Danny Ray Lasater was a Little Rock, [[Arkansas]] bond broker and close friend and campaign contributor of Governor [[Bill Clinton]].[^1] Lasater was a major figure in the drug trafficking nexus surrounding [[Barry Seal]]'s operations at [[Mena, Arkansas]]. ### Drug Trafficking and Conviction In 1986 Lasater was indicted by a federal grand jury in Little Rock on drug charges, and Clinton's brother Roger, a cocaine addict, was named as an unindicted coconspirator. Lasater pleaded guilty to drug trafficking; he received a thirty-month prison sentence but served only six months in prison. Clinton pardoned him in 1990.[^1] ### FBI Investigation An [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] 1988 report citing the bureau's successful battles against major drug trafficking organizations described a far more extensive operation than was publicly known: "In December 1986, the Little Rock, Arkansas office of the FBI concluded a four-year Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation involving the cocaine trafficking activities of a prominent Little Rock businessman who operated several banking investment firms and brokerages in Arkansas and [[Florida]]. The investigation revealed that this businessman was the main supplier of cocaine to the investment banking and bond community in the Little Rock area, which has the largest bond community in the [[United States]] outside of [[New York City]]. This task force investigation resulted in the conviction of this businessman and 24 codefendants to jail sentences ranging from four months to 10 years, as well as the seizure of cocaine, marijuana, an automobile, an airplane and $77,000."[^1] Typically, investigations conducted by federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) units target top-level criminal organizations, not businessmen who take drugs recreationally. Researchers familiar with the Lasater investigation said the FBI's description went far beyond anything ever publicly released about the probe.[^1] ### Connection to Clinton and Mena Ex-trooper L. D. Brown said that when he confronted Clinton about the cocaine flights Seal was involved in, Governor Clinton replied, "That's Lasater's deal." Historian [[Roger Morris]] wrote that "whatever the limits or extent of Lasater's cocaine trafficking or the nature of his other dealings, most believed that beyond him the larger corruption in Little Rock and elsewhere pointed unmistakably to organized crime, not to mention the vast crimes of Mena — none of which would be pursued."[^1] Clinton's supporters maintained that Lasater was no drug dealer, simply a high-flying businessman who got a little too caught up in the fast life. Clinton pardoned Lasater in 1990.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty"