U.S. government

The U.S. government, through the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and State Department, orchestrated support for the Contra war while simultaneously protecting Contra-connected drug traffickers from prosecution. The contradiction between the government's public anti-drug stance and its covert protection of drug-running allies was the central theme of the Dark Alliance investigation.¹

The Dual Policy

While the Reagan administration waged a public "War on Drugs" and Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush whipped the public into a frenzy over crack dealers, the CIA and NSC were facilitating cocaine trafficking by Contra-connected networks. The government used the DEA and Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate street-level dealers while shielding Contra traffickers from prosecution. When Celerino Castillo sent reports to DEA headquarters about Contra pilots smuggling drugs, they disappeared into a "bureaucratic black hole." The secret 1982 Memorandum of Understanding between CIA Director William Casey and Attorney General William French Smith exempted CIA assets from drug crimes reporting for thirteen years.²