
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 20, 1993                   TAG: 9311200173
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CIA HELPED SHIP COCAINE TO U.S.

A CIA anti-drug program in Venezuela shipped a ton of nearly pure cocaine to the United States in 1990, government officials said Friday.

No criminal charges have been brought in the matter, which the officials said appeared to have been a serious accident rather than a conspiracy. But officials say the cocaine wound up being sold on the streets in the United States.

One CIA officer has resigned, a second has been disciplined and a federal grand jury in Miami is investigating.

The agency, made aware of a "60 Minutes" investigation of the matter scheduled for broadcast Sunday, issued a statement Friday calling the affair "a most regrettable incident" involving "instances of poor judgment and management on the part of several CIA officers."

The case involves the same program under which the agency created a Haitian intelligence service whose officers became involved in drug trafficking and acts of political terror.

In the mid-1980s, under orders from then-President Reagan, the agency set up anti-drug programs in the major cocaine-producing and trafficking capitals of Central and South America.

It worked with Venezuela's National Guard, a paramilitary force that controls the highways and borders. The mission was to infiltrate the Colombian gangs that ship cocaine to the United States.

Unlike "controlled shipments" that take place in criminal investigations, which end with arrests and confiscation of the drugs, these were to be "uncontrolled shipments," drug agency officials said.

The cocaine would enter the United States without being seized, so as to allay suspicion. The idea was to gather as much information as possible on the drug gangs.

The drug agency refused to take part in the operation and said it should be called off. In a "60 Minutes" transcript, Grimm said agency officials did anyway.

"I really take great exception to the fact that 1,000 kilos came in, funded by U.S. taxpayer money," Grimm said. "I found that particularly appalling."

by CNB