Cracks in the conspiracy: the CIA and the cocaine trade in South Central Los Angeles

Abstract

This paper explores some of the issues surrounding the 1996 San Jose Mercury News “Dark Alliance” series; a story responsible for triggering heated debate on the idea that a US government agency conspired to use illicit drugs to undermine inner city African–American neighbourhoods during the 1980s. Beginning with an outline of Gary Webb's series and a discussion of the reaction it provoked, the paper looks at the issues behind the widespread sentiment that there is some form of federally controlled and racially inspired conspiracy. The paper examines the history of the CIA and its links with the illegal drug trade in an attempt to explain the prevalence of such a belief. Having identified some of the causes of what is often simplistically dismissed as baseless “black paranoia,” the paper concludes that the idea that the CIA deliberately connived to target Afro–Americans grossly oversimplifies the complexities of the inner city drug issue. Evidence suggests that during the cold war the CIA did indeed cultivate many dubious drug related alliances in the name of national security. It is argued here, however, that the notion of conspiracy based on skin colour merely detracts from the systemic failings of Washington's approach to drug control and ignores the Agency's indiscriminate pursuit of its anti-Communist agenda.