On the eve of the congressional hearings into the controversy surrounding the CIA and its knowledge of the illegal drug trafficking into Los Angeles by Nicaraguan drug dealers, Larry Bensky speaks to Peter Dale Scott, author of Drugs, Armies and CIA in Central America.

They discuss the San Jose Mercury News report about the CIA’s unwillingness to stop the flow of illegal contra drugs into Los Angeles because profits from the trade were being used to support the Contra’s fight against the democratically elected Sandinista government, which the Reagan administration was determined to overthrow.

The interviewee discusses the 3 congressional investigations and their reticence to implicate anyone in the CIA. They discuss the possibility of the CIA having advance knowledge of this operation as well as the misguided congressional investigation that prematurely concluded that there was no evidence that high govt. officials knew about the contra-deal, even though there was plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Peter Dale Scott argues that there is a clear historical correlation between flows of drugs and the places where the US has major covert operations. He also discusses the targeting of the black community and the creation of “crack markets.”