Probe Sought in Alleged CIA Cocaine Link

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called for an investigation into newspaper allegations that the CIA stymied efforts to curb cocaine shipments from Latin America to South Los Angeles during the 1980s.

Last month, the San Jose Mercury News reported that a drug pipeline between Colombia and the Bay Area was used for almost 10 years to funnel drug profits to the CIA-backed Contras, who were battling Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista government.

The newspaper said the pipeline was the source of drugs for one of Los Angeles’ major crack kingpins, Ricky Ross. Ross, awaiting sentencing on a federal drug conviction, has long been publicly known as a key cocaine figure.

In a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, Feinstein asked for a Justice Department investigation, telling Reno that Californians “are outraged that the federal government possibly played such a role in the explosion of a drug that took countless lives.” Last week, California’s other senator, Democrat Barbara Boxer, asked the CIA’s director to investigate the allegations.