Allegations of CIA drug trafficking Some sources say that the United States Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) has been involved in several drug trafficking operations . Some of these reports claim that congressional evidence indicates that the CIA worked with groups which it knew were involved in drug trafficking , so that these groups would provide them with useful intelligence and material support , in exchange for allowing their criminal activities to continue , and impeding or preventing their arrest , indictment , and imprisonment by U . S . law enforcement agencies . Afghanistan ( Soviet Union ) . The CIA supported various Afghan rebel commanders , such as Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar , who were fighting against the government of Afghanistan and the forces of the Soviet Union which were its supporters . Historian Alfred W . McCoy stated that : Golden Triangle . CIA and Kuomintang opium smuggling operations . In order to provide covert funds for the Kuomintang ( KMT ) forces loyal to General Chiang Kai - shek , who were fighting the Chinese communists under Mao Zedong , the CIA helped the KMT smuggle opium from China and Burma to Bangkok , Thailand , by providing airplanes owned by one of their front businesses , Air America . United States . Iran - Contra affair . Released on April 13 , 1989 , the Kerry Committee report concluded that members of the U . S . State Department " who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking . . . and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers . " In 1996 Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the " San Jose Mercury News " , which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA - backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U . S . which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras . The CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U . S . by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras . Although he strongly implied CIA involvement , Webb never claimed to have made a direct link between the CIA and the Contras . Moreover , Webb ' s articles were heavily attacked by many media outlets who questioned the validity of his claims , although the unusual response led some to question if the CIA was involved . Webb turned the articles into a book called , " Dark Alliance : The CIA , the Contras , and the Crack Cocaine Explosion . " " On December 10 , 2004 , Webb reportedly committed suicide , albeit under strange circumstances ( two gunshot wounds to the head ) . In 1996 , CIA Director John M . Deutch went to Los Angeles to attempt to refute the allegations raised by the Webb articles , and was famously confronted by former Los Angeles Police Department officer Michael Ruppert , who testified that he had witnessed it occurring . The CIA has been accused of moneylaundering the Iran - Contra drug funds via the BCCI , the former U . S . Commissioner of Customs William von Raab said that when customs agents raided the bank in 1988 , they found numerous CIA accounts . The CIA also worked with BCCI in arming and financing the Afghan mujahideen during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union , using BCCI to launder proceeds from trafficking heroin grown in the Pakistan – Afghanistan borderlands , boosting the flow of narcotics to European and U . S . markets . Mena , Arkansas . A number of allegations have been written about and several local , state , and federal investigations have taken place related to the notion of the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport as a CIA drop point in large scale cocaine trafficking beginning in the latter part of the 1980s . The topic has received some press coverage that has included allegations of awareness , participation and / or coverup involvement of figures such as future presidents Bill Clinton , George H . W . Bush , and George W . Bush , as well future Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Saline County prosecutor Dan Harmon ( who was convicted of numerous felonies including drug and racketeering charges in 1997 ) . The Mena airport was also associated with Adler Berriman ( Barry ) Seal , an American drug smuggler and aircraft pilot who flew covert flights for the CIA and the Medellín Cartel . A criminal investigator from the Arkansas State Police , Russell Welch , who was assigned to investigate Mena airport claimed that he opened a letter which released electrostatically charged Anthrax spores in his face , and that he had his life saved after a prompt diagnosis by a doctor . He also claimed that later , his doctor ' s office was vandalized , robbed , and test results and correspondence with the CDC in Atlanta were stolen . An investigation by the CIA ' s inspector general concluded that the CIA had no involvement in or knowledge of any illegal activities that may have occurred in Mena . The report said that the agency had conducted a training exercise at the airport in partnership with another Federal agency and that companies located at the airport had performed " routine aviation - related services on equipment owned by the CIA " . Mexico . According to Peter Dale Scott , the DFS , a Mexican intelligence agency wich latter became the Center for Research and National Security of Mexico , was in part a CIA creation , and " the CIA ' s closest government allies were for years in the DFS " . DFS badges , " handed out to top - level Mexican drug - traffickers , have been labelled by DEA agents a virtual ' license to traffic . ' " Scott says that " The Guadalajara Cartel , Mexico ' s most powerful drug - trafficking network in the early 1980s , prospered largely because it enjoyed the protection of the DFS , under its chief Miguel Nazar Haro , a CIA asset . " Vicente Zambada Niebla , the son of Ismael Zambada García one of the top drug lords in Mexico , claimed after his arrest to his attorneys that he and other top Sinaloa cartel members had received immunity by U . S . agents and a virtual licence to smuggle cocaine over the United States border , in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels engaged in the Mexican Drug War . Panama . In 1989 , the United States invaded Panama as part of Operation Just Cause , which involved 25 , 000 American troops . Gen . Manuel Noriega , head of government of Panama , had been giving military assistance to Contra groups in Nicaragua at the request of the U . S . — which , in exchange , allowed him to continue his drug - trafficking activities — which they had known about since the 1960s . When the DEA tried to indict Noriega in 1971 , the CIA prevented them from doing so . The CIA , which was then directed by future president George H . W . Bush , provided Noriega with hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as payment for his work in Latin America . However , when CIA pilot Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas , documents aboard the plane revealed many of the CIA ' s activities in Latin America , and the CIA ' s connections with Noriega became a public relations " liability " for the U . S . government , which finally allowed the DEA to indict him for drug trafficking , after decades of allowing his drug operations to proceed unchecked . Operation Just Cause , whose ostensible purpose was to capture Noriega , pushed the former Panamanian leader into the Papal Nuncio where he surrendered to U . S . authorities . His trial took place in Miami , where he was sentenced to 45 years in prison . Noriega ' s prison sentence was reduced from 30 years to 17 years for good behavior . After serving 17 years in detention and imprisonment , his prison sentence ended on September 9 , 2007 . He was held under U . S . custody before being extradited to French custody where he was sentenced to 7 years for laundering money from Colombian drug cartels . Venezuelan National Guard Affair . The CIA , in spite of objections from the Drug Enforcement Administration , allowed at least one ton of nearly pure cocaine to be shipped into Miami International Airport . The CIA claimed to have done this as a way of gathering information about Colombian drug cartels , but the cocaine ended up being sold on the street . In November 1993 , the former head of the DEA , Robert C . Bonner appeared on 60 Minutes and criticized the CIA for allowing several tons of pure cocaine to be smuggled into the U . S . via Venezuela without first notifying and securing the approval of the DEA . In November 1996 , a Miami grand jury indicted former Venezuelan anti - narcotics chief and longtime CIA asset , General Ramon Guillen Davila , who was smuggling many tons of cocaine into the United States from a Venezuelan warehouse owned by the CIA . In his trial defense , Guillen claimed that all of his drug smuggling operations were approved by the CIA .