NICARAGUA/U.S./DRUGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020082-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: July 20, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020082-9
STAT NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
20 July 1984
NICARAGUA/U.S./ BROKAW: Tonight, the Nicaragua connection, a drug
DRUGS connection. So often the Reagan administration has
accused the Sandinista government of exporting revolution.
Well, this week it accused the regime of exporting cocaine
to the United States. Brian Ross has been investigating.
ROSS: Three weeks ago in Miami, it was big news when
police investigating a minor traffic accident discovered
more than $20 million worth of cocaine hidden in the back
of a motor home. What wasn't reported that night was that
the big seizure was really part of an operation by the CIA
and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The motor home
was deliberately hit by a--car driven by a federal agent so
that the people who shipped in the cocaine would blame a
freak traffic accident for the loss of the cocaine and not
suspect that federal agents were on to their operation.
Federal authorities said the people who shipped the
cocaine to Miami operate here at a restricted military
area of the airport in Managua, Nicaragua, which
authorities say has been used since 1982 as a staging area
for huge shipments of cocaine. And federal authorities
say two top men in the Sandinista government are behind
the cocaine shipments. Interior Minister Tomas *Vorja and
Defense Minister Umberto Ortega, shown here saluting (film
clip of Ortega). The Sandinistas have denied the
allegations. But authorities say the CIA and the DEA use
this spy plane and an informant to pick up cocaine at the
Managua airport and that cameras.hidden in the plane's
wing took pictures of Sandinista soldiers loading cocaine.
Authorities say there were plans to use the spy plane to
lure the South American and Sandinista smugglers to Miami,
but that the top-secret investigation was compromised.
First, General Paul *Gorman, the commander of the American
forces in Latin America, made reference to it in a speech
in Central America. GEN.`PAUL\*GORMAN: ...commandantes
in Nicaragua are deeply involved in these illegal
movements.
ROSS: And then, according to federal authorities, the
White House and the CIA leaked the story to discredit the
Sandinistas just before the anniversary this week of the
Sandinista revolution. With the undercover investigation
blown, federal agents could round up only a few of the
alleged members of the Managua-to-Miami drug ring, the
underlings, not the bosses. Law enforcement authorities
here and in Washington say that what appeared to be a very
promising cocaine smuggling investigation was sacrificed
for a week's worth of propaganda against the Sandinistas.
Brian Ross, NBC News, Miami.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020082-9