Gary Webb

Gary Webb was an investigative reporter for the San Jose Mercury News whose 1996 "Dark Alliance" series exposed the links between Central Intelligence Agency-backed Contra forces in Nicaragua, Nicaraguan cocaine traffickers, and the explosion of Crack Cocaine in Los Angeles and other American cities.¹ His reporting drew on federal court records, DEA and Federal Bureau of Investigation documents, grand jury testimony, and congressional hearing transcripts.

Early Career

Webb began his journalism career at a small daily in Kentucky before moving to the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the early 1980s, where he shared a computer terminal with a veteran reporter nicknamed Tom A.¹ He later worked at the Kentucky Post before joining the San Jose Mercury News. During his time in Sacramento covering state government, Webb developed expertise in asset forfeiture laws, writing a series called "The Forfeiture Racket" about California police seizing private property under the guise of drug enforcement. The series prompted the California legislature to abolish the forfeiture program.²

The Dark Alliance Investigation

In July 1995, Webb received a tip from the girlfriend of incarcerated cocaine trafficker Rafael Cornejo, who claimed one of the government's witnesses against Cornejo was a CIA-connected drug trafficker.¹ The witness turned out to be Danilo Blandón, a Nicaraguan who testified before a federal grand jury that he had sold cocaine in Los Angeles to raise funds for the Contras during the early 1980s. Webb obtained Blandón's grand jury testimony and DEA-6 and FBI 302 reports through court discovery files.

Webb's investigation revealed that Blandón had been the primary supplier to "Freeway" Ricky Ross, the leader of South Central Los Angeles's first major crack distribution network. Blandón had pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 1992 but received an unusually short sentence and was released to work as a paid DEA informant.

Congressional Precedent

Webb discovered that Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations had investigated Contra drug links in 1987 and 1988, uncovering direct evidence of drug traffickers funding the Contras with apparent CIA knowledge.¹ Investigation director Jack Blum told Webb the committee was "trashed" by the Reagan administration and the press when it tried to publicize its findings. AP reporters Robert Parry and Brian Barger had also pursued the story but were similarly attacked.

Sources and Methods

Webb's editor approved the investigation.¹ Webb used Dialog database searches, federal court files in San Diego and San Francisco, Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI, and interviews with witnesses including Dennis Ainsworth, a San Francisco Contra supporter who had tried to alert authorities to drug trafficking by Norwin Meneses and Enrique Bermúdez. Ainsworth warned Webb that pursuing the story would make him "a persona non grata."¹ Webb hired Swiss freelance journalist Georg Hodel in Managua to locate and interview Meneses.

DEA Meeting in San Diego

On October 19, 1995, Webb met with six DEA agents at the National City regional office, including Special Agent in Charge Craig Chretien and Blandón's handlers Chuck Jones and Judy Gustafson. Chretien asked Webb to omit Blandón's DEA ties from the story, claiming it would compromise undercover operations and endanger lives. Jones denied knowing anything about Blandón's Contra drug history. When Webb showed Jones grand jury transcripts proving Blandón had testified about selling cocaine for the Contras, Jones grew enraged and accidentally confirmed the DEA knew about the connection, blurting out that the government had pulled Blandón from the witness stand because a judge ordered release of unredacted files. Chretien proposed a deal: if Webb would focus on Meneses instead of Blandón, the DEA might provide information. Webb agreed to wait a week or two. Chretien was then transferred to Washington and promoted to head the DEA's International Division, replacing Robert Nieves, who resigned eight days after the meeting.³

CIA Cables About the Investigation

A CIA Inspector General's report released in early 1998 referenced three CIA cables about Webb, titled "Possible Attempts to Link CIA to Narcotraffickers," written within weeks of his October 1995 meeting with the DEA. A December 4, 1995, cable from CIA headquarters stated: "In November 1995, we were informed by DEA that a reporter has been inquiring about activities in Central America and any links with the Contras. DEA has been alerted that Norwin Meneses will undoubtedly claim that he was trafficking narcotics on behalf of CIA to generate money for the Contras." The cable noted "extensive entries" in CIA traces on Meneses that were not revealed in the declassified version of the report.³

Project Memo and Web Site Proposal

In December 1995, Webb wrote a four-page project memo outlining the story. He proposed using the Mercury News Web site to post evidence online so readers could examine documents, grand jury transcripts, and undercover DEA tapes for themselves, a use of the Internet unprecedented in journalism. "This series will show that the dumping of cocaine on L.A.'s street gangs was the back end of a covert effort to arm and equip the CIA's ragtag army of anti-Communist Contra guerrillas," Webb wrote. Managing editor David Yarnold approved the approach and told Webb he would have as much space as needed.³

The Ross Trial

Webb attended the March 1996 trial of Ricky Ross in San Diego as the only spectator in the courtroom. He was exposed when a private investigator hired by defense attorney Alan Fenster filed an affidavit naming Webb and his investigation. Jesse Katz of the L.A. Times flew in from Houston to cover the hearing on the government's motion to suppress any CIA testimony, but after the entire hearing was conducted in whispered sidebar conversations, Katz's story revealed only vague "ties to U.S. intelligence sources" without mentioning the Contras.⁴

After Blandón told Webb the DEA would never allow him to be interviewed, Webb devised a solution: he secretly supplied questions to Fenster for cross-examination. Webb's editor approved the arrangement. Fenster used the questions to grill Blandón about his Contra ties, Somoza connections, and meetings with Enrique Bermúdez in Honduras. Blandón's shifting testimony about when he stopped selling cocaine for the Contras, moving the date from 1986 to 1984 to 1982, confirmed to Webb that the prosecution was trying to break the chain linking Contra cocaine to the L.A. gangs.⁴

Publication and Reaction

The four-part "Dark Alliance" series ran in the Mercury News beginning August 18, 1996. Webb's opening paragraph reported that "a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." The series was initially ignored by the national media, but talk radio and the Internet drove it to national attention. The Web site, created by the Mercury Center team, offered full-color animated maps, uncut source documents, audio clips from undercover DEA tapes, and Blandón's federal court testimony. Hits on the Web page climbed past one million.⁵

At Ross's sentencing, Judge Marilyn Huff told prosecutor LJ Oneale she wanted answers from the CIA before passing sentence and ordered the Justice Department to begin deportation proceedings against Blandón. The L.A. City Council unanimously approved a resolution calling for a federal investigation. Both California senators and several congressmen demanded official inquiries. CIA director John Deutch ordered an internal investigation, and Attorney General Janet Reno followed suit.⁵

Media Attacks

In October 1996, the Washington Post published the first major attack, written by Walter Pincus, a former CIA operative, and Roberto Suro. The story falsely claimed Webb alleged a CIA conspiracy to target black communities and accepted Blandón's trial testimony that he quit selling Contra cocaine before meeting Ross. The L.A. Times followed with a three-day series by Katz and Washington bureau chief McManus, declaring that crack "followed no blueprint or master plan" and that the CIA bore no responsibility. McManus's story relied on unnamed sources who claimed only $50,000 to $60,000 went to the Contras, a figure Rafael Cornejo scoffed at: "Sixty thousand? You can raise that in an afternoon."⁵

Follow-Up Reporting and Suppression

Webb and Georg Hodel flew to Costa Rica and Nicaragua to gather additional evidence. Hodel located Carlos Cabezas, who admitted delivering millions in drug money to the Contras and identified CIA agent Ivan Gómez as having direct knowledge. Hodel also found Enrique Miranda, who had been captured in Miami and returned to Nicaragua. Webb submitted four follow-up stories totaling 16,000 words, including evidence that the DEA helped accused CIA drug trafficker John Hull escape from Costa Rica.⁵

Executive editor Jerry Ceppos initially defended the series but on March 25, 1997, informed Webb he was publishing a column describing "shortcomings." At a meeting, Ceppos told Webb the follow-up stories were "a quarter turn of the screw" and refused to publish them. "You're taking a dive on a true story, and one day you're going to find that out," Webb told him. Ceppos's column ran May 11, 1997. The New York Times, which had ignored the original series, splashed the apology on its front page. Webb was transferred to the Cupertino bureau and quit the newspaper in November 1997.⁵

Resignation and Aftermath

A few days after Webb's resignation was announced in November 1997, the CIA leaked the conclusion of an internal investigation to the L.A. Times and the Mercury News, claiming it had absolved the agency of wrongdoing. When the declassified version was released in 1998, it showed the CIA had known about Norwin Meneses's activities and had intervened in the Frogman Case. CIA Inspector General Fred Hitz testified before Congress that the agency had not "in an expeditious or consistent fashion" cut off relationships with Contra-connected drug traffickers, and revealed a secret 1982 agreement between the CIA and Justice Department that exempted CIA assets from drug crimes reporting.⁶