ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996 TAG: 9611270044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The former ``Commander Zero'' of the Nicaraguan resistance told Senate investigators Tuesday he was unaware a financial backer earned his money by selling crack cocaine in California.
``Only when he was arrested in San Diego'' did he know, the Contra leader, Eden Pastora, said of Oscar Danilo Blandon, who has acknowledged trafficking in drugs.
Pastora and a comrade in the resistance, Adolfo Calero, dismissed rumors that the CIA had supported or winked at drug trafficking as a source of money to finance the war against the left-leaning Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.
``It is preposterous unfounded, ridiculous, absurd,'' said Calero, a Notre Dame-educated businessman who ran a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Nicaragua before giving it up to become commander in chief of the Contras.
Asked whether he knew of any CIA involvement in drugs, Calero replied: ``Never. I have a very high opinion of the CIA people I dealt with. They seemed to be God-fearing family men, dedicated to the cause.''
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, convened the hearing to examine reports in the San Jose Mercury News that the proliferation of crack cocaine in the United States in the 1980s could be traced to two Nicaraguan dealers who worked with the Contras.
The series did not accuse the CIA of directly abetting the sale of drugs to raise funds for the Nicaraguan Contras, but it sparked widespread anger among black communities, who say they were victims in the CIA-backed war against Nicaraguan communists. The Justice Department and CIA are investigating.
CIA Director John Deutch told a town meeting in California earlier this month that no evidence has been found to support the allegations that agency operatives trafficked in crack cocaine.
Reports by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other news organizations have raised questions about some of the Mercury News' findings.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB