Watchdog Agency Finds No CIA-Drug Link

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog said Thursday that he found no evidence that U.S. government officials protected a California drug-trafficking ring whose members contributed money to the Nicaraguan rebels known as the Contras during the 1980s.

Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich, reporting on a 15-month investigation, said he concluded that the drug dealers had contributed money to the rebels but that the amounts were “relatively insignificant” and there was no evidence that Contra leaders or the CIA knew about them.

Bromwich’s investigation, and its 407-page report, were produced in response to a 1996 story in the San Jose Mercury News. The newspaper said that a San Francisco-based drug trafficking ring introduced crack cocaine to Los Angeles, sent millions of dollars to the CIA-backed Contras and operated under the protection of U.S. government officials.

“After interviewing more than 200 people and reviewing more than 40,000 pages of documents, we did not substantiate the main allegations suggested by the San Jose Mercury News articles,” Bromwich said.

“While some drug traffickers supplying cocaine to Los Angeles drug dealers were Contra supporters, they were investigated and pursued by the Department of Justice. These investigations were not always successful, but we did not find that they were obstructed because of claims that these individuals were connected to Contras or the CIA.”

The report said the two drug dealers at the center of the tale were “Contra supporters, although their roles in this regard were marginal. . . . Both gave charitable contributions to the Contras and, because of their line of business, that money came from drug trafficking. The monetary amounts were relatively insignificant compared to the money they made in drug trafficking.”

The report quoted one of the drug dealers as estimating their total contributions at $49,000, and several of the dealers’ associates provided even smaller estimates.

“Contra leaders have denied--and there is no evidence to contradict the denials--that they solicited drug funds or knew that drug money was coming into the Contra movement,” the report said. “The implication that the drug trafficking . . . was connected to the CIA was also not supported by the facts.”

The report concluded that the explosion in crack cocaine in Los Angeles and across the United States “was not the result of any single source or seller.” It said much of the apparent evidence in the Mercury News articles appeared to have been distorted or exaggerated.

The newspaper concluded last year that its articles had been flawed, and reporter Gary Webb resigned in December.