http://www.sacredcow.com/index.php?pg=blogs&bid=21The CIA was selling crack
Mike Ruppert & Ricky Ross
MIKE RUPPERT
For a long time in South Central, the buzz was that the CIA was selling crack.
I said that “No, the CIA wasn’t selling crack, the CIA was importing cocaine.” Ricky Ross got it, turned it into crack and he sold it.
NARRATOR
According to Gary Webb’s Dark Alliance, when Danilo Blandone was displaced from his home country of Nicaragua, he set off to America to raise money to aid the Contras in ridding his home from the invading Sandinistas.
When Ricky Ross was introduced to Blandone, Blandone was in a position to create a pipeline of cocaine that he in turn gave to Ricky Ross on consignment.
FREEWAY RICK
Which I liked the sound of that. Because I was always trying to get to the top anyway.
MIKE RUPPERT
Suddenly, some major sources opened up for him – Danilo Blandone, Norwin Meneces, both of whom were tied to the CIA and the Contras, and Gary Webb did a masterful job of breaking those stories and proving with documents that that was the case.
FREEWAY RICK
I started doing a little research on my own. I read a little about Oliver North and the Contras, because I never knew what the Contras were before.
CHICO BROWN
There’s ledgers of Oliver North and them actually transporting the cocaine into our country. There’s film! Every piece of document that’s possible.
NARRATOR
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. First-time dealer and former crip, Leroy “Chico” Brown was arrested with Rick.
Chico walked into a DEA sting operation that was set up to capture and imprison Rick in trade for Rick’s old partner, Danilo Blandone.
CHICO BROWN
“How could this be possible?” And then we were reading through the documents and that’s when Gary Webb started explaining it to us, and we was like - everything came together now.
NARRATOR
One of the most paramount moments perhaps caused by Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” took place in November of 1996.
MIKE RUPPERT
It was a monumental, historic event. I mean, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency was coming to Watts to face the people.
JOHN DEUTSCH (CIA director – Watts footage)
Now, we all know that the U.S. government and the CIA supported the Contras in their efforts to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the middle 80s.
Now it is alleged that the CIA also helped the Contras raise money for arms by introducing crack cocaine into California.
MIKE RUPPERT
Deutsch felt he had to do something to try to deal with the outrage that was foaming all over the country at the time. And of course, it just blew up in his face.
JOHN DEUTSCH
The CIA fights drugs; the CIA does not encourage drugs.
MIKE RUPPERT
I mean, it was actually one of the most monumental blunders of all time if you think about it.
JOHN DEUTSCH
We have no evidence of a conspiracy by the CIA to engage in encouraging drug traffickers in Nicaragua or elsewhere in Latin America.
MIKE RUPPERT
Deutsch was there because of the Gary Webb stories. The Gary Webb stories had sparked a national furor.
CONGRESSWOMAN JUANITA MILLINDER MCDONALD (Watts footage)
I would like to have Ricky Ross’s brother to speak, please.
RICKY ROSS’S BROTHER
The United States government turned their head and let this cocaine come into the United States of America.
WATTS AUDIENCE MEMBER
Allow Gary Webb to have full access!
WATTS AUDIENCE MEMBER #2
This whole thing was orchestrated!
MIKE RUPPERT
It was near pandemonium. It was about 1200 people, standing room only in the auditorium. 2,000 people outside listening on loudspeakers. And it was very hard to keep control.
I got called on finally, and I said very clearly, I was looking right at Deutsch -
MIKE RUPPERT (Watts footage)
I am a former Los Angeles Police Narcotics detective and I worked South Central Los Angeles, and I will tell you Director Deutsch that the agency has dealt drugs throughout this country for a long time.
MIKE RUPPERT
And I was able to name operations.
MIKE RUPPERT (Watts footage)
Director Deutsch, I will refer you to 3 specific agency operations known as Amadeus, Pegasus, and Watchtower. I have Watchtower documents heavily redacted by the agency; I was personally exposed to CIA operations and recruited by CIA personnel who attempted to recruit me in the late 70s to become involved in protecting agency drug operations in this country.
