Fentanyl, Crack and Opioid Epidemics under the Supremacy of U.S. Foreign Policy.
By Greg Krasovsky
January 28, 2024
"... the streets of Philadelphia or San Francisco, the two cities that top the rankings for fentanyl deaths in the world."
From "Fentanyl: The Portrait of a Mass Murderer." (see below).
Back in 1989 when I started serving as a City of Philadelphia Police Officer I thought that the Crack Cocaine Epidemic was bad!
Now 35 years later, we have the opioid epidemic, including Fentanyl and its derivatives / analogues.
Remember the 1980s War on Drugs?
The money spent on it? (BTW, pennies when compared to U.S. military & Intelligence Community spending in the 1980s, including black [top secret] budgets).
The number of people incarcerated for drug possession (with the intent to distribute) and actual distribution?
The invasion of Panama to remove General Noriega, a CIA asset who went rogue?
The import of cocaine into the U.S. by CIA-affiliated drug lords and the use of proceeds to fund and arm anti-communist Contras in Honduras to overthrow the communist Sandinista government of Nicaragua?
Back in 1989 when I started arresting major drug dealers in Philadelphia (BTW, older cops told me to let a major kingpin go not to risk my life).
So I asked an acquaintance at the DEA why we weren't intercepting the cocaine at our U.S. borders.
His answer (back in 1989) shocked me --
"Greg, when we detain major drug importers, often the CIA and/or the U.S. State Department come to us and tell us to let them go because these major drug lords work for them [to help protect & advance U.S. interests in Central and South America]."
So I swallowed this bitter truth and realized that there were more important foreign policy goals for the U.S. federal government and its agencies than protecting minority residents of poor urban American neighborhoods.
Since this was confidential law enforcement information, I kept quiet and continued to arrest local drug dealers, often despite the criticism of my fellow police officers and supervisors:
"Greg, what's the point of risking your life, health and career? It's a drop in the bucket that won't make any difference!
This was 7 years before California journalist Gary Webb broke the news on CIA working with drug lords to import cocaine into California.
For his honest reporting, Gary Webb was rewarded with blacklisting and a "suicide" with two shots.
I always respect those controversial guys (i.e. inconvenient witnesses, pesky whistleblowers) who make sure that they're dead by shooting themselves twice (often in the head)!!!
Now that's a unquestionable suicide that warrants no further investigation and effective ends any threat they posed, rewards them for exposing crimes and send a message to other potential snitches and do-good reporters to stay quiet!
Well, here we are 35 years later and Fentanyl is all the rage!
Just look at the statistics on overdose deaths in the U.S.!
So why can't the U.S. Federal government stop its import into the U.S. at the border?
Doesn't the U.S. have borders that can be properly protected by the U.S. Customs & Border Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard and our military like the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marines, Army?
Doesn't the U.S. have money in its federal budget to protect Americans from the import of deadly street drugs like Fentanyl?
After all, we have all that money for the Defense Department and the Intelligence Community?
How about all that money for Ukraine, my ancestral homeland where I spent the first four years of my life?
Somehow I don't think that I need to ask people at the DEA (like back in 1989) or US CBP why we can't stop the contraband of Fentantyl into our Homeland at the border.
Apparently, there are more pressing U.S. federal government foreign policy agendas[*] that supersede secure borders and detaining, neutralizing or even eliminating drug lords that make billions from shipping tons of Fentanyl into the U.S.
[*] Always follow the money trail, because $ don't lie!
If you aren't willing to fix a leaking or broken dam, then how can you expect to stop the deaths & damage from flooding down the river?
Since the War on Drugs started under President Nixon in the 1970s the dominant response has been mass incarceration of drug users and drug dealers instead of seriously going after importers of drugs into the American Homeland (please see related articles below), obviously with poor results.
This is like allowing a pedophile to bring candy into a kindergarten, leaving it accessible to children and then locking the children up in the juvenile justice system for theft while the pedophile remains largely untouched outside waiting, planning and actively working on getting more prey who can't help themselves.
In the meantime, we continue spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually on our military and intelligence agencies, forever wars in countries far away and proxy wars in places like Ukraine.
With predictably poor results for U.S. taxpayers and great profits for the Military-Industrial-Intelligence Complex (and the Transnational Financial Industrial Groups that own it) that President Eisenhower warned us about.
While America's Rust Belt, inner cities and neighborhoods get devastated by imported street drugs like Fentanyl, Heroin, Methamphetamine and Cocaine.
I can imagine how today's young and idealistic young police officers feel in the streets of Philadelphia or San Francisco about the Fentanyl overdoses and the devastation & violence that its addicts & dealers bring to local communities.
What do you think?
***
Fentanyl: The Portrait of a Mass Murderer.
El Pais
Iker Seisdedos
David Marcial Pérez
Carlos Rosillo
Guillermo Abril
Jan 14, 2024 - 08:19 CET
It’s the big threat.
A cheap, white powder — 50 times more powerful than heroin — which kills more than 70,000 people each year in the United States and countless others across the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
EL PAÍS, in a long-term investigation that spanned two continents and included interviews with anti-drug czars in the U.S. and China, visited the clandestine laboratories in Sinaloa, where fentanyl is manufactured.
In the vicinity of these Mexican labs, addicts serve as guinea pigs for drug traffickers.
This newspaper has gathered testimonies about how this lethal substance crosses the border to the north and spreads like a plague through the streets of the most powerful country in the world.
The trafficking of fentanyl is part of a global network with one foot in China, which the White House has declared war on.
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2024-01-14/fentanyl-the-portrait-of-a-mass-murderer.html
***
Fentanyl’s lethal impact: ‘The worst part is waking up in the morning and needing a fix before I can do anything’
Five addicts tell EL PAÍS how their lives were ruined by the consumption of this cheap, highly potent drug that causes 100,000 deaths a year in the US and could trigger the next major health crisis in Mexico
Beatriz Guillén
Tijuana (Mexico) - May 15, 2023 - 12:04 EDT
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-15/fentanyls-lethal-impact-the-worst-part-is-waking-up-in-the-morning-and-needing-a-fix-before-i-can-do-anything.html
***
The US-Mexico war against fentanyl: What leaked documents reveal about the joint operation
The massive leak of emails from the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense shows how Mexico’s armed forces and the United States have been exchanging information to stop the trafficking of synthetic drugs
Elías Camhaji
Mexico - Oct 09, 2022 - 10:52 EDT
https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-10-09/intercepted-frequencies-satellite-photos-and-intelligence-reports-documents-from-the-us-mexico-war-against-fentanyl.html
***
Illegally made fentanyl
Illicit drugs do not come with an ingredient list. Many contain deadly doses of fentanyl
Illegally made fentanyl (IMF) is available on the drug market in different forms, including liquid and powder1.
Powdered fentanyl looks just like many other drugs. It is commonly mixed with drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine and made into pills that are made to resemble other prescription opioids.
Fentanyl-laced drugs are extremely dangerous, and many people may be unaware that their drugs are laced with fentanyl.
In its liquid form, IMF can be found in nasal sprays, eye drops, and dropped onto paper or small candies.
Fentanyl and Overdose
Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths.1
Even in small doses, it can be deadly.
Over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.2
Drugs may contain deadly levels of fentanyl, and you wouldn’t be able to see it, taste it, or smell it.
It is nearly impossible to tell if drugs have been laced with fentanyl unless you test your drugs with fentanyl test strips.
Test strips are inexpensive and typically give results within 5 minutes, which can be the difference between life or death.
Even if the test is negative, take caution as test strips might not detect more potent fentanyl-like drugs, like carfentanil.3
https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/fentanyl/
***
Deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl are on the rise
Rates of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, which includes fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, increased over 22% from 2020 to 2021.
The rate of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids in 2021 was nearly 22 times the rate in 2013.
Nearly 71,000 drug overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids other than methadone in 2021.
The latest provisional drug overdose death counts suggest overdose deaths accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/fentanyl.html
***
Synthetic Opioids
In 2021, nearly 71,000 drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids (other than methadone) occurred in the United States, which is more deaths than from any other type of opioid.
Synthetic opioid-involved death rates increased by over 22% from 2020 to 2021 and accounted for nearly 88% of all opioid-involved deaths in 2021.
The number of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids in 2021 was nearly 23 times the number in 2013.1
Previous reports have indicated that increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths have been associated with the number of drug submissions obtained by law enforcement that test positive for fentanyl, but not with fentanyl prescribing rates.
These reports indicate that increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths are being driven by increases in fentanyl-involved overdose deaths, and the source of the fentanyl is more likely to be illegally made than pharmaceutical.2,3,4
There are also fentanyl analogs, such as acetylfentanyl, furanylfentanyl, and carfentanil, which are similar in chemical structure to fentanyl but not routinely detected because specialized toxicology testing is required.
Recent surveillance has also identified other emerging synthetic opioids, like U-47700.5.
Estimates of the potency of fentanyl analogs vary from less potent than fentanyl to much more potent than fentanyl, but there is some uncertainty because potency of illegally made fentanyl analogs has not been evaluated in humans.
Carfentanil, the most potent fentanyl analog detected in the U.S., is estimated to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine. 5,6
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/opioid-overdose.html
***
Fentanyl
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic piperidine opioid primarily used as an analgesic.
It is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine;[7] its primary clinical utility is in pain management for cancer patients and those recovering from painful surgeries.[8][9]
Fentanyl is also used as a sedative.[10]
Depending on the method of delivery, fentanyl can be very fast acting and ingesting a relatively small quantity can cause overdose.[11]
Fentanyl works by activating μ-opioid receptors.[5]
Fentanyl is sold under the brand names Actiq, Duragesic and Sublimaze, among others.[12]
Overdose
Fentanyl poses an exceptionally high overdose risk in humans, since the amount required to cause toxicity is unpredictable.[10]
In its pharmaceutical form most overdose deaths attributed solely to fentanyl occur at serum concentrations at a mean of 0.025 µg/mL, with a range 0.005–0.027 µg/mL.[74]
In contexts of poly-substance use, blood fentanyl concentrations of approximately 7 ng/ml or greater have been associated with fatalities.[75]
Over 85% of overdoses involved at least one other drug, and there was no clear correlation showing at which level the mixtures were fatal.
The dosages of fatal mixtures varied by over three magnitudes in some cases.
This extremely unpredictable volatility with other drugs makes it especially difficult to avoid fatalities.[76]
...
In June 2023, overdose deaths in the U.S. and Canada again reached record numbers.
According to a 2023 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) based in Vienna, the increased numbers of deaths are not related to an increased number of users but to the lethal effects of fentanyl itself.
Fentanyl would require a special status as it is considerably more toxic than other widely abused opioids and opiates.
With regard to overdose deaths in pediatric cases, numbers are also concerning.
Based on a report by JAMA network, 37.5 % of all fatal pediatric cases between 1999 and 2021 were related to fentanyl; most of the deaths were among adolescents (89.6%) and children aged 0 to 4 years (6.6%).
According to the UNODC, "the opioid crisis in North America is unabated, fueled by an unprecedented number of overdose deaths."[94][95]
Notable deaths
On 25 September 2003, American professional wrestler Anthony Durante, also known as "Pitbull #2", died from a fentanyl-induced overdose.[208]
On 24 May 2009, Wilco guitarist Jay Bennett died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl.[209][210][211]
On 24 May 2010, Slipknot bassist Paul Gray died from an overdose of morphine and fentanyl.[212]
Medical examiners concluded that musician Prince died on 21 April 2016 from an accidental fentanyl overdose.[213] Fentanyl was among many substances identified in counterfeit pills recovered from his home, especially some that were mislabeled as Watson 385, a combination of hydrocodone and paracetamol.[213][214]
On 21 April 2016, American author and journalist Michelle McNamara died from an accidental overdose; medical examiners determined fentanyl was a contributing factor.[215][216]
On 11 November 2016, Canadian video game composer Saki Kaskas died of a fentanyl overdose;[217] he had been battling heroin addiction for over a decade.[217]
On 15 November 2017, American rapper Lil Peep died of an accidental fentanyl overdose.[218][219]
On 19 January 2018, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said musician Tom Petty died from an accidental drug overdose as a result of mixing medications that included fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, and despropionyl fentanyl (among others). He was reportedly treating "many serious ailments" that included a broken hip.[220]
On 7 September 2018, American rapper Mac Miller died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.[221]
On 16 December 2018, American tech entrepreneur Colin Kroll, founder of social media video-sharing app Vine and quiz app HQ Trivia, died from an overdose of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.[222]
On 1 July 2019, American baseball player Tyler Skaggs died from pulmonary aspiration while under the influence of fentanyl, oxycodone, and alcohol.[223]
On 1 January 2020, American rapper, singer, and songwriter Lexii Alijai died from accidental toxicity resulting from the combination of alcohol and fentanyl.[224]
On 20 August 2020, American singer, songwriter and musician Justin Townes Earle died from an accidental overdose caused by cocaine laced with fentanyl.[225]
On 24 August 2020, Riley Gale, frontman for the Texas metal band Power Trip, died as a result of the toxic effects of fentanyl in a manner that was ruled accidental.[226]
On 2 March 2021, American musician Mark Goffeney, also known as "Big Toe" (because being born without arms, he played guitar with his feet), died from an overdose of fentanyl.[227][228]
On 22 April 2021, Digital Underground frontman, rapper, and musician Shock G died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, meth, and alcohol.[229]
On 6 September 2021, actor Michael K. Williams, who rose to fame through his critically acclaimed role as Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire, died from an overdose of fentanyl, parafluorofentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.[230][231]
On 28 September 2022, rapper Coolio (Artis Leon Ivey, Jr) died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine.[232]
On 31 July 2023, Angus Cloud, best known for his portrayal of Fezco on the HBO drama series Euphoria, died from an accidental overdose of methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and benzodiazepines.[233]
On 15 September 2023, an infant died at a daycare due to fentanyl contamination, which is also believed to have caused sickness in other children.[234]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl
***
Carfentanil
Carfentanil or carfentanyl, sold under the brand name Wildnil, is an extremely potent opioid analgesic used in veterinary medicine to anesthetize large animals such as elephants and rhinoceroses.[1]
It is typically administered in this context by tranquilizer dart.[1] Carfentanil has also been used in humans to image opioid receptors.[1]
It has additionally been used as a recreational drug, typically by injection, insufflation, or inhalation.[1]
Deaths have been reported in association with carfentanil.[1][2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfentanil
***
Carfentanil: A Dangerous New Factor in the U.S. Opioid Crisis.
Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid approximately 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
The presence of carfentanil in illicit U.S. drug markets is cause for concern, as the relative strength of this drug could lead to an increase in overdoses and overdose-related deaths, even among opioid-tolerant users.
The presence of carfentanil poses a significant threat to first responders and law enforcement personnel who may come in contact with this substance.
In any situation where any fentanyl-related substance, such as carfentanil, might be present, law enforcement should carefully follow safety protocols to avoid accidental exposure.
Lethality:
Carfentanil is used as a tranquilizing agent for elephants and other large mammals.
The lethal dose range for carfentanil in humans is unknown;
however, carfentanil is approximately 100 times more potent than fentanyl,
which can be lethal at the 2-milligram range (photograph), depending on route of administration and other factors.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edky/file/898991/download
***
Gary Stephen Webb
Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist.
He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996.
The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to finance their fight against the government in Nicaragua.
It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb
***
Managing a Nightmare
How the CIA Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb
Ryan Devereaux
September 25 2014, 2:20 p.m.
Eighteen years after it was published, “Dark Alliance,” the San Jose Mercury News’s bombshell investigation into links between the cocaine trade, Nicaragua’s Contra rebels, and African American neighborhoods in California, remains one of the most explosive and controversial exposés in American journalism.
The 20,000-word series enraged black communities, prompted Congressional hearings, and became one of the first major national security stories in history to blow up online.
It also sparked an aggressive backlash from the nation’s most powerful media outlets, which devoted considerable resources to discredit author Gary Webb’s reporting.
Their efforts succeeded, costing Webb his career.
On December 10, 2004, the journalist was found dead in his apartment, having ended his eight-year downfall with two .38-caliber bullets to the head.
https://theintercept.com/2014/09/25/managing-nightmare-cia-media-destruction-gary-webb/
***
THE CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE CONTROVERSY:
A REVIEW OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS
A. The San Jose Mercury News Articles
On August 18, 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published the first installment of a three-part series of articles concerning crack cocaine, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Nicaraguan Contra army. The introduction to the first installment of the series read:
For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco 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, a Mercury News investigation has found.
This drug network opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a city now known as the "crack" capital of the world. The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America . . . and provided the cash and connections needed for L.A.'s gangs to buy automatic weapons.
The three-day series of articles, entitled "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion," told the story of a Los Angeles drug operation run by Ricky Donnell Ross, described sympathetically as "a disillusioned 19-year-old . . . who, at the dawn of the 1980s, found himself adrift on the streets of South-Central Los Angeles."
The Dark Alliance series recounted how Ross began peddling small quantities of cocaine in the early 1980s and rapidly grew into one of the largest cocaine dealers in southern California until he was convicted of federal drug trafficking charges in March 1996.
The series claimed that Ross' rise in the drug world was made possible by Oscar Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses, two individuals with ties to the Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (FDN), one group comprising the Nicaraguan Contras.
Blandon and Meneses reportedly sold tons of cocaine to Ross, who in turn converted it to crack and sold it in the black communities of South Central Los Angeles.
Blandon and Meneses were said to have used their drug trafficking profits to help fund the Contra army's war effort.
Stories had previously been written about the Contras' alleged ties to drug trafficking.
For example, on December 20, 1985, an Associated Press article claimed that three Contra groups "engaged in cocaine trafficking, in part to help finance their war against Nicaragua."
Rumors about illicit activities on the part of the Contras had also been probed in Senate hearings in the late 1980s.
However, the Mercury News series contained -- or at least many readers interpreted it to contain -- a new sensational claim: that the CIA and other agencies of the United States government were responsible for the crack epidemic that ravaged black communities across the country.
The newspaper articles suggested that the United States government had protected Blandon and Meneses from prosecution and either knowingly permitted them to peddle massive quantities of cocaine to the black residents of South Central Los Angeles or turned a blind eye to such activity.
https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/9712/ch01p1.htm
***
The CIA, Contras, Gangs, and Crack
Based on a year-long investigation, reporter Gary Webb wrote that during the 1980s the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaragua's leftist government through sales of cut-rate cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer, Ricky Ross.
November 1, 1996
William Blum
CIA Director John Deutch declared that he found “no connection whatsoever” between the CIA and cocaine traffickers. And major media–the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post–have run long pieces refuting the Mercury News series.
They deny that Bay Area-based Nicaraguan drug dealers, Juan Norwin Meneses and Oscar Danilo Blandon, worked for the CIA or contributed “millions in drug profits” to the contras, as Webb contended. They also note that neither Ross nor the gangs were the first or sole distributors of crack in L.A.
Webb, however, did not claim this. He wrote that the huge influx of cocaine happened to come at just the time that street-level drug dealers were figuring out how to make cocaine affordable by changing it into crack.
Many in the media have also postulated that any drug-trafficking contras involved were “rogue” elements, not supported by the CIA.
But these denials overlook much of the Mercury News‘ evidence of CIA complicity. For example:
CIA-supplied contra planes and pilots carried cocaine from Central America to U.S. airports and military bases.
In 1985, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Celerino Castillo reported to his superiors that cocaine was being stored at the CIA’s contra-supply warehouse at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador for shipment to the U.S.
The DEA did nothing, and Castillo was gradually forced out of the agency.
When Danilo Blandón was finally arrested in 1986, he admitted to drug crimes that would have sent others away for life. The Justice Department, however, freed Blandón after only 28 months behind bars and then hired him as a full-time DEA informant, paying him more than $166,000.
When Blandón testified in a 1996 trial against Ricky Ross, the Justice Department blocked any inquiry about Blandón’s connection to the CIA.
Although Norwin Meneses is listed in DEA computers as a major international drug smuggler implicated in 45 separate federal investigations since 1974, he lived conspicuously in California until 1989 and was never arrested in the U.S.
Senate investigators and agents from four organizations all complained that their contra-drug investigations “were hampered,” Webb wrote, “by the CIA or unnamed ‘national security’ interests.”
In the 1984 “Frogman Case,” for instance, the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco returned $36,800 seized from a Nicaraguan drug dealer after two contra leaders sent letters to the court arguing that the cash was intended for the contras.
Federal prosecutors ordered the letter and other case evidence sealed for “national security” reasons.
When Senate investigators later asked the Justice Department to explain this unusual turn of events, they ran into a wall of secrecy.
History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking
“In my 30year history in the Drug Enforcement Administration and related agencies, the major targets of my investigations almost invariably turned out to be working for the CIA.” — Dennis Dayle, former chief of an elite DEA enforcement unit.
The foregoing discussion should not be regarded as any kind of historical aberration inasmuch as the CIA has had a long and virtually continuous involvement with drug trafficking since the end of World War II.
https://ips-dc.org/the_cia_contras_gangs_and_crack/
***
CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking
A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the Nicaraguan Contras' cocaine trafficking operations during the 1980s Nicaraguan civil war.
These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General which ultimately concluded the allegations were unsupported. The subject remains controversial.
A 1986 investigation by a sub-committee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (the Kerry Committee), found that "the Contra drug links included", among other connections,
"[...] payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies."[1]
The charges of CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking were revived in 1996, when a newspaper series by reporter Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury News claimed that the trafficking had played an important role in the creation of the crack cocaine drug problem in the United States.
Webb's series led to three federal investigations, all of which concluded there was no evidence of a conspiracy by CIA officials or its employees to bring drugs into the United States.[2][3][4]
The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post launched their own investigations and rejected Webb's allegations.[5]
However, an internal report issued by the CIA would admit that the agency was at least aware of Contra involvement in drug trafficking, and in some cases dissuaded the DEA and other agencies from investigating the Contra supply networks involved.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking
***
CIA drug trafficking allegations
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in the trafficking of illicit drugs.
Books and journalistic investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by the historian Alfred McCoy, professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott, journalists Gary Webb and Alexander Cockburn, and writer Larry Collins.
These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Inspector General.
The various investigations have generally not led to clear conclusions that the CIA itself has directly conducted drug trafficking operations, although there may have been instances of indirect complicity in the activities of others.
United States
During a PBS Frontline investigation, DEA field agent Hector Berrellez said,
"I believe that elements working for the CIA were involved in bringing drugs into the country ...
I know specifically that some of the CIA contract workers, meaning some of the pilots, in fact were bringing drugs into the U.S. and landing some of these drugs in government military air bases.
And I know so because I was told by some of these pilots that in fact they had done that."[26]
Several journalists state that the CIA used Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport in Arkansas to smuggle weapons and ammunition to the Contras in Nicaragua, and drugs back into the United States.[27][28]
Some theories have claimed the involvement of political figures Oliver North, then vice president and former CIA director George H. W. Bush and then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.[28][29]
The CIA's self-investigation, overseen by the CIA's inspector general, stated that the CIA had no involvement in or knowledge of any illegal activities that may have occurred in Mena.
The report said that the agency had conducted a training exercise at the airport in partnership with another Federal agency and that companies located at the airport had performed "routine aviation-related services on equipment owned by the CIA".[30]
Nicaragua
Main article: CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking
In 1986, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations began investigating drug trafficking from Central and South America and the Caribbean to the United States.
The investigation was conducted by the Sub-Committee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, chaired by Senator John Kerry, so its final 1989 report was known as the Kerry Committee report.
The Report concluded that "it is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."[31]
In 1996, Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras.
His articles asserted that the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras.
The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post launched their own investigations and rejected Webb's allegations.[32]
In May 1997, The Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos, who had approved the series, published a column that acknowledged shortcomings in the series reporting, editing, and production, while maintaining the story was correct "on many important points."[32]
Webb later published a book based on the series, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.[33]
An internal CIA journal denounces continued support for Webb and echoing of his claims, saying one supporter "twists and misinterprets to conform to his preconceived notions."[34]
Mexico
See also: Mexican Drug War
In October 2013, an American television network alleged that CIA operatives were involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA covert agent Enrique Camarena, because he was a threat to the agency's drug operations in Mexico in the 1980s.
According to the network, this information was provided to them by multiple sources, specifically two former federal agents and an ex-CIA contractor.
According to all three alleged sources the CIA was collaborating with drug traffickers bringing cocaine and marijuana into the United States, and using its share of the profits to finance the Contra rebels attempting to overthrow Nicaragua's Leftist Sandinista government.
The CIA spokesman responding to the allegations called it "ridiculous" to suggest that the agency had anything to do with the murder of a US federal agent or the escape of his alleged killer.[35]
Honduras
The Honduran drug lord Juan Matta-Ballesteros was the owner of SETCO, an airline which the Nicaraguan Contras used to covertly transport military supplies and personnel in the early 1980s.[36]
Writers such as Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall have suggested that the U.S. government's desire to conceal or protect these clandestine shipments led it to close the DEA office in Honduras when an investigation began into SETCO, allowing Matta-Ballesteros to continue and expand his trafficking.[37]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking_allegations
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War on drugs
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The war on drugs is the policy of a global campaign,[1] led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.[2][3][4][5]
The initiative includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments, through United Nations treaties, have made illegal.
In June 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a critical report, declaring: "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world."[1]
In 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for an end to the war on drugs, estimated that the United States spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives; in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, others have estimated that the US has spent a cumulative $1 trillion on it.[10][11]
Nicaragua
Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra drug links concludes that members of the U.S. State Department "who provided support for the Contras are involved in drug trafficking... and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly receive financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."[168] The report further states that "the Contra drug links include... payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies."
Panama
Main articles: Operation Just Cause and Operation Nifty Package
The U.S. military invasion of Panama in 1989
On December 20, 1989, the United States invaded Panama as part of Operation Just Cause, which involved 25,000 American troops.
Gen. Manuel Noriega, head of the government of Panama, had been giving military assistance to Contra groups in Nicaragua at the request of the U.S. which, in exchange, tolerated his drug trafficking activities, which they had known about since the 1960s.[169][170]
When the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tried to indict Noriega in 1971, the CIA prevented them from doing so.[169] The CIA, which was then directed by future president George H. W. Bush, provided Noriega with hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as payment for his work in Latin America.[169]
When CIA pilot Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, documents aboard the plane revealed many of the CIA's activities in Latin America, and the CIA's connections with Noriega became a public relations "liability" for the U.S. government, which finally allowed the DEA to indict him for drug trafficking, after decades of tolerating his drug operations.[169]
Operation Just Cause and Nifty Package were launched to capture Noriega and overthrow his government; although Noriega found temporary asylum in the Papal Nuncio, he surrendered to U.S. soldiers on January 3, 1990.[171]
He was sentenced by a court in Miami to 45 years in prison.[169]
Incarceration
According to Human Rights Watch, the War on Drugs caused soaring arrest rates that disproportionately targeted African Americans due to various factors.[179]
Anti-drug and tough-on-crime policies from the 1970s through the 1990s created a situation where the US, with less than 5% of the world population, houses nearly 25% of the world's prisoners.
As of 2015, the US prison population rate was 716 per 100,000 people, the highest in the world, six times higher than Canada and six to nine times higher than Western European countries.[180]
After 1980, the situation began to change. In the 1980s, while the number of arrests for all crimes had risen by 28%, the number of arrests for drug offenses rose 126%.[181] The result of increased demand was the development of privatization and the for-profit prison industry.[182]
The Department of Justice, reporting on the effects of state initiatives, has stated that, from 1990 through 2000, "the increasing number of drug offenses accounted for 27% of the total growth among black inmates, 7% of the total growth among Hispanic inmates, and 15% of the growth among white inmates." In addition to prison or jail, the United States provides for the deportation of many non-citizens convicted of drug offenses.[183]
In 1994, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that the "War on Drugs" resulted in the incarceration of one million Americans each year.[184] In 2008, The Washington Post reported that of 1.5 million Americans arrested each year for drug offenses, half a million would be incarcerated.[185] In addition, one in five black Americans would spend time behind bars due to drug laws.[185]
Federal and state policies also impose collateral consequences on those convicted of drug offenses, separate from fines and prison time, that are not applicable to other types of crime.[186]
For example, a number of states have enacted laws to suspend for six months the driver's license of anyone convicted of a drug offense; these laws were enacted in order to comply with a federal law known as the Solomon–Lautenberg amendment, which threatened to penalize states that did not implement the policy.[187][188][189]
Other examples of collateral consequences for drug offenses, or for felony offenses in general, include loss of professional license, loss of ability to purchase a firearm, loss of eligibility for food stamps, loss of eligibility for Federal Student Aid, loss of eligibility to live in public housing, loss of ability to vote, and deportation.[186]
Socioeconomic effects
Permanent underclass creation
Approximately 1 million people are incarcerated every year in the United States for drug law violations.
Penalties for drug crimes among American youth almost always involve permanent or semi-permanent removal from opportunities for education, strip them of voting rights, and later involve creation of criminal records which make employment more difficult.
One-fifth of the US prison population are incarcerated for a drug offence.[207]
Thus, some authors maintain that the War on Drugs has resulted in the creation of a permanent underclass of people who have few educational or job opportunities, often as a result of being punished for drug offenses which in turn have resulted from attempts to earn a living in spite of having no education or job opportunities.[208][209]
Costs to taxpayers
According to a 2008 study published by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron, the annual savings on enforcement and incarceration costs from the legalization of drugs would amount to roughly $41.3 billion, with $25.7 billion being saved among the states and over $15.6 billion accrued for the federal government.
Miron further estimated at least $46.7 billion in tax revenue based on rates comparable to those on tobacco and alcohol: $8.7 billion from marijuana, $32.6 billion from cocaine and heroin, and $5.4 billion from other drugs.[210]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs
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The Evolution Of America’s Federal Prison Population
U.S. Federal Prison System
by Niall McCarthy
Feb 25, 2021
After years of steady growth, the U.S. federal prison population peaked under President Obama and started declining, a downward trend that continued under the Trump administration.
The data comes from a Pew Research Center analysis which found that the number of inmates serving sentences of more than a year in federal custody declined by five percent (or by 7,607 inmates) between 2017 or 2019.
Preliminary figures for 2020 indicate that the decline accelerated during Trumps' last full year in the White House, meaning the number of federal prisoners likely contracted five percent during his time in office.
https://www.statista.com/chart/24289/federal-inmates-in-custody/
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How many people are locked up in the United States? (2022)
This graph originally appeared in Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2022.
Pie chart showing the number of people locked up on a given day in the United States by facility type and the underlying offense using the newest data available in March 2022.
The United States locks up more people, per capita, at the staggering rate of 573 per 100,000 residents.
But to end mass incarceration, we must first consider where and why 1.9 million people are confined nationwide.
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/pie2022.html
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Mass incarceration in America, explained in 22 maps and charts
By German Lopez
Updated Oct 11, 2016, 1:50pm EDT
America is number one — in incarceration.
Over the past several decades, the country has built the largest prison population in the entire world, with the second-highest prison population per capita behind the tiny African country of Seychelles.
But how did it get this way?
Although it may be easy to blame one specific event, the US's path to mass incarceration was decades in the making.
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-maps-charts
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Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023
By Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner
Tweet this
March 14, 2023
Can it really be true that most people in jail are legally innocent?
How much of mass incarceration is a result of the war on drugs, or the profit motives of private prisons?
How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed decisions about how people are punished when they break the law?
These essential questions are harder to answer than you might expect.
The various government agencies involved in the criminal legal system collect a lot of data, but very little is designed to help policymakers or the public understand what’s going on.
As public support for criminal justice reform continues to build — and as the pandemic raises the stakes higher — it’s more important than ever that we get the facts straight and understand the big picture.
Further complicating matters is the fact that the U.S. doesn’t have one “criminal justice system;” instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems.
Together, these systems hold almost 2 million people in
- 1,566 state prisons,
- 98 federal prisons,
- 3,116 local jails,
- 1,323 juvenile correctional facilities,
- 181 immigration detention facilities, and
- 80 Indian country jails,
as well as in
- military prisons,
- civil commitment centers,
- state psychiatric hospitals, and
- prisons in the U.S. territories.
This report offers some much-needed clarity by piecing together the data about this country’s disparate systems of confinement.
It provides a detailed look at where and why people are locked up in the U.S., and dispels some modern myths to focus attention on the real drivers of mass incarceration and overlooked issues that call for reform.
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023.html
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The Rise of Incarcerated Women in the U.S.
by Anna Fleck, Data Journalist
Apr 12, 2022
The number of women incarcerated in the U.S. shot up by 700 percent over the past four decades, according to research and advocacy center The Sentencing Project, showing an increase from 26,378 in 1980 to 222,455 in 2019.
That’s nearly twice the rate of growth for men.
But since the absolute number of incarcerated women is much lower by comparison, their narrative is often hidden behind wider trends.
One of the reasons cited for such a major increase can be traced back to the draconian policies brought in under The War on Drugs campaign in the 1970s.
This is reflected in the numbers, with more than 61 percent of women incarcerated in federal prison for nonviolent drug crimes, according to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).
Under the new rules, women could be jailed for ‘conspiracy’ with drug networks for simply living with a partner or family member involved in drug sales, while mothers who tested positive for any drug could face imprisonment for child abuse.
This revealed a racial element too, as while drug use is fairly consistent across racial and ethnic groups, Black women were almost twice as likely to be incarcerated than white women for drug law violations; with Hispanic women 20 percent more likely, and Native American women six times more likely, the DPA reports.
https://www.statista.com/chart/27237/rise-of-incarcerated-women-in-the-us/
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Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023
By Aleks Kajstura and Wendy Sawyer
March 1, 2023
With growing public attention to the problem of mass incarceration, people want to know about women’s experiences with incarceration.
How many women are held in prisons, jails, and other correctional facilities in the United States?
Why are they there?
How are their experiences different from men’s?
Further, how has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the number of women behind bars?
These are important questions, but finding those answers requires not only disentangling the country’s decentralized and overlapping criminal legal systems, but also unearthing the frustratingly limited data that’s broken down by gender.
This report provides a detailed view of the 172,700 women and girls incarcerated in the United States, and how they fit into the even broader picture of correctional control.
We pull together data from a number of government agencies and break down the number of women and girls held by each correctional system by specific offense.
In this updated report, we’ve also gone beyond the numbers, using rare self-reported data from a national survey of people in prison, to offer new insights about incarcerated women’s backgrounds, families, health, and experiences in prison.
This report, produced in collaboration with the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice, answers the questions of why and where women are locked up — and so much more:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023women.html
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