#UnitedStates
42 entries tagged UnitedStates.
People (29)
- Alan Fenster Beverly Hills defense attorney who represented Ricky Ross throughout his legal troubles, including the DEA reverse sting case.
- Brad Brunon Los Angeles attorney who represented Danilo Blandon and provided firsthand observations about Contra fundraising through cocaine trafficking.
- Craig Chretien DEA Special Agent in Charge of the San Diego regional office who met with Gary Webb in October 1995 in an attempt to dissuade him from publishing the Dark Alliance story, and who was later promoted to head the DEA's International Division.
- Crossan Andersen Federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who took the Danilo Blandon case to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and described it as 'a sensitive matter' involving CIA allegations.
- Daniel Garner LASD Majors II deputy and court-certified money-laundering expert whose prosecution for corruption nearly exposed the Contra-CIA drug connection through documents he had seized from Ronald Lister's home in 1986.
- Dennis Ainsworth San Francisco Contra supporter and Republican activist who discovered the FDN's cocaine trafficking connections and alerted the FBI, only to be ignored.
- Dewey Clarridge Chief of the CIA Latin American Division from 1981 to 1984 who oversaw the creation of the Contra project, recruited Contra leaders including Eden Pastora, and was later indicted for perjury during the Iran-Contra investigation.
- Donald Barrios Wealthy Nicaraguan exile, FDN supporter, and relative of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro who introduced Norwin Meneses to Danilo Blandon and co-founded La Parrilla restaurant in Miami as a Contra gathering place.
- Douglas Aukland FBI agent in Riverside, California, whose walk-in informant exposed the Blandon-Meneses Contra drug connection but who was given minimal resources to investigate.
- Gary Webb Investigative reporter for the San Jose Mercury News whose 1996 Dark Alliance series exposed links between CIA-backed Contras, Nicaraguan cocaine traffickers, and the crack explosion in Los Angeles.
- George W. Bush George W. Bush was the 43rd President of the United States (2001-2009), son of former CIA Director and President George H.W. Bush; his presidency initiated the War on Terror following the September 11, 2001 attacks, launched the 2003 Iraq invasion based on false WMD intelligence, authorized the CIA's 'enhanced interrogation' torture program and black site network, and approved the NSA's warrantless mass surveillance program.
- Harland Braun Prominent criminal defense attorney who represented Deputy Daniel Garner in the Operation Big Spender corruption trial and attempted to introduce evidence of CIA drug money laundering, resulting in a judicial gag order.
- Henry Corrales Nicaraguan cocaine trafficker who served as the intermediary between Danilo Blandón and Ricky Ross after Ivan Arguellas was paralyzed.
- Humberto Cardona Colombian cocaine kingpin extradited to the United States in 1985 who continued supplying the South Central Los Angeles crack market through the Meneses-Blandon network while jetting around the world.
- Ivan Torres Nicaraguan drug trafficker and FDN West Coast branch chief who managed Danilo Blandon's Los Angeles cocaine operations while claiming CIA awareness of his drug activities.
- Jerry Ceppos Executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News who initially championed the Dark Alliance series before publishing a column describing shortcomings in the reporting, effectively ending the investigation.
- Jerry Guzzetta Bell Police Department narcotics detective whose personal vendetta against drug dealers led to the Torres brothers investigation, codenamed Project Sahara, which uncovered the massive Blandon-Ross cocaine network.
- John Vandewerker Former CIA officer who employed Richard Wilker and knew of his weapons business activities with Ronald Lister in El Salvador.
- Leroy Brown Corner Pocket Crip and Compton crack dealer who became a business partner of Ricky Ross.
- Rafael Cornejo Norwin Meneses's nephew and distributor in the San Francisco Bay Area since the mid-1970s whose territory stretched to Portland, Oregon, convicted of income tax evasion in 1985 and cocaine trafficking in 1996.
- Richard Wilker Former CIA agent who served as technical director for Pyramid International Security Consultants' weapons operations in El Salvador.
- Ricky Ross Freeway Ricky Donnell Ross led South Central Los Angeles's largest crack cocaine distribution network, expanding from local dealing to a coast-to-coast operation that moved over 150 kilos per week at its peak.
- Robert Byck Yale University cocaine expert who warned Congress in 1979 about an impending freebase cocaine epidemic, was ignored, and returned in 1986 to criticize the government's failure to act.
- Ronald Lister Former police officer who became Danilo Blandón's partner in cocaine trafficking and weapons dealing through Pyramid International Security Consultants, with suspected CIA connections.
- Scott Weekly Former Navy SEAL and weapons expert known as 'Dr. Death' who was Ronald Lister's CIA contact and participated in covert operations for the NSC and State Department while connected to the Blandon drug investigation.
- Seth Rosenfeld San Francisco Examiner reporter whose 1986 investigative stories exposed the Frogman Case Contra drug connections and Norwin Meneses's cocaine trafficking network.
- Thomas Dowling Fake Catholic priest and Contra activist who received $73,000 from Oliver North and Adolfo Calero for domestic propaganda operations.
- Thomas Gordon LASD Major Violators detective who led the investigation into the Blandon-Ross cocaine network after receiving Jerry Guzzetta's Project Sahara reports.
- Wanda Palacios Miami FBI informant and wife of a Colombian trafficker who witnessed Southern Air Transport planes being loaded with cocaine and unloading guns in Colombia.
Organizations (3)
- DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration was the principal federal anti-narcotics agency that possessed extensive knowledge of Danilo Blandón's cocaine trafficking as early as 1981 yet took no action while he received U.S. political asylum.
- Federal Reserve Board The Federal Reserve Board (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) is the governing body of the U.S. central banking system, established 1913; it appears in this vault primarily in connection with the BCCI scandal, in which the Federal Reserve approved Clark Clifford and Robert Altman's First American Bankshares acquisition without knowing of BCCI's secret beneficial ownership, and later investigated and fined BCCI's principals for the regulatory deception.
- Vorherrschaft Division Vorherrschaft Division is a U.S.-based neo-Nazi accelerationist Telegram organization documented as an organizational ally of Feuerkrieg Division and InJekt Division within the United Acceleration Front coalition, whose most violent documented member, Timothy Wilson, was killed by the FBI during an arrest attempt in March 2020.
Events (4)
- Boland Amendment Series of congressional amendments prohibiting U.S. funding for Contra military operations, widely circumvented by the Reagan administration and the CIA.
- Iran-Contra Affair Political scandal involving the secret sale of arms to Iran to fund the Nicaraguan Contras in violation of the Boland Amendment, leading to indictments of multiple CIA and NSC officials.
- Lockheed bribe scandal 1976 scandal involving bribes paid by Lockheed Aircraft Company to Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres and other international figures.
- USS Liberty Incident 1967 attack on the U.S. Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty by Israeli forces during the Six-Day War, killing 34 crew members and sparking enduring controversy.
Concepts (1)
- Crack Cocaine Smokable, mass-producible form of cocaine that transformed the drug from an expensive luxury into a cheap commodity devastating American inner cities throughout the 1980s.
Places (4)
- Cabazon Indian Reservation Sovereign tribal territory near Indio, California used during the 1980s as a site for a CIA-linked Wackenhut Corporation weapons development and PROMIS software modification joint venture.
- San Francisco Major California city that served as the base of operations for Norwin Meneses's cocaine trafficking network, the site of the Frogman Case, and the location of key DEA and FBI offices investigating Contra drug trafficking.
- South Central Los Angeles Region of Los Angeles that was the epicenter of the crack cocaine explosion in the early 1980s, where Danilo Blandón's Contra-connected cocaine was converted to crack and distributed by Ricky Ross's network.
- USS Princeton USS Princeton (CG-59) is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser whose SPY-1B radar system tracked unidentified aerial objects during November 2004 training exercises off the California coast, producing the sensor data that corroborated the visual accounts of F/A-18 pilots in the Nimitz UAP encounter - the most technically documented unidentified aerial phenomenon case in U.S. military history.