This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (February 2010)

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (March 2011)

Panamanian motor vessel Gatun during the largest cocaine bust in United States Coast Guard history (totalling 20 tons, worth over 600 million USD), off the coast of Panama.

The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and sale of drugs, which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.

A UN report said "the global drug trade generated an estimated US$321.6 billion in 2003."^[1] With a world GDP of US$36 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as slightly less than 1% (0.893%) of total global commerce.^{[citation needed]} Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally.

History[link]

Addictive drugs were first prohibited in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^[2][3][4] An Illegal Drug Trade emerged during the 19th century, China retaliated with imports of opium and two Opium Wars broke out. In the First Opium War the Chinese authorities had banned opium but the United Kingdom forced China to allow British merchants to trade opium with the general population. Smoking opium had become common in the 19th century and British merchants increased. Trading in opium was (as it is today in the heroin trade) extremely lucrative. As a result of this illegal trade an estimated two million Chinese people became addicted to the drug. The British Crown (via the treaties of Nanking and Tianjin) took vast sums of money from the Chinese government through this illegal trade which they referred to as "reparations".

Legal penalties[link]

This section requires expansion.

In many countries, drug smuggling carries severe penalties. These include lengthy periods of incarceration, flogging, and even the death penalty (in Singapore, Malaysia, etc). In 2010, two people were sentenced to death in Malaysia for trafficking 1 kilogram/2.2 pounds of cannabis into the country.^[5] On March 30, 2011, three Filipinos were executed by the Chinese government for drug trafficking.

Drug trafficking is widely regarded as the most serious of drug offences around the world. However, sentencing often depends on the type of drug (and its classification in the country into which it is being trafficked), the quantity trafficked, where the drugs are sold and how they are distributed; for example if the drugs are sold to underage people, then the penalties for trafficking may be harsher than in other circumstances.

Effects of illegal drug trade on societies[link]

The countries of drug production have been seen as the worst affected by prohibition.^{[citation needed]} Even so, countries receiving the illegally-imported substances are also affected by problems stemming from drug prohibition. For example, Ecuador has allegedly absorbed up to 300,000 refugees from Colombia who are running from guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug lords, says Linda Helfrich. While some applied for asylum, others are still illegal, and the drugs that pass from Colombia through Ecuador to other parts of South America create economic and social problems.^[6]

Violent crime[link]

In many countries worldwide, the illegal drug trade is thought to be directly linked to violent crimes such as murder; this is especially true in third world countries, but is also an issue for many developed countries worldwide.^[7]

In the late 1990s in the United States the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that 5% of murders were drug-related.^[7]

After a crackdown by U.S. and Mexican authorities in the first decade of the 21st century as part of tightened border security in the wake of the September 11 attacks, border violence inside Mexico surged. The Mexican government estimates that 90% of the killings are drug-related.^[8]

A report by the UK government's drug strategy unit that was subsequently leaked to the press, stated that due to the expensive price of highly addictive drugs heroin and cocaine, that drug use was responsible for the great majority of crime, including 85% for shoplifting, 70-80% of burglaries and 54% of robberies. "The cost of crime committed to support illegal cocaine and heroin habits amounts to £16 billion a year in the UK" (note: this is more than the entire annual UK Home Office budget).^[9]

Profits[link]

Due to its illicit nature, statistics about profits from the drug trade are largely unknown. In its 1997 World Drugs Report the UNODC estimated the value of the market at US$400 billion, ranking drugs alongside arms and oil amongst the world's largest traded goods.^[10] An online report published by the UK Home Office in 2007 estimated the illicit drug market in the UK at £4–6.6 billion a year^[11]

In December 2009, the United Nations' Drugs and Crime Tsar Antonio Maria Costa claimed that illegal drug money saved the banking industry from collapse. He claimed he had seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse during 2008. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor...Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way". Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drug money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame.^[12]

Minors and the illegal drug trade in the US[link]

The U.S. government's most recent 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that nationwide over 800,000 adolescents ages 12–17 sold illegal drugs during the twelve months preceding the survey.^[13] The 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that nationwide 25.4% of students had been offered, sold, or given an illegal drug by someone on school property. The prevalence of having been offered, sold, or given an illegal drug on school property ranged from 15.5% to 38.8% across state CDC surveys (median: 26.1%) and from 20.3% to 40.0% across local surveys (median: 29.4%).^[14]

Despite over $7 billion spent annually towards arresting^[15] and prosecuting nearly 800,000 people across the country for marijuana offenses in 2005 (FBI Uniform Crime Reports), the federally-funded Monitoring the Future Survey reports about 85% of high school seniors find marijuana “easy to obtain.” That figure has remained virtually unchanged since 1975, never dropping below 82.7% in three decades of national surveys.^[16]

In 2009, the Justice Department identified more than 200 U.S. cities in which Mexican drug cartels "maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors" - up from 100 three years earlier.^[17]

Illegal cocaine trade via West Africa[link]

Cocaine produced in Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia has been increasingly shipped via West Africa (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Liberia). The money is often laundered in countries as Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.

Cargo planes are now also used as a method of transport from the production countries to West-Africa. Before this, the cocaine was only shipped to the USA. Because the market became saturated there, illicit drug traders decided to increase shipping to Europe. When these new drug routes were uncovered by the authorities, West Africa was chosen as a stop-over. In 2005, the first major cocaine shipment was intercepted by the police. In 2007, 30% of all cocaine shipped to the UK was estimated to come from West Africa. In 2009, 50% of all cocaine shipped to the UK was estimated to come from West Africa.^{[citation needed]}

Drug mules, fishing boats, container ships, and submarines have been used to transship illegal drugs from West Africa to Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Especially in Guinea-Bissau, the drugs have been traded with the help of political leaders such as former presidents, the son of dictator Lansana Conté, and chiefs of staff of the army.^{[citation needed]}

According to the UN,^[who?] the value of illicit drug smuggling in Guinea-Bissau is higher than the value of the country's GDP. Policemen are often bribed. A policeman's normal monthly wage of 75 € is less than 2% of the value of 1 kilogram of cocaine (7000 €).^{[citation needed]}

The money can be laundered using real estate. A house is built using illegal funds. When the house is sold, legal money is earned.^[18]

Inexpensive illicit drugs, such as crack, are now in distribution. This decreases the economic productivity and diminishes any safety goal for the intended end user.^{[citation needed]}

When drugs are sent overland, through the Sahara, the drug traders have been increasingly forced to cooperate with terrorist organisations, such as Al Qaida in Islamic Maghreb.^[19][20]

Trade of specific drugs[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Cannabis[link]

4 ounces of cannabis

While the recreational use of (and consequently the distribution of) cannabis is illegal in most countries throughout the world, it is available by prescription or recommendation in many places, including some US states and in Canada.^[21] Cannabis use is tolerated in some areas, most notably the Netherlands which has legalized the possession and licensed sale (but not production) of the drug. Many nations have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Due to the hardy nature of the Cannabis plant, marijuana is grown all across the world and is today the world's most popular illegal drug with the highest availability. Cannabis is grown legally in many countries for industrial, non-drug use (known as hemp) as well. Cannabis-Hemp may also be planted for other non-drug domestic purposes such as seasoning in Aceh.

Tobacco[link]

While the purchase and use of tobacco is legal for adults in most countries throughout the world, heavy taxation in some countries such as the United Kingdom has resulted in an extensive market for its illegal trade. Tobacco products such as name-brand cigarettes may be sold as low as one third of the retail price because of the lack of taxes which would be imposed throughout the legal distribution process. It was estimated in 2004 that smuggling a single truck containing up to 48,000 cartons of cigarettes from Virginia to New York in the United States could lead to a profit of around US$2 million.^[22]

Wikinews has related news: Nearly three million contraband cigarettes seized by Canadian and U.S. authorities

The source of the illegally-traded tobacco is often the proceeds from other crimes, such as store and transportation robberies.

A notable exception to the legal status of tobacco in most countries internationally is the kingdom of Bhutan, which made the sale of tobacco illegal in December 2004,^[23] and since this event, a large supply of tobacco has been made available on the black market. In 2006, tobacco and betel nut were the most commonly seized illicit drugs in Bhutan.^[24]

Heroin[link]

A field of opium poppies in Burma.

Up until fairly recently the majority of the world's heroin was produced in an area known as the Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia).^[25] In 2008 Afghanistan was by a very wide margin "the world's largest exporter of heroin".^[26][27] In 2007, 93% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.^[28] This amounts to an export value of about $64 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers.^[29] Another significant area where poppy fields are grown for the manufacture of heroin is Mexico.

According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the price of heroin is typically valued 8 to 10 times that of cocaine on American streets, making it a high-profit substance for smugglers and dealers.^[30] In Europe (except the transit countries Portugal and the Netherlands), for example, a purported gram of street heroin, usually consisting of 700–800 mg of a light to dark brown powder containing 5-10% heroin base, costs between 30 and 70 euros, making the effective value per gram of pure heroin between 300 and 700 euros. Heroin is generally a preferred target for smuggling and distribution over unrefined opium due to the cost-effectiveness and increased efficacy^{[citation needed]} of heroin.

Because of the high cost per volume, heroin is easily smuggled. A quarter-sized^{[clarification needed]} vial can contain hundreds of doses. From the 1930s to the early 1970s, the so-called French Connection supplied the majority of US demand. Allegedly, during the Vietnam War, drug lords such as Ike Atkinson used to smuggle hundreds of kilos of heroin to the U.S. in coffins of dead American soldiers (see Cadaver Connection). Since that time it has become more difficult for drugs to be imported into the United States than it had been in previous decades, but that does not stop the heroin smugglers from getting their product onto U.S. soil. Purity levels vary greatly by region with, for the most part, Northeastern cities having the most pure heroin in the United States. (According to a recently released^[when?] report by the DEA, Camden and Newark, New Jersey and Philadelphia, have the purest street grade A heroin in the country.)^{[citation needed]}

Penalties for smuggling heroin and/or morphine are often harsh in most countries. Some countries will readily hand down a death sentence (e.g. Singapore) or life in prison for the illegal smuggling of heroin or morphine, which are both, internationally, Schedule I drugs under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.^{[citation needed]}

Methamphetamine[link]

Methamphetamine is another popular drug among distributors. Three common street names are "crystal meth", "meth", and "ice".^[31]

According to the Community Epidemiology Work Group, the numbers of clandestine methamphetamine laboratory incidents reported to the National Clandestine Laboratory Database decreased from 1999 to 2009. During this same period, methamphetamine lab incidents increased in midwestern States (Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio), and in Pennsylvania. In 2004, more lab incidents were reported in Missouri (2,788) and Illinois (1,058) than in California (764). In 2003, methamphetamine lab incidents reached new highs in Georgia (250), Minnesota (309), and Texas (677). There were only seven methamphetamine lab incidents reported in Hawaii in 2004, though nearly 59 percent of substance abuse treatment admissions (excluding alcohol) were for primary methamphetamine abuse during the first six months of 2004. As of 2007, Missouri leads the United States in clandestine lab seizures, with 1,268 incidents reported.^[32] Often canine units are used for detecting rolling meth labs which can be concealed on large vehicles, or transported on something as small as a motorcycle. These labs are more difficult to detect than stationary ones, and can be often obscured with the legal cargo on big trucks.^[33]

Methamphetamine is sometimes used in an injectable form, placing users and their partners at risk for transmission of HIV and hepatitis C.^[34] "Meth" can also be inhaled, most commonly vaporized on aluminum foil, or through a test tube or light bulb fashioned into a pipe. This method is reported to give "an unnatural high" and a "brief intense rush".^[35]

In South Africa methamphetamine is called "tik" or "tik-tik".^{[citation needed]} Children as young as eight are abusing the substance, smoking it in crude glass vials made from light bulbs.^{[citation needed]} Since methamphetamine is easy to produce, the substance is manufactured locally in staggering quantities.^{[citation needed]}

Temazepam[link]

Temazepam, a strong hypnotic benzodiazepine, is illicitly manufactured in clandestine laboratories (called jellie labs) to supply the increasingly high demand for the hypnotic drug internationally.^[36] Many clandestine temazepam labs are in Eastern Europe. The way in which they manufacture the temazepam is through chemical alteration of diazepam, oxazepam or lorazepam.^[37] Clandestine "jellie labs" have been identified and shutdown in Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Latvia and Belarus.^[38]

In the United Kingdom, temazepam is the most widely-abused legal, prescription drug^{[citation needed]}. It's also the most commonly abused benzodiazepine in Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Russia, People's Republic of China, New Zealand, Australia and some parts of Southeast Asia^{[citation needed]}. In Sweden it has been banned due to a problem with drug abuse issues and a high rate of death caused by temazepam alone relative to other drugs of its group. Surveys in many countries show that temazepam, heroin, cocaine, MDMA, cannabis, nimetazepam, and amphetamines rank among the top illegal drugs most frequently abused.^{[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]}

U.S. Government involvement[link]

The U.S. Federal Government is an opponent of the illegal drug trade; however, state laws vary greatly and in some cases contradict federal laws. Despite the US government's official position against the drug trade, US government agents and assets have been implicated in the drug trade and were caught and investigated during the Iran-Contra scandal, implicated in the use of the drug trade as a secret source of funding for the USA's support of the Contras. Page 41 of the December 1988 Kerry report to the US Senate^[50] states that "indeed senior US policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra's funding problem."

Acclaimed investigator and former DEA agent Michael Levine has alleged that the CIA participated in orchestrating the 1980 Cocaine Coup in Bolivia to install an Operation Condor military government, in place of the pre-coup civilian government. The pre-coup government had collaborated with the DEA in bringing leaders of the Roberto Suarez cartel to justice, and Levine alleges that the CIA not only intervened judicially to release the extradited cartel leaders and allow their flight to Bolivia, but also enabled them to collaborate with right-wing military factions in overthrowing the civilian government that had collaborated with the DEA. The drug links of the coup government were obvious to the international community, which led to the coup becoming termed "the Cocaine Coup" by historians. Levine alleges that one of the CIA agents who participated in the coup was Klaus Barbie, the former SS Nazi known as the "Butcher of Lyon," who had previously collaborated with the CIA in Bolivia during the capture and execution of Che Guevara.

Contrary to its official goals, the US has suppressed research on drug usage, although the CIA researched regardless during MKULTRA. For example, in 1995 the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) announced in a press release the publication of the results of the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken. However, a decision in the World Health Assembly banned the publication of the study. In the sixth meeting of the B committee the US representative threatened that "If WHO activities relating to drugs failed to reinforce proven drug control approaches, funds for the relevant programmes should be curtailed". This led to the decision to discontinue publication. A part of the study has been released.^[51] Several government-sponsored reports by commissioned experts have pointed to public substance abuse treatment as opposed to criminalization as the only effective way to battle the public health crisis caused by drugs; these recommendations have been mostly ignored by US government officials, and in some cases suppressed.

See also[link]

• Counterfeit drug
• Khat
• Legal drug trade

International coordination:

• Interpol
• United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances

Case studies:

• Drug policy of the Soviet Union
• Federal Police (Mexico)
• Illegal drug trade in Colombia
• Illegal drug trade in the People's Republic of China
• Mexican Drug War

US specific:

• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Murillo, Luis E. (1995). The Noriega Mess: The Drugs, the Canal, and Why America Invaded. 1096 pages, illustrated. Berkeley: Video Books. ISBN 0-923444-02-5.

External links[link]

• "The Forgotten Drug War", published by the Council on Foreign Relations
• Illicit drug issues by country, by the CIA
• United Summaries of EU legislation: Combating drugs
• LANIC Drug Production, Consumption, and Trafficking page
• The illicit drug trade in the United Kingdom – 2007 Home Office report
• UNODC – United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – World Drug Campaign
• Texas School Survey of Drug and Alcohol Use – The nation's largest online library of state-funded school district survey reports showing annual substance use trends among Texas students, covering years 1989–2009.
• Global Drug Trade Market Data Havocscope Black Markets

v t e Recreational drug use Major recreational drugs Opioids Buprenorphine (Subutex · Suboxone) Codeine Dextropropoxyphene (Darvon · Darvocet) Diamorphine (heroin) \ Morphine (Opium) Hydrocodone Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) Methadone Mitragyna speciosa (Kratom) Oxycodone Depressants Barbiturates Benzodiazepines Ethanol (Alcoholic beverages) GHB Kava Nonbenzodiazepines Stimulants Amphetamine Arecoline (Areca) Betel Caffeine (Coffee Tea) Cathinone (Khat) Cocaine (Coca) Ephedrine (Ephedra) Mephedrone Methamphetamine Methylphenidate Nicotine (Tobacco) Theobromine (Cocoa) Entactogens MDA MDMA (Ecstasy) Hallucinogens Psychedelics Bufotenin Psychoactive toads Vilca Yopo DMT (Ayahuasca) LSA LSD-25 Mescaline Peruvian Torch Peyote San Pedro Psilocybin \ Psilocin (Psilocybin mushrooms) Dissociatives DXM Inhalants Nitrous oxide alkyl nitrites – poppers, such as amyl nitrite Ketamine MXE Muscimol (Amanita muscaria) PCP Salvinorin A (Salvia divinorum) Deliriants Atropine and Scopolamine Datura Deadly Nightshade Henbane Mandrake Dimenhydrinate Diphenhydramine Cannabinoids JWH-018 THC (Cannabis Hashish Hash oil) Oneirogens Calea zacatechichi Silene capensis Drug culture Cannabis 420 Cannabis cultivation Cannabis smoking Legal history of cannabis in the United States Legality of cannabis Marijuana Policy Project Medical cannabis NORML Religious and spiritual use of cannabis Stoner film Psychedelic Art Drug Experience Literature Music Other Club drug Counterculture of the 1960s Dance party Drug paraphernalia Drug tourism Entheogen Hippie Party and play Poly drug use Rave Self-medication Sex and drugs Problems with drug use Abuse Dependence Prevention Opioid replacement therapy Rehabilitation Responsible use Drug-related crime Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder Illegal drug trade Long-term effects of cannabis Neurotoxicity Overdose Date-rape drug Passive smoking (of tobacco or other substances) Legality of drug use International 1961 Narcotic Drugs 1971 Psychotropic Substances 1988 Drug Trafficking Cannabis reform at the international level State level Drug policy Decriminalization Prohibition Supply reduction Policy reform Demand reduction Drug Policy Alliance Harm reduction Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Liberalization Students for Sensible Drug Policy Transform Drug Policy Foundation Drug policy by country Australia Canada Germany India Netherlands Portugal Sweden Switzerland Soviet Union United States Just Say No Office of National Drug Control Policy School district drug policies California Colorado Maryland Virginia Other Arguments for and against drug prohibition Capital punishment for drug trafficking Designer drug Drug court Drug possession Drug test Hard and soft drugs Illegal drug trade in Colombia Mexican Drug War Narc Opium production in Afghanistan Politics of drug abuse War on Drugs Zero tolerance Lists of countries by... Alcohol consumption Cannabis legality Annual use Lifetime use Cigarette consumption Cocaine use Opiates use

Gary Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004) was a Pulitzer prize-winning American investigative journalist.

Webb was best known for his 1996 "Dark Alliance" series of articles written for the San Jose Mercury News and later published as a book. In the three-part series, Webb investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had allegedly smuggled cocaine into the U.S. Their smuggled cocaine was distributed as crack cocaine in Los Angeles, with the profits funneled back to the Contras. Webb also alleged that this influx of Nicaraguan-supplied cocaine sparked, and significantly fueled, the widespread crack cocaine epidemic that swept through many U.S. cities during the 1980s. According to Webb, the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by Contra personnel. Webb charged that the Reagan administration shielded inner-city drug dealers from prosecution in order to raise money for the Contras, especially after Congress passed the Boland Amendment, which prohibited direct Contra funding.

Webb's reporting generated fierce controversy, and the San Jose Mercury News backed away from the story, effectively ending Webb's career as a mainstream media journalist. In 2004, Webb was found dead from two gunshot wounds to the head, which the coroner's office judged a suicide. Though he was criticized and outcast from the mainstream journalism community, his reportage was eventually vindicated as many of his findings have since been validated: since Webb's death, both the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune have defended his "Dark Alliance" series. Journalist George Sanchez states that "the CIA’s internal investigation by Inspector General Frederick Hitz vindicated much of Gary’s reporting" and observes that despite the campaign against Webb, "the government eventually admitted to more than Gary had initially reported" over the years.^[1]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Webb was born to a military family in Corona, California. At 15, Webb began writing editorials for his suburban Indianapolis high school newspaper. At the height of the protests against the Vietnam War, he created his first controversy when he criticized the use of a female drill team to rally students for the war. Webb attended journalism school at Northern Kentucky University, where he was on staff at the student newspaper The Northerner, but dropped out. He started his professional career at the Kentucky Post, then worked as a statehouse correspondent for The Plain Dealer. Webb found a lifelong passion in investigating government and private sector corruption. In 1988, Webb joined the San Jose Mercury News as a staff writer. He helped expose freeway retrofitting problems in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and wrote stories about computer software problems at the California DMV.^[2]

Dark Alliance[link]

Series[link]

In August 1996 the San Jose Mercury News published Webb's "Dark Alliance," a 20,000 word, three-part investigative series which alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and that drug profits were used to fund the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras. Webb never asserted that the CIA directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras, but he did document that the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of cocaine into the U.S. by the Contra personnel.^[3] "Dark Alliance" received national attention. At the height of the interest, the web version of it on the San Jose Mercury News website received 1.3 million hits a day. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the series became "the most talked-about piece of journalism in 1996 and arguably the most famous—some would say infamous—set of articles of the decade."^[4]

Webb supported his story with documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, subsequently including a 450-page declassified version of an October 1988 report by CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz. According to Webb and his supporters, the evidence demonstrates that White House officials, including Oliver North, knew about and supported using money from drug trafficking to fund the contras, and these officials neglected to pass any information along to the DEA. The 1988 report from the Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations led by Sen. John Kerry commented that there were "serious questions as to whether or not US officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua."^[5]

Immediately, denials began to emerge refuting the assertions Webb made in "Dark Alliance." Reports in the Washington Post (Oct 4, 1996), Los Angeles Times, and New York Times (Oct 21, 1996), tried to debunk the link between the Contras and the crack epidemic. Post ombudsman Geneva Overholser agreed with critics that her paper's response to Webb's series showed "misdirected zeal" and "more passion for sniffing out the flaws in San Jose's answer than for sniffing out a better answer themselves."^[7] Richard Thieme argued in an opinion piece that the major news outlets focused on attacking Webb or less relevant parts of the story, leaving Webb's thesis largely intact.^[8] Overholser concluded there was "strong previous evidence that the CIA at least chose to overlook contra involvement in the drug trade.... Would that we had welcomed the surge of public interest as an occasion to return to a subject the Post and the public had given short shrift. Alas, dismissing someone else's story as old news comes more naturally."^[9]

Robert Parry, who in 1985 became the first reporter to accuse the Contras of involvement in drug trafficking,[2] wrote that the Post's denunciation of Webb was ironic, because the paper "had long pooh-poohed earlier allegations that the Contras were implicated in drug shipments" but now "the newspaper was finally accepting the reality of Contra cocaine trafficking, albeit in a backhanded way."^[10]

In response to these attacks, Webb created a web site that contained primary documents, transcripts, and audio interviews. By January 1997, Webb's editors no longer contacted him about his stories. In March, Webb was informed that the paper was going to address the readers about his series. On May 11, 1997, Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos published an editorial describing the series as an "important work" and "solidly documented," but criticized the series for: a reliance on one interpretation of complicated, sometimes-conflicting pieces of evidence; failing to estimate the amount of money involved; for oversimplifying the crack epidemic; and for creating impressions that were open to misinterpretation through imprecise language and graphics.^[11] Webb was reassigned to a suburban bureau 150 miles from his home. Because of the long commute, Webb quit the paper in December 1997.

Webb alleged that the 1997 backlash was a form of media manipulation. "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post," Webb stated. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. If you work through friendly reporters on major newspapers, it comes off as the New York Times saying it and not a mouthpiece of the CIA."^[11] In 2004, Webb wrote a long piece, "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," describing the role the Internet played in bringing the "Dark Alliance" story to international attention in 1996, and describing at length the backlash against the story at first externally, through the larger newspapers, and later internally by the paper's editors:

"How do we know for sure that these drug dealers were the first big ring to start selling crack in South Central?" editor Jonathan Krim pressed me . . . "Isn't it possible there might have been others before them?"

"There might have been a lot of things, Jon, but we're only supposed to deal in what we know," I replied. "The crack dealers I interviewed said they were the first. Cops is South Central said they were the first. and that they controlled the entire market. They wrote it in reports that we have. I haven't found anything saying otherwise, not one single name, and neither did the New York Times, the Washington Post or the L.A. Times. So what's the issue here?"

"But how can we say for sure they were the first?" Krim persisted. "Isn't it possible there might have been someone else and they never got caught and no one ever knew about them? In that case, your story would be wrong."

I had to take a deep breath to keep from shouting. "If you're asking me whether I accounted for people who might never have existed, the answer is no," I said. "I only considered people with names and faces. I didn't take phantom drug dealers into account."^[12]

James Aucoin, a communications professor who specializes in the history of investigative reporting, wrote: "In the case of Gary Webb's charges against the CIA and the Contras, the major dailies came after him. Media institutions are now part of the establishment and they have a lot invested in that establishment."^[11]

Book[link]

In 1999, Seven Stories Press published Webb's Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, complete with extensive source citations. The book received mixed reviews.

The book includes an account of a meeting between a pilot (who was making drug/arms runs between San Francisco and Costa Rica) with two Contra leaders who were also partners with the San Francisco-based Contra/drug smuggler Norwin Meneses. According to eyewitnesses, Ivan Gomez, identified by one of the Contras as a CIA agent, was allegedly present at the drug transactions. The pilot told Hitz that Gomez said he was there to "ensure that the profits from the cocaine went to the Contras and not into someone's pocket."

According to Webb, Judd Iverson, a San Francisco defense attorney who represented former Contra Julio Zavala, discovered compelling evidence demonstrating that "agents of the U.S. government were intricately involved in sanctioning cocaine trafficking to raise funds for Contra revolutionary activity."^[13] Soon after, members of the Justice Department persuaded U.S. District Court Judge Robert Peckham to seal the documents in the case.

Critics[link]

Webb’s reporting on the CIA’s dealings with cocaine dealers was not without its critics. The Nation magazine contributor David Corn, while crediting him that "it is only because of Webb that US citizens have confirmation from the CIA that it partnered up with suspected drug traffickers in the just-say-no years and that the Reagan Administration, consumed with a desire to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, allied itself with drug thugs," also criticized Webb for overstating the case and for not proving "his more cinematic allegations."^[14]

Reason magazine’s Glenn Garvin was critical of Webb’s sources and of the evidence he presented. Garvin wrote that Webb’s evidence that the Contra leadership was selling cocaine is almost entirely drawn from the claims of a few Nicaraguan traffickers facing long jail terms, and argued that they were using the CIA as a convenient scapegoat. Garvin also wrote that every guerilla group, including the Mujahideen, FARC and Shining Path, has used the narcotics trade as a way of bolstering its funding efforts, and that far from the Contra-related drug trade being widespread it came down to a small handful of Contra pilots and their associates who were involved in narcotics. He also argued that while these covert narcotic relationships were alleged to be most rampant, the Contras had the least need for funds, as the United States was supplying them with millions of dollars a year in support.^[15]

Supporters and Corroboration[link]

According to historian Mark Fenster,^[16]

[T]he common view among journalists and researchers who have reviewed Webb's stories and have expertise on the Contras and the CIA's role in Nicaragua is that the stories sometimes overstate and overplay the largely testimonial evidence Webb had gathered but were nevertheless neither false nor fantastic. This is true whether the commentators are sympathetic to or critical of Webb. The historical consensus -- to the extent that such a thing is possible concerning controversial covert operations -- indicate that the basic outlines of the Mercury News stories were largely correct.

In 2006 the LA Times published The Truth in `Dark Alliance,’ in which L.A. Times Managing Editor Leo Wolinsky is quoted saying "in some ways, Gary got too much blame...He did exactly what you expect from a great investigative reporter." The article surveys mainstream reporting at the time of Webb's pieces and states that while Webb had committed "hyperbole" and included some unproven allegations, articles by the New York Times "didn’t include the success he achieved or the wrongs he righted – and they were considerable" according to Walt Bogdanich, now a New York Times editor, who had known Webb earlier.

The LA Times piece criticizes its own unfair portrayal of Webb -- "we dropped the ball" -- and notes that "spurred on by Webb’s story, the CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade" and concludes that "History will tell if Webb receives the credit he’s due for prodding the CIA to acknowledge its shameful collaboration with drug dealers. Meanwhile, the journalistic establishment is only beginning to recognize that the controversy over “Dark Alliance” had more to do with poor editing than bad reporting [on Webb's part]".^[17]

Writing in 2005 in the Chicago Tribune, about "the Dangers of Questioning Government Actions," Don Wycliff, the Tribune's public editor, wrote, "I still think Gary Webb had it mostly right. I think he got the treatment that always comes to those who dare question aloud the bona fides of the establishment: First he got misrepresented -- his suggestion that the CIA tolerated the Contras' cocaine trading became an allegation that the agency itself was involved in the drug trade. Then he was ridiculed as a conspiracy-monger." ^[18]

Media Critic Norman Solomon's analysis, "The Establishment's Papers Do Damage Control for the CIA," includes various corroborating evidence that a witch-hunt to discredit Webb was pursued more vigorously than the truth of some of Webb's allegations, including corroboration internal to one such paper, the Washington Post. Notes Solomon^[19]:

The Post's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser, was on target (11/10/96) when she re-raised the question of the U.S. government's relationship to drug smuggling and noted that the three newspapers "showed more passion for sniffing out the flaws in San Jose's answer than for sniffing out a better answer themselves." Citing "strong previous evidence that the CIA at least chose to overlook contra involvement in the drug trade," Overholser found "misdirected zeal" in the Post's response to the Mercury News series: "Would that we had welcomed the surge of public interest as an occasion to return to a subject the Post and the public had given short shrift."

Investigation timeline[link]

Facing increasing public scrutiny from the fallout after Webb's "Dark Alliance" series, the CIA conducted its own internal investigations. Investigative journalist Robert Parry credits Webb for being responsible for the following government investigations into the Reagan-Bush administration's conduct of the Contra war:

• On December 10, 1996, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block announced the conclusion of his investigation into the issue, publishing a summary of the investigation at a press conference. He announced at the press conference that "We have found no evidence that the government was involved in drug trafficking in South-Central." Nevertheless, the report included information that supported some of the charges. Charles Rappleye reported in the L.A. Weekly that Block's "unequivocal statement is not backed up by the report itself, which raises many questions."^[20] Much of the LAPD investigation centered on allegations made in a postscript article to the newspaper's "Dark Alliance" series.
• On January 29, 1998, Hitz published Volume One of his internal investigation. This was the first of two CIA reports that eventually substantiated many of Webb's claims about cocaine smugglers, the Nicaraguan contra movement, and their ability to freely operate without the threat of law enforcement.^[21]
• On March 16, 1998, Hitz admitted that the CIA had maintained relationships with companies and individuals the CIA knew were involved in the drug business. Hitz told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that "there are instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug-trafficking activity or take action to resolve the allegations."^[22] Senator John Kerry reached similar conclusions a decade earlier in 1987. (See:^[5])
• On May 7, 1998, Rep. Maxine Waters, revealed a memorandum of understanding between the CIA and the Justice Department from 1982, which was entered into the Congressional Record. This letter had freed the CIA from legally reporting drug smuggling by CIA assets, a provision that covered the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan rebels.[3]
• On July 23, 1998, the Justice Department released a report by its Inspector General, Michael R. Bromwich. The Bromwich report claimed that the Reagan-Bush administration was aware of cocaine traffickers in the Contra movement and did nothing to stop the criminal activity. The report also alleged a pattern of discarded leads and witnesses, sabotaged investigations, instances of the CIA working with drug traffickers, and the discouragement of DEA investigations into Contra-cocaine shipments. The CIA's refusal to share information about Contra drug trafficking with law-enforcement agencies was also documented. The Bromwich report corroborated Webb's investigation into Norwin Meneses, a Nicaraguan drug smuggler.^{[citation needed]}
• On October 8, 1998, CIA I.G. Hitz published Volume Two of his internal investigation. The report described how the Reagan-Bush administration had protected more than 50 Contras and other drug traffickers, and by so doing thwarted federal investigations into drug crimes. Hitz published evidence that drug trafficking and money laundering had made its way into Reagan's National Security Council where Oliver North oversaw the operations of the Contras.[4] According to the report, the Contra war took precedence over law enforcement. To that end, the internal investigation revealed that the CIA routinely withheld evidence of Contra crimes from the Justice Department, Congress and even the analytical division of the CIA itself. Further, the report confirmed Webb's claims regarding the origins and the relationship of Contra fundraising and drug trafficking. The report also included information about CIA ties to other drug traffickers not discussed in the Webb series, including Moises Nunez and Ivan Gomez. More importantly, the internal CIA report documented a cover-up of evidence which had led to false intelligence assessments.

Aftermath and death[link]

After leaving San Jose Mercury News Webb went to work for the California Assembly Speaker's Office of Member Services and served as a consultant to the California State legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. As a member of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Webb investigated charges that the Oracle Corporation received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001 from former California Governor Gray Davis. Webb was hired by the Sacramento News and Review, after being laid off in 2003 with the rest of the former Speaker's staff as part of a house-cleaning when the new Speaker took over.^[23]

On December 10, 2004, he was found dead from two gunshot wounds to the head.^[24] Sacramento County coroner Robert Lyons asserts that it was suicide, noting that a suicide note was found at the scene.^[25] Webb's ex-wife, Sue Bell, said that Webb had been depressed for some time over his inability to get a job at another major newspaper.^[24]

In April 2011, a second book-length collection of his work, The Killing Game, was released by Seven Stories Press.^[26]

Notable Stories[link]

• 1980 – "The Coal Connection" (with Thomas Scheffey), Kentucky Post (organized crime in the Kentucky coal industry)
• 1983 – "I Create Life" (with Maria Riccardi), Cleveland Plain Dealer (early surrogate parenting arrangements)
• 1985 – "Doctoring the Truth," Cleveland Plain Dealer (ongoing malpractice and collusion concerns on the Ohio Medical Board
• 1989 – "Caltrains Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety" (with Peter Carey), San Jose Mercury News (detailed CalTrans negligence in construction of the Cypress Structure in Oakland which collapsed during the Loma Prieta Earthquake)
• 1990 – "Good Cop, Bad Cop," San Jose Mercury News (police brutality)
• 1996 – "Dark Alliance," San Jose Mercury News (CIA-crack cocaine-Contra connection)
• 1999 – "Driving While Black," Esquire (racial profiling in traffic stops)
• 2001 – "Sex and the Internet," Wired (investigation of the online sex industry)
• 2004 – "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," from Into the Buzzsaw (retrospective on the media's handling of the "Dark Alliance" story)
• 2004 – "The Killing Game," Sacramento News & Review (military's use of first-person shooter video games as recruitment tools) [5]

Awards[link]

Reporting[link]

• 1980 — Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Award, small newspaper division.
• 1980 — Laurel, Columbia Journalism Review.
• 1980 — Gerald M. White Memorial Prize for Investigative Reporting, Cincinnati SDX.
• 1980 — Investigative Reporters and Editors Award(IRE), for co-authoring a 17-part series at the Kentucky Post in Covington, KY with Tom Scheffey on organized crime in the American coal industry. [6]
• 1981 — First place, investigative reporting, Kentucky Press Assn.
• 1981 — Second place, deadline news reporting, Cincinnati SDX.
• 1981 — Third place, investigative reporting, Cincinnati SDX.
• 1982 — Third place, investigative reporting, Kentucky Press Assn.
• 1983 — First place, municipal reporting, Kentucky Municipal League.
• 1983 — Reporter of the Month, Scripps Howard Newspapers.
• 1984 — Second place, series, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1984 — Third place, series, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1985 — Laurel, Columbia Journalism Review.
• 1985 — First place, investigative reporting, Northeast Ohio SDX.
• 1986 — Honorable mention, enterprise reporting, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1986 — Honorable mention, series, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1986 — First place, investigative reporting, Northeast Ohio SDX.
• 1986 — Gold Medal, health reporting, American Chiropractic Assn.
• 1987 — First place, legal reporting, Ohio Bar Assn.
• 1987 — Second place, spot news, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 — Third place, projects, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 — Honorable mention, features, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 — Freedom of Information Award, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1987 — First place, investigative reporting, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1988 — First place, investigative reporting, Ohio Associated Press Assn.
• 1989 — Honorable mention, features, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1989 — First place, series, Central Ohio SDX.
• 1990 — Pulitzer Prize, in General News Reporting, awarded to the Staff of the San Jose Mercury News for its detailed coverage of the October 17, 1989, Bay Area earthquake and its aftermath. [7]
• 1993 — Second place, series, Peninsula Press Club.
• 1994 — H.L. Mencken Award, by The Free Press Association for the series in the San Jose Mercury News on abuses in the state of California's drug asset forfeiture program. 1995—California Journalism Award, Center for California Studies, CSU.
• 1995 — Honorable mention, Gerald Loeb Award, UCLA School of Business.
• 1995 — First Place, local news reporting, Peninsula Press Club.
• 1996 - James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, Hunter College, City University of New York.
• 1996 — Freedom Fighter Award, California NAACP.
• 1996 — Journalist of the Year, Bay Area Society of Professional Journalists.
• 1997 — Media Hero Award, from the 2nd Annual Media & Democracy Congress.

Literary[link]

• 1998 — Firecracker Alternative Book (FAB) Award, politics, Dark Alliance
• 1998 — Nominee, Best Nonfiction Book, Bay Area Book Reviewers Association, Dark Alliance.
• 1998 — Finalist, PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award, Dark Alliance.
• 1999 — Oakland PEN First Amendment Award, Dark Alliance.
• 2002 — 25 Books to Remember, New York Public Library, Into the Buzzsaw (contributor)
• 2003 — Rouse Award for Press Criticism, National Press Club, Into the Buzzsaw (contributor)

College journalism[link]

• 1975 — First place, specialty column, Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Assn.
• 1977 — Third place, specialty column, Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Assn.
• 1977 — Third place, non-editorial cartooning, Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Assn.

See also[link]

• CIA and Contras cocaine trafficking in the US
• CIA drug trafficking
• American Drug War: The Last White Hope
• Iran-Contra Affair
• Oscar Danilo Blandon
• William J. Casey
• Danny Casolaro
• Mark Lombardi
• James Hatfield
• Ricky Ross (drug trafficker)

Notes[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

Bibliography[link]

• Borjesson, Kristina (Ed.) (2002). Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-972-7.  Includes chapter 14 by Gary Webb.
• Celerino III Castillo & Dave Harmon (1994). Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War. Sundial. ISBN 0-88962-578-6 (paperback) ISBN 0-8095-4855-0 (hardcover; Borgo Pr; 3rd ed.; 1995). 
• Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair (1999). Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-139-2 (cloth), ISBN 1-85984-258-5 (paperback).  Cites 116 books.
• Frederick P. Hitz (1999). "Obscuring Propriety: The CIA and Drugs". International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 12 (4): 448–462. DOI:10.1080/088506099304990.  Note: Hitz, then CIA Inspector General, was the person who first mentioned the secret agreement between CIA and the Department of Justice, in March 1988, when testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.
• Robert Parry (1999). Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & "Project Truth". Media Consortium. ISBN 1-893517-00-4. 
• Nick Schou (Charles Bowden, preface) (2006). Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Gary Webb. Nation Books. ISBN 1-56025-930-2. 
• Peter Dale Scott & Jonathan Marshall (1991). Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21449-8 (paperback, 1998 reprint), ISBN 0-520-07312-6 (hardcover, 1991), ISBN 0-520-07781-4 (paperback, 1992 reprint). 
• Webb, Gary (1998). Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-888363-68-1 (hardcover, 1998), ISBN 1-888363-93-2 (paperback, 1999).