San Jose, [[California]] was the home of the [[San Jose Mercury News]], which published the [[Dark Alliance]] series, and a secondary market for Contra-connected [[cocaine]] distribution. The city appeared in the story both as a base for [[Gary Webb]]'s newspaper and as one of the communities affected by the Contra-drug pipeline.[^1] ### Cocaine Distribution [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s Contra-connected cocaine network distributed drugs in San Jose in addition to [[Los Angeles]] and [[San Francisco]]. Gary Webb wrote that the fact a government-connected drug ring was dumping tons of cocaine into black neighborhoods in L.A., "and to a lesser extent in San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, Houston, Oklahoma City, Alabama and [[New Orleans]]," explained why crack developed such deep roots in the black community. "It's where the seed was planted."[^2] ### Dark Alliance Publication The San Jose Mercury News, based in San Jose, published the Dark Alliance series on August 18, 1996. The paper's Web site became a sensation, recording over one million hits in a single day. After the media counterattack, Mercury News executive editor [[Jerry Ceppos]] published his apology column and ordered the Web site's Dark Alliance materials destroyed. Thousands of reprints were gathered up and burned, and a CD-ROM version was destroyed.[^3] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Ch. 27. [^2]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Ch. 27. [^3]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Ch. 27.