Crack and the CIA
By DOUGLAS LUMMIS
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麻薬とCIA
アメリカが抱える最悪の悲劇の一つは、麻薬問題である。米政府は麻薬撲滅に何十億もの金をつぎ込んでいるが、一方では、麻薬産業を成長させた原因の一端は政府にあるという証拠も…。
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One of the worst catastrophes to hit the United States in recent years is crack
cocaine. This is the drug that has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of young people, mostly
poor, mostly black. This is the drug that has brought about a population explosion in U.S. prisons.
In recent years the government has spent billions of dollars to fight drugs,
especially crack. But now there is evidence
that the government was one of the original
forces promoting the crack industry.
In a well-documented three-part article, the San
Jose Mercury News (Aug. 18, 19, 20) alleged
that the crack industry in the U.S. was promoted by people working under
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Here's their story:
The key person was Danilio Blandon. Blandon is Nicaraguan, the son of a family of rich slumlords, has an M.A. in marketing, and was a supporter of the
bloody dictator Anastasio Somoza. When the revolutionary Sandinistas overthrew Somoza's dictatorship, Blandon, then 29, escaped to California.
Horrified by the Sandinistas' "persecutions" (in other words, the confiscation of property from Nicaragua's
super-rich), Blandon joined the movement to overthrow the Sandinistas. He
began supporting a group called Fuerza
Democratica Nicaraguense (FDN), a "contra" group that was being formed with
money and support from the CIA.
It was illegal, of course, for the U.S.
government to give financial support to the
contras. The U.S. Congress had passed a resolution forbidding it, and such
interference in another country's internal affairs is, in any case, against international law. Nevertheless, on Dec. 1, 1981, President
Reagan issued a secret order authorizing
the CIA to give such support.
But the money
the CIA could provide was not enough. This is
where Blandon made his contribution. He contacted Somoza supporter Norwin Meneses,
known in Nicaragua as "The King of Drugs." Meneses was able to supply Blandon with almost unlimited amounts of cocaine
from Columbia. Then Blandon used his marketing abilities to sell it in the U.S.
The money was used to buy weapons to smuggle
to the contras.
In those days pure cocaine was so expensive that only the
rich could afford it. But Blandon needed a
mass market. Using new techniques,
Blandon had his distributors (L.A. gangs) reprocess the cocaine into crack which, at $20 (¥2,180) a hit, is cheap enough to sell to the poor. At the
high point of his business Blandon was selling up to 100 kilograms of cocaine
a week which, as crack, sometimes brought in as much as $2 or $3 million a
day.
This, says the San Jose Mercury News, was the chief organization behind
the U.S. crack catastrophe.
Blandon has never
been tried in court. In 1991 he was arrested, but the charges were dropped at the request of the Federal Government. Today he has a highly paid job working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
His specialty is collecting information on
Mexican and Columbian drug lords
― his old
business partners.
Shukan ST: Oct. 11, 1996
(C) All rights reserved
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