Washington's Worst Kept Secret
Since 1985, reports linking contra arms suppliers to cocaine smuggling have run in progressive publications and a few mainstream outlets. But CBS West 57th's well-documented segment on the CIA-contra-drug connection (4/6/87) was the first serious network probe. The segment featured interviews with CIA contract employees who flew weapons shipments to the contras in Honduras and back-loaded cocaine and marijuana. Mike Tolliver, convicted drug smuggler and part-time CIA pilot, told of flying 25,000 pounds of pot to Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. The Contragate plot thickened in Newsday (4/17/87) with an expose on Manzer al-Kassar, a Syrian drug smuggler who ...
