Ex-Contras Deny Drug Conspiracy Former Rebel Leader Labels Allegations Of Cia Plot Absurd

Two former Nicaraguan rebel leaders acknowledge associating with California men they later learned were drug dealers but reject allegations of a CIA scheme to finance the Contras by selling crack cocaine.

“I would say that all of this story, rather than crack, is about crap,” said Adolfo Calero, a Notre Dame-educated businessman who was named commander in chief of the Contras in 1983. “It is preposterous … unfounded, ridiculous, absurd.”

Eden Pastora, who quit the Sandinista government and as Commander Zero led resistance in southern Nicaragua, told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that he had accepted contributions from a man who later was arrested in San Diego for dealing cocaine.

“I did not know he was a drug trafficker, but I did know him as a good friend,” Pastora said of Oscar Danilo Blandon. But he denied he or his comrades were involved in any fund raising involving drugs.

Speaking through an interpreter and invoking the “give me liberty or give me death” sentiment of Patrick Henry, Pastora pleaded with the committee: “Put the handcuffs on us and take us to jail or give our honor back to us.”

The Senate panel and other federal agencies are investigating allegations that the CIA either took part in or countenanced the selling of crack cocaine in major American cities as a way to raise money for the Contras to fight the left-leaning Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.

The allegations grew out of stories in the San Jose Mercury News that concluded the growth of crack use could be traced to Blandon and another drug dealer, Norwin Meneses, who now are informers for the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The series did not accuse the CIA of directly abetting the sale of drugs to raise funds for the Contras, but it sparked widespread anger among black communities, who say they were victims in the CIA-backed war against Nicaraguan communists. The Justice Department and CIA are investigating.

CIA Director John Deutch told a town meeting in California earlier this month that no evidence has been found to support the allegations that agency operatives trafficked in crack cocaine. Reports by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other news organizations have raised questions about some of the Mercury News’ findings.

The Associated Press reported as early as December 1985 that some Contra leaders were buying guns and equipment with drug profits. The State Department initially disputed the allegation but in 1986 conceded some drug dealing took place, especially in Pastora’s southern front.

The CIA has denied any involvement, but several black members of Congress are skeptical.

One of them, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who represents a Los Angeles district and is the new head of the Congressional Black Caucus, was allowed to question witnesses at the hearing Tuesday after several members of the audience accused the panel of a coverup.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who chairs the Intelligence Committee, said Blandon had told the committee in a closed session Monday that he was recruited in 1981 by Meneses to sell cocaine in California in order to raise money for the Contras.