Contra Policy Allegedly Foiled Drug War : Reagan Administraton Put Nicaragua Rebels First, Senators Say

The Reagan Administration undermined its own war on drugs as it “delayed, halted or interfered” with operations that jeopardized support for its policy in Central America, a Senate panel reported today.

The government looked the other way, according to the report, when law enforcement agencies learned that drug traffickers were protected and aided by some U.S.-supported Nicaraguan rebels, members of the Honduran military, Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega and Bahamian officials.

The 437-page report was prepared by the Senate Foreign Affairs subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations, whose chairman, John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), held a series of public hearings last year on international drug trafficking.

Kerry told a news conference that anti-drug enforcement took second place to foreign policy mainly “for fear of jeopardizing the war in Nicaragua.” But he said that same war provided an “opportunity for drug traffickers to link up with the Contras--and they did.”

In the most glaring examples of what the committee found to be a two-faced policy during the Reagan years, the report said:

--While reports of Noriega’s drug activities were mounting, the U.S. government ignored the evidence as the Panamanian strongman promised to help train Contras and offered use of Panamanian units to strike targets inside Nicaragua.

The late CIA Director William J. Casey justified his failure to raise the narcotics issue in a 1985 meeting with Noriega, the report said, on grounds “that Noriega was providing valuable support for our policies in Central America, especially Nicaragua.”

--The Drug Enforcement Administration apparently ignored trafficking allegations against Noriega because the now-indicted strongman also cooperated in DEA operations. But the DEA was fooled, the report said, when Noriega used his close relationship with the agency “to share DEA information with traffickers.”

--The government had evidence of numerous drug links involving the anti-Sandinista rebels, including participation in trafficking by individual Contras; use of Contra airstrips by traffickers, and the hiring of four airline companies, “owned and operated by narcotics traffickers, to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras.”