JUSTICE FINDS NO CIA LINK TO NICARAGUAN COCAINE TRADE

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 Nicaragua's contra
rebels during the 1980s.

The report found no evidence to support allegations that CIA employees or
agents colluded with contra allies to finance their guerrilla operations by
bringing crack cocaine into the United States.

A 1996 series of articles in the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, had
claimed a California drug ring funneled profits to the contras for most of
a decade. The series traced the drugs to traffickers who were also leaders
of a CIA-run guerrilla army in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

``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,'' Michael Bromwich, the Justice
Department inspector general, said in a statement.

A CIA inspector general report reached the same conclusion in January.

``While some drug traffickers supplying cocaine to Los Angeles drug dealers
were contra supporters, they were investigated and pursued by the
Department of Justice,'' Bromwich said. ``These investigations were not
always successful, but we did not find that they were obstructed because of
claims that these individuals were connected to contras or the CIA.''

The newspaper series generated widespread anger toward the CIA among black
Americans, as well as federal investigations into whether the CIA took part
in or countenanced the selling of crack to raise money for the Contras.

The newspaper reported that two Nicaraguan cocaine traffickers, Oscar
Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses, were civilian leaders of an
anti-Communist commando group formed and run by the CIA during the 1980s.
The articles traced the explosion of crack cocaine abuse in the United
States to a dealer named Ricky Donnell Ross and said he was supplied
through Blandon and Meneses.

The series also questioned the treatment of the three men by the FBI and by
federal drug, immigration and prosecutors' offices that are all part of the
Justice Department.

Bromwich's 15-month investigation turned up no evidence that the three men
got special treatment because of their alleged associations with the CIA or
the contras, nor that any Justice Department investigations were hampered
or waved off.

The newspaper's executive editor, Jerry Ceppos, acknowledged in a letter to
readers last year that the series had shortcomings.

The Bromwich report was ready in December, but Attorney General Janet Reno
ordered it held back, citing ``law enforcement concerns.''

Bromwich explained Thursday that Blandon, a one-time informant for the Drug
Enforcement Administration, renewed his cooperation with the agency last
September. The DEA and federal prosecutors in Washington and California
objected to releasing the report while Blandon remained an active
informant, and Reno agreed, Bromwich said.

``By delaying the report's release, federal law enforcement officials were
able to protect the integrity of a very important, though unrelated,
investigation,'' Reno said in a statement accompanying the report.

But Bromwich criticized how the matter was handled, saying the delay gave
rise to unnecessary speculation that the Justice Department was hiding
something.

Both Bromwich and Reno said the Thursday's report is unchanged from its
original version.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)