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Justice Department Launches CIA-Cocaine Probe Reuters New Media Saturday September 21 2:49 PM EDT Justice Department Launches CIA-Cocaine Probe WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The Justice Department launched an internal investigation into allegations that the CIA helped flood U.S. ghettos with cocaine to finance rebels fighting Nicaragua's leftist government in the 1980s. ``Today I opened an investigation into allegations that federal agencies helped funnel drug profits to rebels in Nicaragua, known as the contras, in the 1980s,'' Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich said Friday. He said he would coordinate his investigation with the CIA's inspector general, who is also investigating the reports, first published in the San Jose Mercury News. The California newspaper reported in a three-part series last month that a drug pipeline between Colombia and the San Francisco Bay area functioned for almost a decade with at least tacit CIA approval, funneling profits to the CIA-backed Contras in Nicaragua. Bromwich said Attorney General Janet Reno referred the matter to him after receiving letters from Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Maxine Waters, both Democrats from California. CIA Director John Deutch ordered the internal CIA probe on Sept. 4 but said he believed there was ``no substance'' to the allegations.'' He said he had asked the CIA's in-house watchdog, Inspector General Frederick Hitz, to finish his review within 60 days. Waters released a letter Friday from House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in which he said he had asked the House Intelligence Committee to investigate the matter as well. ``While I am pleased that we are beginning to receive some cooperation in calling for an in-depth investigation into the origins of crack cocaine in our neighborhoods, and the possible involvement or knowledge on the part of the CIA, this is only the beginning,'' Waters said in a statement. ``We have a lot of work to do and the investigations will give us a place to start,'' she said. In its series titled ``Dark Alliance,'' the Mercury News detailed a scheme that allegedly funneled tons of cocaine to black Los Angeles neighborhoods and returned millions in drug profits to a CIA-funded guerrilla army in Nicaragua. The series traced the crack epidemic to two Nicaraguan drug dealers, Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses, who were civilian leaders of the CIA-backed FDN, the largest Nicaraguan Contra group fighting to overthrow the leftist Sandinistas. Citing newly declassified material, court testimony and interviews, the paper alleged the pair had been recruited by the CIA to raise money for the Contras and turned to drug-running with at least tacit spy agency approval. In his letter to members of Congress, Deutch said the CIA had ``never had any relationship with either Blandon or Meneses.'' Nor, contrary to the newspaper report, had it sought to have information regarding either of them withheld at the recent trial of a convicted Los Angeles drug dealer, he said. _________________________________________________________________ News Topics | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People| Life in a Gang | Gallery | Iraqi Cards | Memorial | Migration | Graffiti | Resume| Injunctions Homicides | Maps | California Prisons | Contact

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