FEDERAL COURT OVERTURNS CRACK DEALER'S LIFE TERM

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court overturned the life
sentence but upheld the drug conviction of prominent crack dealer
``Freeway Ricky'' Ross on Wednesday, dismissing as irrelevant alleged
CIA connections.

In overturning Ross' life sentence, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff had improperly counted
his past convictions for drug activity in Texas and Ohio as two
separate crimes rather than a single conspiracy.

He was ineligible for a life term under the federal ``three strikes,
you're out'' law, the court said.

The allegation of links between the CIA and informant Oscar Danilo
Blandon -- who sold Ross cocaine -- was unproved, the court said.
``And even if true would not necessarily rise to the level of
outrageous conduct'' requiring the reversal of Ross' conviction, the
court said.

The court also said the alleged withholding of government documents
about Blandon was irrelevant because there was overwhelming evidence
of Ross' guilt ``even if Blandon's credibility had been
demolished.''

That missed the point, said Frank Ragen, a lawyer for Ross. He said
the only real dispute was a defense claim that Ross had been entrapped.

The court ordered a federal judge to resentence Ross. Assistant U.S.
Attorney L.J. O'Neale declined comment.

Ross was convicted in March 1996 of buying 220 pounds of cocaine for
$169,000 from Blandon, a convicted drug trafficker who was working as
an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Blandon had been a civilian leader of a CIA-backed group of Contra
guerrillas during the U.S.-sponsored war against the leftist
Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.

A 1996 Mercury News series said Ross played a major role in a Bay
Area-based drug trafficking ring that helped spark the crack epidemic
in Los Angeles. The series said Ross bought much of his cocaine from
Blandon, with the ring sending millions of dollars in profits to the
CIA-backed Contras. The paper later acknowledged shortcomings in the
series.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry