Thread by @TonySeruga

Even Mexican officials are starting to spill the beans…

And then there’s this confirmation that the US provided protection to Sinaloa in exchange for information on rival cartels.

The relation between cartels and the US government can be hazardous to explore in detail. My friend, Gary Webb, the journalist who first covered this connection in his series “Dark Alliance” died under mysterious circumstances.

Gary was receiving death threats, being regularly followed by people he referred to as government operatives, and that he was concerned about strange individuals dresses in ninja like outfits who were seen on multiple occasions breaking into and leaving his house climbing drainpipes.

Gary told me multiple times they were trying to kill him, in fact, my last text message with Gary, was on December 5th, 2004 at 1:15 pm PT, just days before his ‘suicide’, Gary joked “Just for the record, I am not suicidal! 😝”

Authorities in Sacramento never even contacted any of us after we came forward.

youtu.be/FS-oNTe9kwE?si…

Gary’s most famous work, the "Dark Alliance" series, remains a significant moment in the annals of American journalism, both for its audacity in alleging connections between the CIA, Nicaraguan contra rebels, and the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and for the fierce backlash and scrutiny it invoked. When I first met Gary, I thought he was insane but looking at what was happening on the streets of South Central Los Angeles, I finally realized he was right. We flew to Panama, Columbia, Arkansas connecting dots.

The 'Dark Alliance' Series

In 1996, Gary Webb, then a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, published a three-part series titled "Dark Alliance," which outlined a labyrinthine network that purportedly funneled profits from drug trafficking to support the CIA-backed Contras in Nicaragua. At the heart of Webb's narrative was the claim that this drug trade had contributed significantly to the crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged urban communities, particularly in Los Angeles.

Webb's reporting drew upon court documents, DEA records, and direct interviews with key players involved in the drug trade and the anti-Sandinista efforts. The series immediately sparked outrage and a nationwide conversation, largely because it highlighted the plight of African-American communities and suggested that the U.S. government had, at least indirectly, contributed to their distress.

The Backlash and Professional Toll

However, the "Dark Alliance" series was met with intense scrutiny from the outset. Major newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times with CIA influence embarked on a zealous campaign to discredit Webb’s work, poking holes in the series' more sensational claims and discrediting Webb's sources. The backlash was formidable, and Webb’s own newspaper eventually backed away from the story, leading to his resignation.
The criticism hinged on the assertion that Webb had overstepped the evidence, drawing connections that, while suggestive, were not conclusively proven. Webb's career never recovered from the controversy, and he faced a storm of personal and professional challenges until his tragic death in 2004, which was ruled a suicide, shooting himself twice in the head!

Gary’s work was seen by many as vindicated when, in 1998, CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz testified before Congress, admitting that the CIA had maintained relationships with individuals involved in the drug trade, although the CIA strongly denied that it had any knowledge of drug trafficking. This partial acknowledgment served to restore some of Webb’s credibility among his supporters.

John Singleton was fascinated by Gary Webb’s series and they became friends. Singleton created the FX TV show ‘Snowfall’ loosely around Gary’s investigation and based the main character Franklin Saint, on Ricky Donnell "Freeway Rick" Ross a former drug lord best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009 thanks in part to the CIA. Today, Ricky is a businessman and real estate developer.

After the first season of Snowfall, Singleton began getting threats and warnings to shut it down. He refused telling me at one point that the story had to be told. He fully believed the U.S. government disregarded black communities for profit.

On April 17, 2019, Singleton suffered a stroke and was placed under intensive care. He reportedly began to experience weakness in his legs after returning to the United States from a trip to Costa Rica.

Then on April 25th, it was reported that he was in a coma, however, his daughter stated otherwise. On April 28the, Singleton was removed from life support and he died at the age of 51 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Remember Panamanian dictator, politician and military officer who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989, Manuel Noriega? He is an example of what happens when the U.S. government no longer has use for you. Manuel Noriega helped launder Iran-Contra drug money, as well as helping to transport pure cocaine and gun running. His mistake, like Zelenskyy was thinking he was too valuable and he got greedy, blackmailing the CIA and U.S. State Department leaders, even at one point, threatening the President.

A new interview with Rick Ross:

Behold a Pale Horse

Bill Cooper, former United States Naval Intelligence Briefing Team member, reveals information that remains hidden from the public eye. This information has been kept in topsecret government files since the 1940s. His audiences hear the truth unfold as he writes about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the war on drugs, the secret government, and UFOs. Bill is a lucid, rational, and powerful speaker whose intent is to inform and to empower his audience. Standing room only is normal. His presentation and information transcend partisan affiliations as he clearly addresses issues in a way that has a striking impact on listeners of all backgrounds and interests. He has spoken to many groups throughout the United States and has appeared regularly on many radio talk shows and on television. In 1988 Bill decided to "talk" due to events then taking place worldwide, events that he had seen plans for back in the early 1970s. Bill correctly predicted the lowering of the Iron Curtain, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the invasion of Panama. All Bill's predictions were on record well before the events occurred. Bill is not a psychic. His information comes from top secret documents that he read while with the Intelligence Briefing Team and from over seventeen years of research.Revised edition excludes the hateful forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Had Mr. Cooper known it was a forgery, he would never have included it in his book.

amzn.to/4aRXSDj

Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion by Gary Webb

Dark Alliance is a book that should be fiction, whose characters seem to come straight out of central casting: the international drug lord, Norwin Meneses; the Contra cocaine broker with an MBA in marketing, Danilo Blandon; and the illiterate teenager from the inner city who rises to become the king of crack, "Freeway" Ricky Ross. But unfortunately, these characters are real and their stories are true.

In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world with a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News reporting the results of his year-long investigation into the roots of the crack cocaine epidemic in America, specifically in Los Angeles. The series, titled "Dark Alliance," revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

Gary Webb pushed his investigation even further in his book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Drawing from then newly declassified documents, undercover DEA audio and videotapes that had never been publicly released, federal court testimony, and interviews, Webb demonstrates how our government knowingly allowed massive amounts of drugs and money to change hands at the expense of our communities.

Webb's original article spurred an immediate outcry. Within days of publication, both of California's senators made formal requests for investigations of the U.S. government's relationship with the cocaine ring. As a result, public demonstrations erupted in L.A., Washington D.C., and New York. Then-chief of the CIA, John Deutsch, made an unprecedented attempt at crisis control by going to South Central L.A. to hold a public forum. Representative Maxine Waters later said in George magazine, "I was shocked by the level of corruption and deceit and the way the intelligence agencies have knowledge of big-time drug dealing."
The allegations in Webb's story blazed over the Internet and the Mercury News' website on the series was deluged with hits—over a million in one day. A Columbia Journalism Review cover story called it "the most talked-about piece of journalism in 1996 and arguably the most famous—some would say infamous—set of articles of the decade."

Webb's own stranger-than-fiction experience is also woven into the book. His excoriation by the media—not because of any wrongdoing on his part, but by an insidious process of innuendo and suggestion that in effect blamed Webb for the implications of the story—had been all but predicted. Webb was warned off doing a CIA expose by a former Associated Press journalist who lost his job when, years before, he had stumbled onto the germ of the "Dark Alliance" story. And though Internal investigations by both the CIA and the Justice Department eventually vindicated Webb, he had by then been pushed out of the Mercury News and gone to work for the California State Legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. He died in 2004.

The updated paperback edition of Dark Alliance features revelations in just-released reports from the Department of Justice, internal CIA investigations, and a new cache of recently declassified secret FBI, DEA, and INS files—much of which was not known to Webb when writing the first edition of this book. Webb further explains the close working relationship that major drug traffickers had with U.S. Government agencies—particularly the DEA—and recounts the news of the past year regarding this breaking story.

After more than two years of career-damning allegations leveled at Webb, joined in the past year by glowing reviews of the hardcover edition of Dark Alliance from shore to shore, the core findings of this courageous investigative reporter's work—once fiercely denied—are becoming matters of public record.

amzn.to/48YpYuN

The real ‘Freeway’ Rick Ross (who Snowfall’s character Franklin Saint was based on) pictured in the silver suit and burgundy shirt.