U.S. Probes CIA Ties to Drug Smuggling

The Justice Department is investigating allegations that top officers of a special Venezuelan anti-drug unit funded by the CIA smuggled more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States with the knowledge of CIA officials between 1990 and 1991, according to sources familiar with the probe.

The department’s inquiry has established that two CIA officers based in Caracas, Venezuela, tacitly approved at least some of the drug shipments, believing that they were part of a legitimate undercover investigation by the Venezuelan anti-drug squad.

But in what one law enforcement source described as the “worst breakdown” in communications since the CIA became involved in anti-drug intelligence in the 1980s, U.S. law enforcement agencies were never informed about the shipments entering the country. Federal investigators since have determined that the ultimate beneficiary was actually an arm of Colombia’s Medellin cartel headed by fugitive trafficker Pablo Escobar, sources said.

Dave Christian, a CIA spokesman, said Friday that a CIA inspector general’s investigation found “there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing” by any CIA officials. But the probe did “turn up instances of bad judgment and poor management on the part of some CIA officers involved.”

Mark McFarlin, one of the CIA officers assigned to work on drug intelligence, has resigned under pressure, Christian said. The CIA Caracas station chief, whose identity has not been disclosed, also was disciplined and has since retired.

Officials familiar with the probe say it prompted strong complaints to the CIA about the Drug Enforcement Administration and a wide-ranging review of the agency’s anti-drug role. It also has embarrassed the agency because CIA officials had worked closely with the chief target of the Justice Department investigation--Gen. Ramon Guillen Davila, who was chief of a special Venezuelan National Guard anti-drug unit.

The investigation is being handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami. Sources familiar with the probe say that Guillen confessed to some of the allegations when first confronted by DEA agents. “He admitted to our investigators that he had run loads behind our back,” one source said.

Guillen, who has stepped down from his post, was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury last week but failed to appear. A Justice Department spokesman said neither McFarlin nor any other current or former CIA official is a target of the probe.