REPORT: NO EVIDENCE U.S. PROTECTED COCAINE DEALERS

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's internal watchdog said Thursday that
he found no evidence that U.S. government officials protected a California
drug-trafficking ring whose members contributed money to the Nicaraguan
rebels known as Contras during the 1980s.

Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich, reporting on a 15-month
investigation, said he concluded that the drug dealers had contributed money
to the rebels, but the amounts were ``relatively insignificant,'' and there
was no evidence that Contra leaders or the CIA knew about them.

Bromwich's investigation, and its 407-page report, were produced in response
to charges made by the Mercury News in 1996. The newspaper claimed that a
San 46rancisco-based drug-trafficking ring introduced crack cocaine to Los
Angeles, sent millions of dollars to the CIA-backed Contras, helped spark a
crack epidemic in American inner cities and operated under the protection of
U.S. government officials.

``After interviewing more than 200 people and reviewing more than 40,000
pages of documents, we did not substantiate the main allegations suggested
by the San Jose Mercury News articles,'' Bromwich said.

The report concluded that the explosion in crack cocaine in Los Angeles and
across the United States ``was not the result of any single source or seller.''

It said much of the apparent evidence in the San Jose Mercury News articles
appeared to have been distorted or exaggerated.

``Nobody can say who started'' the crack epidemic, Bromwich told the Mercury
News on Thursday.

Regarding allegations of CIA links to the drug ring's key leaders, Oscar
Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses, or others in their organization, the
investigation found no evidence Blandon had any CIA links, said Bromwich.
Although a member of his organization bragged at various times about having
CIA links, there was no evidence he actually had any agency connections. He
ultimately admitted that, Bromwich said.

As to allegations of improper influence by the CIA or others in the
prosecution of Blandon, Meneses or Ricky Ross, a Los Angeles crack dealer,
``we found we could understand why cases succeeded or failed by looking at
the internal investigations, and prosecutions'' Bromwich said. ``We found
nothing untoward or sinister about the way the investigations or the
prosecutions were handled. They struck us as being handled in professional
way.''

Blandon and Meneses avoided prosecution partly because of a breakdown in
communication and coordination between the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency,
Bromwich said.

The report quoted one of the drug dealers as estimating their total
contributions to the Contras at about $49,000, and several of the dealers'
associates provided even smaller estimates.

``Contra leaders have denied -- and there is no evidence to contradict the
denials -- that they solicited drug funds or knew that drug money was coming
into the Contra movement,'' the report said.

``The implication that the drug trafficking . . . was connected to the CIA
was also not supported by the facts,'' it said.

Mercury News Staff Writer Pete Carey contributed to this report.

1997 - 1998 Mercury Center.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett