Title: Special Reports - Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories And The Cia In Central America | Drug Wars | FRONTLINE | PBS
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Content: When Ronald Reagan became president soon after, he quietly began sending aid to those fighting the Marxist government. They were known as the Nicaraguan Resistance, or more simply, the Contras. Contra soldiers


As with Burma, Laos and Afghanistan before it -- where the U.S. had helped fight wars -- Nicaragua had a narcotics trade--a fact which was brought to the CIA's attention while the Contra effort was barely off the ground. In 1981 members of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ADREN) were working alongside CIA officers to overthrow the new Sandinista government.. As noted in the Hitz report, a cable to CIA headquarters stated that ADREN leadership had decided to "engage in drug smuggling to the United States in order to finance its anti-Sandinista operations." The cable stated that an "initial trial run" had taken place in July 1981, when drugs were transported via plane to Miami. In what would prove common during the Contra war, the CIA never followed up on the allegations, or bothered to verify whether the "initial run" had taken place, according to the Hitz report. ADREN disbanded in 1982. But some members joined the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), which worked with the CIA. In another instance, the CIA received allegations that five members of the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ADREN) -- those fighting along the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica - were involved in drug trafficking. The five were allegedly working with known drug trafficker Jorge Morales.