Newell’s and Ross’s denials of a connection to Ramos were contained in “Interview of Ollie Newell” by Sgt. Paul Mondry and Sgt. Susan St. Marie, August 14, 1990, and “Interview of Witness Ricky Donnell Ross,” by Sgt. Mondry, November 15, 1990, conducted in connection with an Internal Affairs investigation into the Ramos case, file 490–00057–3010–444. Released as exhibits to LACSO report.
The NADDIS reports were released as exhibits to the LACSO report, 1996.
“It’s a burn”: The phone message from González was released as an exhibit to the LACSO report.
“loosely associated Nicaraguans...”: Thomas Schrettner, DEA report, August 1986.
“The allegations were”: Sgt. David Silversparre and Sgt. Robert Rifkin, Interview of Retired Lieutenant Dale (Mike) Fossey #029600, October 22, 1996, released as exhibit to LACSO report.
“FBI might ‘burn’ them”: Sgts. Rifkin and Silversparre, Interview of Retired Captain Robert Wilber, October 18, 1996, released as exhibit to LACSO report.
17. “We’re going to blow your fucking head off”
Joseph Kelso, an undercover informant: The Kelso ease was discussed in Additional Views of Honorable Peter W. Rodino Jr., Honorable Dante B. Fascell, Vice Chairman, Honorable Jack Brooks and Honorable Louis Stokes: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1987), 643.
German-born arms dealer...named Heinrich Rupp: For a fuller discussion of Rupp’s mysterious activities in Colorado, see Stephen Pizzo, Mary Fricker, and Paul Muolo, Inside Job: The Looting of America’s Savings and Loans (New York: HarperPerennial, 1991), 182–86.
arrested by the U.S. Customs Service: Mark Thomas, “2 Plead Guilty in Try to Sell Missiles to Iraq,” Rocky Mountain News, March 23, 1983; Sue Lindsay, “2Fined, Put on Probation for Plan to Sell Arms to Iraq,” Rocky Mountain News, May 4, 1983.
some DEA records concerning Kelso: The existence of DEA records regarding Kelso is evidenced in the footnotes to the Rodino minority report and from an interview the author conducted with former Iran-Contra attorney Pam Naughton, who viewed the records.
“both Nieves and Sandy González were connected with the CIA”: Gloria Navas, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“Sometimes the lines really got blurred”: Pam Naughton, interview by author.
The notion of CIA agents using DEA offices as cover is well grounded in recent history. See Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States, June 1975, 233–34; Paul Heagen, “CIA ‘Using Drug Agency Cover,”’Long Beach Press Telegram, March 16, 1975, A3; “53 Ex-CIA Employes Now in Drug Bureau,” Orange County Register, January 26, 1975, A6; and “Weicker Reports Exhibit of Tools for Assassinations,” L.A. Times, January 24, 1975.
Kelso stole Agent Nieves’s briefcase: Customs agent Gary Hilberry reported this allegation during an interview with the author.
“Mr. LaDodge had received”: All quotes from William Rosenblatt are contained in his once Top Secret deposition to the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, September 25, 1987.
“Nieves did not disguise his anger”: Guillermo Fernández, “Informants provoke conflict between U.S. agencies,” La Nacion, December 3, 1986, 8A.
Owen, in a deposition, admitted being in Costa Rica: Rob Owen was questioned extensively about the Kelso incident during his deposition in Avirgan v. Hull, February 8, 1988. Owen was also questioned about the Kelso case during his deposition to Senate Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, May 4, 1987.
“maps of coke lab locations”: John Hull’s report on Kelso visit released as an exhibit to the final Iran-Contra congressional report. Hull was interviewed by the author.
North knew all about the Kelso affair: North’s knowledge of the Kelso affair is documented in his notebook entries for August 26, August 27, and August 28, 1986, in which Kelso’s name appears, along with Gary Hilberry’s name and phone number.
“They were thrown out”: Owen’s testimony about disposing of the Kelso tapes was contained in his deposition in Avirgan v. Hull.
charged with violating his probation: Kelso’s arrest upon his return to the U.S., his court appearances, and subsequent events are chronicled in Sue Lindsay, “Man Claiming CIA Link Sentenced,” Rocky Mountain News, February 24, 1987; and Lindsay, “Man Citing Betrayal by CIA Tells Story,” Rocky Mountain News, March 1, 1987.
attempt to help an Italian financier buy MGM studios: Alan Citron and Michael Cieply, “Financing Details Add Bizarre Twist to MGM Saga,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1991.
went to work for...Guardian Technologies: Nieves was contacted at the offices of Guardian Technologies by the author but he declined to answer questions.
18. “We bust our ass and the government’s involved”
Sergeant Tom Gordon...applied for a warrant: Copy of search warrant and affidavit provided to author by source.
“‘clean pockets’”: Alan Fiers’s testimony delivered during U.S. v. George, July 28, 1992.
“a 30-day investigation will culminate”: Background and Operational Plan, undated, released as exhibit to LACSO report.
“pretty bitchin’...doing it anyway”: William Wolfbrandt, interview by Sgts. Rifkin and Silversparre, October 28, 1996, exhibit to LACSO report.
“there may be a CIA link”: Mike Fossey, LACSO interview.
“U.S. government backed the operation”: Virgil Bartlett, interview by Sgt. Hartshorne and Sgt. Daniel S. Cruz, October 16, 1996, exhibit to LACSO report.
“strange that federal agents”: Jerry Guzzetta was interviewed on three separate occasions—October 6, November 5, and November 23, 1996—by LACSO investigators.
“never seen the likes of it”: Blandón’s neighbor, who refused to give her name, was interviewed by the author.
“at least one 1-ton delivery”: Blandón’s comments regarding Aparicio Moreno in CIA-IG, 69.
murder of an American innkeeper: “Panel Says CIA agents in Guatemala Linked to Rights Abuses,” AP, June 28, 1996; and “Washington: Guatemala Hid Evidence of Abuse of U.S. Citizens,”AP, May 7, 1996.
Castillo believes Devine was killed by Guatemalan soldiers: Frank Smyth, “My Enemy’s Friends,” New Republic, June 5, 1995.
Castillo reported Moreno’s activities in Guatemala: DEA-6, file TG-88–009, May 2, 1988. The DEA released a heavily censored copy of that report to the author. Castillo disclosed its contents to the author in an interview.
Juarez and his crew raced over: Juarez’s raid report released as exhibit to LACSO report. Juarez was also interviewed about the raid by Sgts. Michael Bornman and Daniel Cruz, October 18, 1996, summary released with LACSO report.
“I got power!”: Sgt. Art Fransen, interview by Sgts. Rifkin and Silversparre, October 31, 1996, exhibit to LACSO report.
“There’s a bigger picture here”: Richard Love, interview by Sgts. Rifkin and Silversparre on October 17, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
Master Narcotics Evidence Control ledger: Released as exhibit to LACSO report.
case chronology prepared in late 1986: Released as exhibit to LACSO report.
“Blandón simply smiled”: Lister’s comments to the CIA about the raid are found at 57, CIA-IG.
“a clumsy investigation”: L. J. O’Neale, interview by Sgts. Rifkin and Silversparre, November 7, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
“Department of Defense codes”: John Hurtado, interview by Sgts. Cruz and Hartshorne, October 25, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
“transporting weapons”: Dan Garner, interview by Sgts. Cruz and Hartshorne, October 10, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
“Manuel Gόmez was found murdered”: Sgts. Cruz and Anderson, Additional Information Regarding Manuel Antonio Gomes , November 6, 1996, LACSO exhibit; Gómez’s Certificate of Death, L.A. County Coroner, February 16, 1993; Sgt. Hartshorne, Interview with Cynthia Juarez, October 16, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
For additional information on Salvadoran death squad activities in L.A., see Dennis Bernstein and Connie Blitt, “Death Squad-Style Violence Haunts Salvadoran Organizers in the U.S.,” In These Times, July 22-August 4, 1987.
“vile, vicious son of a bitch”: Bradley Brunon, interview by author.
“CIA kinda winks at that activity”: Brunon’s CIA conversation with Huffman was memorialized in a handwritten chronology of events Huffman prepared in November 1986, released as a LACSO exhibit. Huffman confirmed the conversation in an interview with Sgts. Anderson and Bornman, October 29, 1996, LACSO exhibit; and FBI teletype from SAC, Los Angeles, to Director FBI, Subject: Front Door, Major Case 90, December 12, 1986, declassified and released to author by National Archives. After admitting it to the author, Brunon denied the conversation took place when questioned by LACSO.
“We bust our ass”: Sgts. Rifkin and Silversparre, Interview of Retired Captain Robert Wilber, October 18, 1996, released as exhibit to LACSO report.
“Three Persons Claiming CIA Affiliation”: CIA cable filed in U.S. v. James.
“If he was a major trafficker”: Brian Leighton, interview by author.
John M. Garrisi had been charged: Details about Garrisi were found in In the Matter of John Mark Garrisi, A Member of the State Bar, 87-E-03-LA, Decision of State Bar Court, Los Angeles, April 13, 1987; “L.A. Lawyer Gets Year in Prison for Visa Fraud,” UPI, September26, 1987; “Lawyer Sentenced for Iranian Immigration Scheme,” AP, September 25, 1987.
Garrisi had “a pipeline”: Roy Koletsky, interview by author.
director of the FBI sent a long teletype: teletype to CIA and DIA dated December 11, 1986, filed in U.S. v. James, by the CIA.
“Scott Weekly is an arms dealer”: Fluffman’s notes, “Mtg @ D.D.A. Susan Deason’s office, 1100 hrs, 1–14–87,” were released as exhibits to LACSO report.
19. “He reports to people reporting to Bush”
Scott Weekly: Details of Weekly’s background and 1983 POW hunt compiled from following sources: “Thais Vow to Arrest Green Beret POW hunter,” UPI, February 21, 1983; “Gritz Says Fle’s on Another Mission to Rescue POWs in Laos,” AP, February 21, 1983; untitled story, UPI, a.m. cycle, March 2, 1983; untitled story, UPI, p.m. cycle, March 2, 1983; John Hail, “We Came Because We Believe,” UPI, March 4, 1983; John Laird, “Americans Plead Guilty in Thai Court,” AP, March 11, 1983; “Gritz Receives Suspended Sentence,” Facts on File, April 8, 1983, 242; “Gritz Leaves Thailand,” AP, June 9, 1983.
“Scott’s kind of a tough little guy”: Lynn Ball, interview by author.
“combination between John Wayne and Rambo”: David Booth, speaking at Weekly’s sentencing on April 29, 1987, in U.S. v. Weekly, 86 CR 281A, U.S. District Court, Western District of Oklahoma.
“large number of demerits”: Weekly’s statements about the Naval Academy, Weekly’s sentencing.
“tens of thousands of dollars’ worth”: Steven Emerson, Secret Warriors (New York: G. P Putnam’s Sons, 1988), 79.
“Grand Eagle” was officially shelved: James Gritz, testimony at hearing before the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, March 22, 1983.
“Department of Defense organization”: Paulson, testimony at Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs hearing.
“with at least initial support”: Jack Anderson, “Search for POWs in Laos Linked to CIA,” Washington Post, October 15, 1984.
“had some ties to the CIA”: CIA involvement with Ronald Ray Rewald reported in Howard Kurtz, “CIA Got IRS to Delay Audit; Intelligence Agency Was Probing Its Tics to Investment Firm,” Washington Post, December 27, 1984; and Howard Kurtz, “Closed Hearing Set on CIA’s Sporkin,” Washington Post , October 4, 1985.
“if he was in the CIA, he wouldn’t tell me”: Weekly, interview by Lt. Michael Bornman, November 18, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
“suddenly exclaimed, ‘Whoa!’”: Sgt. Daniel Cruz, Contact with Department of Veteran’s Affairs, November 8, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
“international munitions deals”: John Kellogg, testimony at Weekly’s resentencing, U.S. v. Weekly, July 15, 1988. Sec also John Standefer, “Afghan War Claims Victim in County,” San Diego Union Tribune, July 26, 1987; Ray Robinson, “Indictment Likely in Case,” Daily Oklahoman, July 19, 1987; “‘Bo’ Gritz Trained Rebels in Nevada Desert,” UPI, May 1, 1987; Ray Robinson, “Man Pleads Guilty to Shipping Explosives,” Daily Oklahoman, December 30, 1986; and Ray Robinson, “Sooner Explosives Aided Afghans,” Daily Oklahoman, April 30, 1987.
Gene Wheaton: Wheaton, interview by author.
“paramilitary covert action program”: Fiers, interview by Walsh’s FBI investigator, August 2, 1991; a summary was declassified and released to the author by the National Archives.
“keeping in touch with DOD”: William Schneider, interview by FBI agents working for Lawrence Walsh, January 27, 1988; a summary of the interview was declassified and released to the author by the National Archives.
“North did refer to going to jail”: Nestor Pino Marina, interview by FBI, December 2, 1987, declassified and released to author by the National Archives.
Pino...has a history of involvement with the CIA: Record of interview, Nestor Pino Marina, May 20, 1987, by Walsh’s investigators, released by National Archives.
Bode’s desk calendars: Released to the author by the National Archives.
“The Afghan program is a covert program”: William R. Bode, interviewed in Standefer, “Afghan War Claims Victim.”
“miscellaneous projects”: Albert Hakim, deposition to Iran-Contra committee, May 1987.
“She was sitting in her apartment”: Stephen Korotash, interview by author.
Weld’s notes of the briefing: Iran-Contra files of Lawrence Walsh, released by the National Archives.
“proceed with such cases?”: Bill Price, interview by author.
Richard already had some background: Edward Spannaus, “How DOJ Official Mark Richard Won the CIA’s Coverup Award,” Executive Intelligence Review; July 7, 1995, 73–75.
Richard was grilled about that briefing: Deposition of Mark Richard before the House and Senate Select Committees, August 19, 1987. The notes of Richard’s conversations with Price were attached as exhibits to the deposition.
federal prisoner, José Bueso Rosa: Information on Bueso Rosa compiled from Warren Fiske, “What did North know?” Norfolk Virginian Pilot, October 22, 1994; Jefferson Morley and Murray Waas, “A Favor for a Felon,” Washington Post, May 29, 1994; Jefferson Morley, “Dealing with Noriega,” Nation, August 27, 1988; Murray Kempton, “Panama’s High Finance,” Newsday, February 7, 1988; Neil Roland, “North Tried to Hush Honduran,” UPI, November 22, 1987; Susan Rasky, “North Urged Leniency For Honduran Linked to Assassination Plot,” New York Times, February 23, 1987; “Army Ex-Chief Sentenced in Coup Plot,” Facts on File, September 5, 1986, 662; “Former General Sentenced in Assassination Plot,” UPI, July 24, 1986; “General Arrested in Coup Plot,” Facts on File, December 20, 1985, 954; “Honduras: Two Former Top Officers Dishonorably Discharged,” Inter Press Service, November 5, 1985; Charles Babcock, “Account of Assassination Plot Reads Like TV Script,” Bergen Record, August 16, 1985; and Oliver North’s PROFS notes regarding the case, on file at the National Security Archives.
“triumph for the Administration’s policy”: Francis J. McNeil testified to the Kerry Committee about the Bueso Rosa case, April 4, 1988.
“Bueso Rosa...had information”: Nestor Pino Marina, interview by FBI agents working for Walsh, May 13, 1987, released by the National Archives.
“in from one entrance and out the other”: Mark Richard’s statements about Weekly and Bueso Rosa were made under oath during in his August 19, 1987 deposition by the Iran-Contra committees.
CIA had equipped and trained...the 316 Battalion: Bueso Rosa, cited in Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, “Unearthed: CIA Secrets,” Baltimore Sun, reprinted in the Sacramento Bee, July 30, 1995.
“this investigation would start and stop with me”: Weekly testified at length at his resentencing hearing.
trekked into the mountains of northern Burma: “Thais: US Adventurer Turned Away,” Reuters, September 6, 1986. Gritz’s comments regarding Khun Sa were taken from a transcript of his videotape A Nation Betrayed, as well as from “Burmese Rebel Links Pentagon Official to Drug Deals,” AP, June 5, 1987. His charges of retaliation were reported in an untitled UPI story dated July 19, 1987, datelined Oklahoma City.
Gritz was indicted...for misusing a passport: Penny Levin, “LV Grand Jury Indicts Gritz on Passport Misuse,” Las Vegas Sun, May 21, 1987; Phil LaVelle, “Gritz Surrenders, Alleges U.S. Backing,” Las Vegas Review journal, June 4, 1987; and LaVelle, “Gritz Cites Conspiracy in Passport Rap,” Las Vegas Review journal, June 6, 1987.
20. “It’s a sensitive matter”
Susan Bryant-Deason...told police: Curtis A. Hazell, Head Deputy, Major Narcotics and Forfeiture Division, “Confidential Memorandum to File,” Subject: Blandón Investigation,” October 16, 1996, LACSO exhibit; and R. Dan Murphy, Assistant District Attorney, to Capt. Neal B. Tyler, confidential letter, October 23, 1996, LACSO exhibit.
“Back then Ricky Ross was a major dealer”: Robert Sobel, Internal Affairs interview.
“Ross was a vital link”: Glenn A. Levant, LAPD intradepartmental memo to Detective Steven Polak, Commendation LASD/LAPD Rock Cocaine Supplier Task Force, January 13, 1988.
Freeway Rick Task Force: Steve Polak, interview by author; and Polak, “Fact Sheet re: Full Cash Overtime for Major FES Narcotics Div.,” January 1987.
“All of his locations”: LACSO internal affairs interview of Sobel, June 15, 1988.
“He’s become quite a heavyweight”: Sandy Wasson, quoted in “Drug Fugitive Captured in Closet,” UPI, November 30, 1989.
“He was a good bad guy”: ABC News, Day One, “The Crime Crisis: Freeway,” November 29, 1993.
“Robin Hood-type guy”: James Galipeau, cited in Jesse Katz, “Deposed King of Crack,” L.A. Times, December 20, 1994.
“He kind of fancied himself”: Daryl Kelley and Victor Merina, “Query Focuses on Sheriff’s Sergeant, Deputies He Led,” Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1989.
“What he did, he poisoned tens of thousands of people”: Steve Polak, interview by author.
Polak and his men hit the Freeway Motor Inn: “Rock Cocaine Supplier LAPD/LASD Task Force Weekly Activities Report 1–21–87 through 1–27–87.”
“Going after my mom”: Ross, interview by author. Details of the detention of Annie Ross came from Sobel’s LACSO internal affairs interview, June 15, 1988.
“a cartel”: Sobel, LACSO internal affairs interview.
“your wife will be in a psychiatric hospital”: Blandón, testimony in U.S. v. James.
“widespread patronage from the Latin community”: Bradley Brunon, quoted in transcript of a May 20, 1992, detention hearing, U.S. v. Blandón.
“Roger Sandino was one of these guys”: Brunon, interview by author.
Sandino was arrested: Cable from DEA Miami F/O to DEA HQS, October 27, 1980, file Gl-81–0002.
set up an import-export business: Corporate records of Rosamar International Trading Inc., H26741, on file at Florida Division of Corporation. The attorney who served as Sandino’s agent, John Spittler Jr., was also an officer in Inter-America Media Corp. and the agent for Los Ranchos De Miami Inc.
busted again in April 1986: The Norfolk, Virginia, bust was described in Dorothy Cast, “700-pound Cocaine Bust Called Largest Ever in Mid-Atlantic,” AP, April 8, 1986.
DEA issued a fugitive warrant: Sandino’s “Fugitive Declaration,” filed by DEA on January 12, 1987, DEA file GZ-86–0002.
“Everywhere you go”: Jerome H. Skolnick, The Social Structure of Street Drug Dealing (State of California, Office of the Attorney General, 1988); and Skolnick, Gang Organization and Migration (State of California, Office of the Attorney General, 1989).
“Gang members have flooded the market”: Bill Bryan, “Police Fighting a Rising Drug Tide,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 12, 1989.
Brian “Waterhead Bo” Bennett: “Arrests Cut Key Cocaine Link in L.A., Police Say,” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1988; Ross, 1996 LACSO interview; and files from U.S. v . Villabona, 88 CR 972b, Central District of California, provided to the author by Mario Villabona. In his appeal, Villabona claimed he was set up for arrest by a CIA informant and former Contra, William Guzman.
“plunged a knife into the doll’s head”: U.S. Department of Justice’s trial memorandum, August 30, 1991, in U.S. vs. Amers, 90 CR 111.
“I looked in the rearview mirror”: Details of the April 1987 shooting incident were gleaned from Ross’s testimony, U.S. v. fames; Sobel, 1988 interview with the Sheriff’s IA investigators; and the 1991 DOJ trial memorandum in U.S. vs. Amers.
The LAPD issued a press release: “Fact Sheet for Immediate Release,” Los Angeles Police Department Narcotics Division, May 18,1987.
dropped by the jail to inspect their prize: U.S. DOJ trial memorandum, August 30, 1991, 24, filed in U.S. vs. Amers. Additional details obtained during interviews with Ross and Alan Fenster; and Kelley and Merina, “Query Focuses on Sheriff’s Sergeant.”
21. “I could go anywhere in the world and sell dope”
“It was real cool”: Quotes from Ross through this chapter came from interviews with the author and his testimony in U.S. v. James.
Macario was deeply involved with the FDN: Jose Macario Estrada, interview by author.
attorney Carlos Icaza: Information regarding Carlos Icaza was obtained during interviews with Icaza by author and Georg Hodel. His alleged involvement with the CIA was reported in “Nicaragua Charges CIA Plot, Expels Diplomats; U.S. Retaliates,” Facts on File, June 10, 1983, 423; and CIA Conspiracy in Nicaragua, June 1983, a booklet provided to the press by the Nicarguan government at the press conference announcing the arrests.
His and his wife’s involvement with the FDN was reported in “Bomb Explodes Outside Home of Contra Spokeswoman,” AP, March 6, 1987; and “Home of Nicaraguan Rebel Spokeswoman Bombed,” Reuters, March 6, 1987.
Macario was appointed to a blue-ribbon commission by the FDN: Sandra Dibble, “Contras Ask Panel to Audit Funds,” Miami Herald, August 16, 1986.
restaurant became a hangout for Contra leaders: La Parrilla’s use as a Contra forum reported in Maria Jose Cartagena, “Nicaraguans Seek to Ease Path for Fellow Exile Professionals,” Miami Herald, December 20, 1987.
Restaurant reviews included: Lucy Cooper, “La Parrilla: Nicaraguan Food at Its Best,” Miami Herald, October 24, 1986; Lucy Cooper, “Feast Your Fantasies at South Florida’s Finest Restaurants,” Miami Herald, January 2, 1987; Ivonne Rovira Kelly, “La Parrilla Makes a Name for Itself,” Miami Herald, August 8, 1985; and Geoffrey Tomb, “The Good News, Part 3,” Miami Herald Tropic Magazine, June 15, 1986.
Alpha II Rent-a-Car: In re: Alpha II Rent-A-Car, case 90–13670, Federal Bankruptcy Court, Miami, June 1, 1990.
“if the right person paged me, I’d get up”: Jesse Katz, “Deposed King of Crack,” L.A. Times, December 20, 1994.
“I knew the recipe”: Al Salvato, “The Man Who Brought Crack to Town,” Cincinnati Post, October 24, 1992. (Salvato was the author’s journalism school professor in 1975.) An additional story containing information about Ross’s operations in Cincinnati was: George Lccky, “Feds: Gang Leader Built Network in Cincinnati,” Cincinnati Post, April 16, 1990.
“In 1987, we had lots of crack”: Robert Enoch, quoted in Salvato, “Man Who Brought Crack.”
“a guy who could sell Popsicles to an Eskimo”: Ernest Halcon, quoted in Katz, “Deposed King of Crack.”
Cincinnati authorities finally discovered: Details of the police investigation and the affair Ross’s girlfriend had in Cincinnati were contained in the U.S. Probation and Parole Commission’s 1991 pre-sentence report prepared for Ross’s Cincinnati sentencing.
Smith County, Texas...indictment: Evan P Kirvin, Presentence Report, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, May 6, 1996, 11.
barricaded himself inside: “Police Corner Suspected Drug Dealer in Closet,” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1989.
stories about L.A. gangbangers: Some articles and studies describing the 1988–89 migration of Crips and Bloods from L.A. are Theresa Monsour, “Crip Gangs in St. Paul, Chief Says,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 4, 1988; Lisa Levitt Ryckman, “Crips, Bloods Turn into Traveling Salesmen for Big Drug Money,” AP, May 28, 1988; Jerry Nachtigal, “Police: L.A. Drug Gangs More Widespread Than Previously Thought,” AP July 15, 1988; Thom Gross, “L.A. Gangs Are Seen Here,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 17, 1988; Denise Hamilton, “Study Tightly Links Gangs to Trafficking in Cocaine,” Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1988; Robert C. Unruh, “Gang Problem Grows Deadlier in Denver,” AP, December 5, 1988; and Michael J. Ybarra and Paul Leiberman, “U.S. Labels L.A. a Center of Drug Trade, Violence,” Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1989.
“Los Angeles drug gangs are spreading cocaine”: Nachtigan, “L.A. Drug Gangs More Widespread.”
“Los Angeles has become the transshipment area”: Jerry Harper, testimony in Federal Law Enforcement Role in Narcotics Control in Southern California, hearings of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, August 23, 1988.
22. “They can’t touch us”
“They didn’t ask me nothing about”: Ricky Ross, interview by author. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes in this chapter from Ross are either from his interviews with the author, or from his testimony in U.S. v. James.
“Operation Big Spender”: “Jury Views Video of Alleged Money-Skimming by Deputies,” UPI, October 16, 1990; and an L.A. Times series by Victor Merina, December 1–3, 1993.
“This may be a terrible thing to say”: “Deputies’ Downfall Began with Videotaped Sting” L.A. Times, December 3, 1993.
an astonishing $33.9 million in cash: The figures from the forfeiture hauls came from LACSO.
“My men are all trained to tear flesh”: Quote from Sobel in the newsletter reported by Los Angeles Times , December 1, 1993.
Polak had liposuction performed: The cosmetic surgery done by Polak and his wife was revealed in U.S. v . Stephen W Polak and Christina Townly, 94 CR 283, April 15, 1994, Central District of California.
“Dan Garner came in my office”: Harland Braun, interview by author.
casually asked if the agent knew anything: “Jury Sees Video of Deputies Taking Cash,” L.A. Times, October 17, 1990; “Drug Cash Tied to Contras, CIA in L.A. Deputies’ Trial,” San Diego Union-Tribune, October 24, 1990; and “Judge Issues Gag Order on Lawyers, Defendants in Sheriff’s Drug Case,” UPI, October 24, 1990.
“publicized matters that are likely to...impair the rights”: Declaration of Thomas Hagemann, filed in connection with “Government’s Motion for Restraining Order Re: Extra-Judicial Statements of Parties and their Agents,” filed October 19, 1990, U.S.v. Amers, 90 CR 111 A, U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
“Films of military operations in Central America”: Braun’s writings from “Defendant Garner’s Opposition to Government’s Request for Restraining Order,” filed October 23, 1990, U.S. v. Amers.
Justice Department fired back: “Motion in Limine Re: Admissibility of Defendant Garner’s Testimony Re: Conversation with Robert Sobel and/or Others About the CIA,” filed October 23, 1990, U.S. v. Amers.
Judge Rafeedie...lashed out at Braun: Transcript of the hearing, filed in U.S. vs. Amers.
“I didn’t pump 500 tons of cocaine into the ghetto”: Garner, interview by LACSO investigators..
having convinced the Costa Mesa detectives: The details of Lister’s deal with Costa Mesa police are contained in a Memorandum of Understanding dated August 26, 1988, between Lister and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, filed in People v. Ronald Jay Lister, F13502, Harbor Municipal Court,
“Ball indicated that Lister”: Meza’s comments appeared in CIA-IG, 59–61.
“received instructions from Columbia to wire transfer the money”: Lister’s involvement with the Colombians while a DEA informant is revealed in a series of DEA-6 reports dated April 25, 1991, June 4, 1991, June 6, 1991, and June 10, 1991, filed as exhibits to LACSO case. Additional information is contained in Assistant U.S. Attorney L.J. O’Neale, “Government’s Answer to Defendant’s Objections to Presentence Report and Sentencing Memorandum,” June 22, 1993, U.S. v. Jose Enrique Urda Jr., 92 CR 1308, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California.
“‘By the way, we want to kill this guy Lister’”: Author interviewed the prosecutor who handled the case, who spoke on background.
“Smith waxed at length”: Gale Holland, “L.A. Drug Case Becomes Lurid,” San Diego Union Tribune, October 6, 1991.
Emmick’s letter on Ross’s behalf cited in DOJ-IG, Ch.6, pt.3, see. 4c.
23. “He had the backing of a superpower”
“I did a lot of favors to the Colombians”: Blandón GJ, 18.
Colombian Humberto Cardona: Blandón identified Cardona as one of his suppliers in two interviews with FBI agents Don Allen and Bruce Burroughs on October 8, 1992, and September 1, 1993, FBI file 245-B-SF-96287.
Sergio Guerra, the smooth Mexican millionaire: Guerra’s background and holdings detailed in 1992 detention hearing in U.S. v. Blandón.
reunited with the Meneses family: Blandón’s reinvolvement with Meneses and his kin was spelled out in his GJ testimony.
secret indictment against Meneses: U.S. v. Juan Norwin Meneses Cantarero a/k/a Norwin Meneses, 89 CR 0064, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, filed February 8, 1989.
“it materialized that there was some information”: Eric Swenson, interview by author.
Meneses...began reclaiming the holdings: The payments to Meneses and the other members of his drug ring were discovered by Georg Hodel, who obtained a November 30, 1996, report of Indemnification for Unjustified Confiscation from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Finance. Listed were convicted trafficker Luis Enrique Meneses ($930,000); Norwin’s wife, Maritza, ($53,000), Troilo Sánchez ($353,000) and Horacio Pereira’s heirs ($30,000.)
Enrique Miranda Jaime: Miranda was interviewed extensively by Georg Hodel and Hodel’s wife, Carmen Maria Santos, who became Miranda’s attorney upon his return to Nicaragua in 1996.
“sending guns to the FMLN in El Salvador”: Meneses’s statements concerning Miranda were contained in “Declaration to Investigators,” November 20, 1991, filed in Nicaraguan Supreme Court.
Meneses “had on his payroll”: Miranda’s statement was handwritten and filed as an exhibit to the drug trafficking case against him in Nicaragua in 1992.
“you almost needed flatbed trucks”: Rafael Corñejo, interview by author.
secretly taped...by DEA informant John Arman: The tapes of Arman’s and Blandón’s discussions were turned over to defense lawyers during Blandón’s criminal case in San Diego in 1992 but never introduced into evidence. The author was permitted to hear and copy the tapes by a source who had access to them.
“Blandón is preparing to move back to Nicaragua”: Chuck Jones, DEA-6, Subject: Undercover Negotiations Between [deleted] and Suspect Danilo Blandón, April 12, 1990.
Arman arrived at the Old Bonita Store...wired for sound: Chuck Jones, DEA-6, Subject: Undercover Meeting with Sergio Guerra and Oscar Blandón, July 23, 1990. Author also has tape of the conversation.
“going to convert it to crack anyway”: Chuck Jones, DEA-6, Subject: Undercover Negotiations with Danilo Blandón, June 14, 1991.
“They are going to put you in jail”: Tapes of Blandón’s conversations with Roger Sandino were obtained by author.
Sandino had given the DEA the slip: Chuck Jones, DEA-6, Subject: Ongoing Undercover Negotiations and Surveillance of Danilo Blandón et al., September 15, 1991.
“He had a big wedding here”: Roger Mayorga, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
golden opportunity to arrest Blandón: The incident at the border was described in U.S. v Sergio Guerra-Deguer, 91 CR 810T, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, filed Aug 27, 1991.
“money orders were on their way to Mexico”: O’Neale, comments during a detention hearing for Blandón in 1992, U.S. v. Blandón, cited earlier.
LAPD strike force arrested him: Described by O’Neale during detention hearing.
“I actually had a better case”: Ron Hodges, interview by author.
Nicaraguan lawmen were onto Norwin Meneses: Details of theMeneses investigation came from author’s interviews with Mayorga, Rene Vivas, Miranda, Meneses, and Frank Vigil, and a review of the case files at the Nicaraguan Supreme Court.
Vivas...was well acquainted with Norwin: Rene Vivas, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
“She was something else”: Roberto Vargas, interview by author and Georg Hodel.
story made several U.S. newspapers: “Record Cocaine Seizure,” L.A. Times, November 5, 1991; and Jonathan Marshall, “Nicaraguans Arrest Ex-Bay Man Linked to Cocaine, Contras,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 16, 1991.
The DOD and State Department cables concerning Meneses were mentioned in CIA-IG, 50–51.
“How do you explain...that Norwin Meneses”: The judges’ questioning of Mayorga was contained in “Declarcion Testifieal,” November 21, 1991, part of the case file in the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. Mayorga was also hauled before the Nicaraguan National Assembly’s Committee on Defense and Government in late 1991 and grilled by Committee Chairman Frank Duarte, a friend and attorney of Meneses
paid a deranged inmate...to knife Miranda: The alleged assassination attempt was reported in “He Tried to Murder Miranda,” Barricada, August 22, 1992; and “Miranda: ‘Paragon para asesinarme,” El Nuevo Diario, August 17, 1992.
Chamorro government fired Rene Vivas: Michael Reid, “Chamorro Fires Police Chief to Appease U.S.,” Manchester Guardian, September 13, 1992; “Sandinista Police Officers Dismissed,” Facts on File, September 17, 1992, 694; and Shirley Christian, “Managua Seesaw: U.S. vs. Sandinistas,” New York Times, September 8, 1992.
24. “They’re gonna forget I was a drug dealer”
“Soft-spoken”: Erin J. Aubry, “Ex-Drug Dealer Out to Stage Turnaround,” L.A. Times, November 14, 1993.
“A capitalist”: Al Salvato, “The Man Who Brought Crack to Town,” Cincinnati Post, October 24, 1992.
“Standing on the bare stage”: Aubry, “Ex-Drug Dealer Out to Stage Turnaround.”
“Next we have the story of a young man”: Forrest Sawyer, correspondent for Day One, “Profile: Ex-Drug Dealer ‘Freeway’ Hopes to Offer Youth Center to South Central Los Angeles,” November 29, 1993.
“more than 200 people”: James Bolden, “Ricky Ross: Ex-Drug Lord Wants to Give Back to S. Central,” Los Angeles Sentinel, December 9, 1993.
“The notorious Los Angeles drug lord”: Jesse Katz, “Former L.A. Drug Kingpin Is Set Free,” Los Angeles Times, September 1, 1994.
Compton crack dealer, Leroy “Chico” Brown: Brown, interview by author.
“get a little something right now”: The tapes and transcripts of some of Ross’s conversations with Blandón were introduced into evidence in U.S. v. James.
According to Blandón’s notes: These notes were introduced into evidence in U.S. v. James.
“This guy won’t leave me alone”: James Galipeau, interview by author; Galipeau also testified as a defense witness for Ross in U.S. v. James.
“take care of Tony”: The meetings in the restaurant parking lots were taped by Blandón, and the tapes were introduced as evidence in U.S. v. James.
“saga of Ricky Ross’ rise and fall”: Jesse Katz, “Deposed King of Crack,” L.A. Times, December 20, 1994.
“Let him pay”: Polak, quoted in Katz, “Deposed King of Crack.”
“They burned rubber”: Charles Jones, testimony before Grand Jury No. 94–4, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, March 15, 1995.
Ross told them everything: Judy Gustafson, DEA-6, Subject: Arrest and Interview of Ricky Ross, March 7, 1995.
“I cussed his Mom out”: Norman Tillman, quoted in Jesse Katz, “Sting Snares Drug Lord Who Vowed to Go Straight,” Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1995.
“I caught a lot of shit”: Jesse Katz, interview by author.
25. “Things are moving all around us”
I walked into a roomful of DEA agents: The quotes from this session come from a memorandum I prepared immediately following the meeting.
three CIA cables about me: CIA-IG, 51–52.
Georg’s discovery was front-page news: Roberto Orosco, “Escapo un grande del narcotrafico,” La Prensa, November 29, 1995; and Heriberto Mercado, “Ex militar narco escapa de prision,” La Tribuna, November 29, 1995.
Miranda was captured: Miranda, whose entry into the States was legal since he had a valid visa, was literally kidnapped by the FBI in Miami and thrown on a plane to Nicaragua at the request of the Nicaraguan police. His kidnapping was covered extensively in the Nicaraguan press. Sec, for example, Roberto Orosco, “Miranda, gran jefe de la droga, enviado a Managua,” La Prensa , December 3, 1996, 1; Lizbeth Garcia, “Recaptura de Miranda Jaime lcvanta ola de acusactioncs,” Barricada, December 22, 1996; Mario Guevara Somarriba, “Recapturan en Miami al reo Miranda Jaime,” El Nuevo Diario, December 24, 1996; and Leonardo Coca Palacios, “Miranda Jaime se esfumo?” El Nuevo Diario, December 29, 1996. Miranda was finally released from prison in April 1998.
26. “This matter, if true, would be classified”
“The United States believes”: L. J. O’Neale, “Government’s Motion in Limine to Preclude Reference to the Central Intelligence Agency and for Reciprocal Discovery,” February 26, 1996, filed in U.S. v. James.
The conversation was recorded: The sidebar discussions, as well as the testimony, in federal criminal trials are tape-recorded, and the tapes are available for purchase by any member of the public at remarkably reasonable rates, a service that court reporters, for obvious reasons, don’t advertise. Thanks to federal public defender Maria Forde for this invaluable tip. The public defenders buy the tapes, she said, because they can’t afford typed transcripts either.
“I don’t think my client’s life”: The in-court conversations in this chapter are taken from the tapes of the proceedings in U.S. v. James.
27. “A very difficult decision”
Interviews of the jurors provided to the author by a source.
Mercury News executive editor: Ceppos’s comments to Newsweek reported in “Cracks in the Story,” November 11, 1996, 65.
New York Times reporter Seymour Hersh: The reaction of the press to Hersh’s story is chronicled in Kathryn S. Olmstead, Challenging the Secret Government (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 33–39.
“The unlimited space of the Web”: The chapter on online journalism in Encarta’s 1997 yearbook was written by Neil Chase of Northwestern University.
The Associated Press noted: Elizabeth Weise, “CIA-Crack Story Fueled Interest in Web,” AP, December 5, 1996.
A Boston Globe reporter: Adam Pertman, “CIA-Drug Link Stories Outrage Blacks in L.A.,” Boston Globe, October 6, 1996.
infuriated the right-wing Washington Times: Bill Gertz, “Deutch’s Reaction to Drug Rumor Hit,” Washington Times, September 24, 1996.
And on the editorial page: Arnaud de Borchgrave, “Ritualistic Revival of Assaults on CIA,” Washington Times, September 24, 1996.
Newsweek devoted an entire page: Gregory L. Vistica and Vern E. Smith, “Was the CIA Involved in the Crack Epidemic?” Newsweek, September 30, 1996, 72.
Time that month: Jack E. White,”Crack, Contras and Cyberspace,” Time, September 30, 1996.
“Meanwhile, we continued advancing the story...”: Gary Webb and Pamela Kramer, “Sealed records may show CIA drug link,” San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 29, 1996, 1; Gary Webb and Pamela Kramer, “Affadavit: Cops knew of drug ring,” San Jose Mercury News, Oct. 3, 1996, 1; Gary Webb and Pamela Kramer, “More hints of government involvement,” San Jose Mercury News, Oct. 6, 1996, 1.
Eastland had a history: The Justice Department’s role in spreading disinformation about Contra drug investigations in the mid-1980s is detailed in Joel Millman, “Narco-terrorism: A Tale of Two Stories,” Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 1986, 51; and Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 177.
The Washington Post had just moved a story: Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus, “The CIA and Crack: Evidence is Lacking of Alleged Plot,” Washington Post, October 4, 1996.
Ceppos fired off a blistering letter: Though the Post didn’t run it, the Mercury News posted the letter on the Internet on the Mercury Center’s Dark Alliance Web page (www.sjmcrcury.com/drugs).
a story in the Mercury’s archives: Walter Pincus, “How I Traveled Abroad on CIA Subsidy,” San Jose Mercury News, February 18, 1967.
Pincus’s previous association with the CIA: Pincus, review of Agee’s book, New York Times Book Review, August 3, 1975.
“we have withheld a great deal of information”: Pincus’s appearance on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour occurred on May 12, 1986.
Walsh wrote that at a critical moment: Lawrence Walsh, Firewall (New York: Norton, 1997), 421–22.
The L.A. Times and the New York Times struck next.: The New York Times’s attack on Dark Alliance appeared on October 20, 1996, headlined “Tale of CIA and Drugs Has Life of Its Own.” The L.A. Times series ran for three days, beginning on October 20, 1996.
Katz trotted out a number of other cocaine dealers: Jesse Katz, “Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade,” L.A. Times, October 20, 1996.
the L.A. Times absolved the CIA: Doyle McManus, “Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales,” L.A. Times, October 21, 1996.
“Sixty thousand?”: Rafael Corñejo, interview by author.
McManus had played a central role: Doyle McManus and Ronald Ostrow, “U.S. Links Top Sandinistas to Drug Trafficking,” L.A. Times, July 18, 1984.
described by investigative reporter Carl Bernstein: Bernstein, “The CIA and the Media,” Rolling Stone, October 20, 1977, 55.
A day later: Ronald Ostrow; “3 Seized in Miami Cocaine Smuggling Linked to Nicaraguan Interior Minister,” L.A. Times , July 19, 1984.
McManus and Ostrow later teamed up: Doyle McManus and Ronald Ostrow, “No Supporting Evidence, DEA Says: Senators Probing Reports of Contra Drug Smuggling,” L.A. Times, February 18, 1987.
He banged out a letter to the reporter: Cabezas provided a copy of his letter to McManus to the author, along with McManus’s response of April 9, 1987.
Enrique Miranda, the former Meneses aide...had been found in Miami...: Gary Webb, “U.S. gave visa to Nicaraguan drug trafficker,” San Jose Mercury News, Dec. 31, 1996, 11A.
solved one of the final mysteries of the Southern Front: Hull’s escape from Costa Rica and the DEA’s suspected involvement in it had been reported previously and ignored by the national media. Brian Donovan of Newsday initially reported it in 1991 as part of a retrospective look at the bombing at La Penca in 1984 that killed an American journalist. Martha Honey and David Myers freelanced a piece that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 1991, under the headline “U.S. Probing Drug Agent’s Activities in Costa Rica.” The information for that story came largely from San Francisco private investigator Josiah Thompson, who was hired by defense lawyer Marvin Cahn to investigate a case involving an accused trafficker named Juan Merino Noriega. Merino was arrested in 1990 as part of California’s biggest cocaine bust, nearly 970 kilos, but despite the size of the case, the Justice Department permitted Merino to plead guilty to a money-laundering count rather than risk having the DEA’s involvement in Hull’s escape surface publicly in court.
“The United States will not discuss in this memorandum the reason that defendant Merino-Noriega was permitted to plead guilty to the money laundering charge instead of the importation charges other than to remind the Court that the reasons relate in large part to various submissions that were made and remain under seal,” Asst. U.S. Attorney Ross W Nadel wrote in Merino’s sentencing memorandum, Dec. 10, 1992, U.S. v. Merino-Noriega, 90 CR 0177, Northern District of California.
I believed the story Georg and I had significantly advanced the public knowledge of Hull’s escape, since we now had the pilot admitting everything on the record, as well as an on-the-record interview with the investigating agent for DEA internal affairs, who thought Justice had covered up the case. The Mercury never ran it.
Ricevuto believed Perez: Anthony Ricevuto, interview by author.
Whether similar pressures were applied to Ceppos: Naturally, rumors swirled that the CIA or other government agencies brought pressure to bear on the Mercury News’s owners, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, to torpedo my investigation and kill the follow-up stories but I never put much stock in those suspicions. Subsequently, I learned that Knight-Ridder has a history of collaborating with the CIA, once agreeing to provide journalistic “cover” for CIA agents (see John M. Crewdson and Joseph B. Treaster, “Worldwide Propaganda Network built by the CIA,” New York Times, Dec. 26, 1977, 1). Additionally, Georg Hodel discovered a CIA cable in a Miami court file suggesting that a longtime editor on the Latin American desk of Knight-Ridder’s flagship paper, The Miami Herald, had an operational relationship with the CIA during the 1960s. Suffice it to say that I am not quite as dismissive of suspicions of government pressure on the Mercury’s owners as I once was.
Shortly before I arrived at the Plain Dealer : The Plain Dealer’s retraction of the Jackie Presser story is discussed in James Neff, Mobbed Up (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989), 337–53. In addition, the author has copies of the debriefings of the Cleveland mobster Angelo “Big Ange”Lonardo, who reported the reasons for the PD’s retraction to the authorities.