DID REAGAN ADMINISTRATION CONDONE DRUG SMUGGLING?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89T00234R000100020008-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 16, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: July 28, 1988
• Content Type: MISC

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1: APIuw
2: 0217
3: -Drug Smuggling, Bjt,0594
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5: Thu Jul 28 01:20:50 1988
6:
7: Hearings Ask: Did Reagan Administration Condone Drug Smuggling?
8: By LARRY MARGASAK
9: Associated Press Writer
10: WASHINGTON (AP) A House panel is opening hearings on whether
11: the Reagan administration condoned drug smuggling and other
12: criminal activities to further its Central American policy.
13: Chairman William J., Hughes said his House Judiciary subcommittee
14: on crime will examine allegations of drug smuggling, gun running
15: and money laundering between Central American and the U.S. and
16: the role our government played in ignoring or even encouraging the
17: criminal activities.''
18: Hughes said the series of hearings will "demonstrate there were
19: other motives driving drug law enforcement, like votes on Contra
20: aid.''
21: President Reagan has been a strong opponent of Nicaragua's
22: Sandinista government and steady supporter of the Central American
23: nation's Contra rebels. At various times, both sides in the
24: Nicaraguan conflict have been accused of aiding or taking part in
25: drug smuggling.
26: Hughes said the first hearing today would examine allegations
27: that members of the Sandinista regime cooperated with the Colombian
28: drug cartel to import cocaine into the United States in 1984.
29: The committee is to hear testimony on flights to Nicaragua and
30: other locations in South and Central America by convicted drug
31: pilot Barry Seal, who became a government informant in a federal
32: sting operation.
33: The Seal operation, designed to trap cocaine smugglers, was
34: compromised and ended early because of leaks to the news media from
35: sources familiar with the plan.
36: Hughes said a CIA witness was invited to testify on the agency's
37: role in the operation, but he notified the caimittee he would
38: refuse to cooperate on Fifth Amendment grounds of
39: self-incrimination.
40: More than 100 subpoenas have been issued for witness testimony
41: and the production of documents, Hughes said. Judicial grants of
42: impunity have been obtained to compel testimony of six persons who
43: refused to cooperate, invoking their Fifth Amendment privilege.
44: No immunity grant has been issued for the CIA witness, and
45: Hughes said there has been no decision on pursuing the agency's
46: testimony.
47: Seal in February 1986 was assassinated in a Baton Rouge, La.
48: machine gun attack, as he pulled up in his Cadillac at a Salvation
49: Army halfway house. He was confined there part-time on a six-month
50: sentence for narcotics and bank fraud convictions.
51: In an interview Wednesday, Hughes said, "We're looking at
52: whether ... an obstruction of justice'' caused the end of the Seal
53: operation. The whole operation was aborted because of leaks to
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54: the media.''
55: Seal had contacts with the Colombian drug cartel and "came in
56: contact with at least one Sandinista,'' Hughes said.
57: In October 1985, Seal told a presidential organized crime
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58: commission that he quit his job as an airline pilot because
59: " smuggling was so simple, so lucrative.- He said he easily eluded
60: detection to fly tons of cocaine into the United States for a top
61: fee of $1.5 million.
62: 11I have landed clandestinely in probably every South American
63: country there is,'' Seal said. There is no problem if you have
64: the necessary contacts and dollars with you."
65: Seal told panelists how fly-for-hire pilots take off and land
66: without interference from authorities in Colombia, Nicaragua and
67: other Latin American nations.
68: Seal said he transported cocaine into the United States while
69: working for an illicit drug cartel he said was as sophisticated
70: as any Fortune 500 company.''
71: He displayed night-vision goggles, telephone encryption devices
72: and high-technology message-sending units. "I don't believe
73: there's any paramilitary group better equipped than my former
74: associates,'' he said.
75:
76: AP-NY-07-28-88 0123EDT+
77:
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/31: CIA-RDP89T00234R000100020008-7