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Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act was used by Gary Webb to obtain government documents that revealed the CIA and DEA's knowledge of Contra-connected drug trafficking.

Active 1966–present Location United States Mentions 40 Tags LawUSGovernmentContraWar

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was used by Gary Webb to obtain government documents that revealed the Central Intelligence Agency and DEA's knowledge of Contra-connected drug trafficking. Webb's FOIA requests produced thousands of pages of previously classified documents that formed the evidentiary backbone of the Dark Alliance series.1

Document Discovery

Webb filed FOIA requests with multiple federal agencies to obtain records about Danilo Blandón, Norwin Meneses, and their connections to the Contra war. The documents he received confirmed that federal law enforcement agencies had been aware of the Blandón-Meneses cocaine trafficking network for years but had failed to prosecute or disrupt it. The FOIA-obtained records included DEA reports, CIA cables, FBI files, and court documents that corroborated the testimony of witnesses and filled in gaps in the narrative.2

Sources

  1. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 1. ↩
  2. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 1. ↩

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