⁽¹⁾ This report is an unclassified version of a classified Report of Investigation of the same title, issued by the Inspector General on April 27, 1998. Classified information that discloses CIA employees undercover and persons who had an intelligence relationship with CIA has been deleted, as has law enforcement information that discloses specific informant relationships. In addition, the names of certain other persons mentioned or discussed in the classified report have been deleted from this version because public disclosure is not clearly authorized under the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. §552a, and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) statement of routine uses for information in OIG's system of records governed by the Privacy Act. In such cases, the deleted name has been replaced with a generic descriptor, such as ''a U.S. citizen.'' Where deletions have been made, the unclassified text is as close as possible to the original classified text.

⁽²⁾ These documents are available on the Internet at www.odci-gov/cia.

⁽³⁾ See Public Law 99-500, October 18, 1986, Section 204(b)(2).

⁽⁴⁾ Federal agencies that are outside the Intelligence Community, as defined in Executive Order 12333, are only required by law to report violations by their employees of criminal provisions in Title 18 of the U.S. Code--which does not include narcotics violations--and are not required to report any violations of federal law by non-employees.

⁽⁵⁾ This discretion was exercised by CIA in 1984, for example, when information pertaining to association by Southern Front Contra members with drug trafficker Jorge Morales was reported to DoJ. It also was exercised in a 1988 referral to DoJ of drug trafficking allegations concerning another Contra official.

⁽⁶⁾ In its April 14, 1976 report, the Senate's Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities (the ''Church'' Committee) concluded that the 1954 CIA-DoJ agreement ''essentially delegated [to the CIA] . . . the power to determine whether criminal prosecution should be initiated against individuals who violated federal law. This delegation was and is unacceptable.'' Book I, p. 288. See also the June 1975 Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, at 16.

⁽⁷⁾ Title 21 of the United States Code does not contain a section 874(h) nor did it contain such a section in 1982. The correct citation for the quoted language was section 873(b).

⁽⁸⁾ On March 17, 1988, Associate Attorney General Stephen S. Trott notified the Office of Independent Counsel (Iran-Contra) that: ''After learning from the CIA that the allegations [concerning Chamorro] were based on hearsay, the Drug Enforcement Administration decided to take no further action in this matter.''

⁽⁹⁾ These concerns were addressed to some extent in 1980 when Congress passed the Classified Information Procedures Act, 18 U.S.C. App. 3.

⁽¹⁰⁾ Mary Lawton is deceased.

⁽¹¹⁾ That memorandum is discussed in paragraph 116.

⁽¹²⁾ Agency cables from 1984 to 1986 portray David Mayorga Mairena as an active supporter of the FRS and ARDE. However, he was being referred to by February 1988 as a well-known drug trafficker and FSLN supporter who was brokering deals to sell Italian oil to the Government of Nicaragua. Mayorga was part owner and manager of the Costa Rica-based Alpa Airlines air freight company and related import and export businesses that were allegedly involved with weapons and drug smuggling activities. Mayorga was directly tied to drug trafficking by a DEA report stating that 414 pounds of cocaine hidden in a refrigerated container of produce from Costa Rica were seized in Miami on January 23, 1986. The container's owner reportedly told the Costa Rican Ministry of Security that the container had been leased to Mayorga. Mayorga was identified as vice president of an export company, Fruveticos, that had been under investigation by the DEA. The president of Fruveticos was Jorge Zarcovic, another co-owner of the Alpa Airlines air freight service. Agency Headquarters later noted that the cargo was addressed to Ocean Hunter of Miami, owned by Francisco Chanes Rodriguez.

⁽¹³⁾ The letter was actually signed by Acting DCI McMahon.

⁽¹⁴⁾ The La Penca bombing occurred in May 1984.

⁽¹⁵⁾ Alternate spelling of ''Corvo.''

⁽¹⁶⁾ Frudaticos was the primary packing house for Alpa, and was located in Turrialba, Costa Rica, approximately 100 km east of San Jose. From Frudaticos, trailers and containers were packed with pineapple and yucca for shipment to Limon, Costa Rica and direct sea shipment to Miami.

⁽¹⁷⁾ A number of variations of the spelling in this name have been found, to include: Zarcovik, Zarcovich and Zarcovic.

⁽¹⁸⁾ According to DEA, ''one could infer that the DEA was going to turn a blind eye to drug smuggling if AMADOR [sic] is a CIA asset. . . .This is not DEA policy and DEAwould not have turned a blind eye in this circumstance.''

⁽¹⁹⁾ Op. cit.

⁽²⁰⁾ Chanes was the director of a company called Mr. Shrimp, which had the same telephone number and address as Ocean Hunter. Mr. Shrimp and Ocean Hunter were separate companies, although both were allegedly being used to ship cocaine concealed in seafood sent from Frigorificos De Puntarenas.

⁽²¹⁾ According to DEA, at that time, based on available information, there would not have been any reason for DEA to have passed this particular smuggling information to CIA.

⁽²²⁾ Pereira was alleged in a March 16, 1986 San Francisco Examiner article to have been a Costa Rican-based source of cocaine for Julio Zavala and Carlos Cabezas, two of the persons who were arrested in 1983 and subsequently convicted in The Frogman Case in San Francisco, California. Pereira was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment following his 1986 conviction on drug charges in Costa Rica.

⁽²³⁾ This may be an error, a confusion with another Frank Arana. Agency records indicate that another ''Frank'' Arana--Francisco Ignacio Arana Icaza--was the FDN's Director of Public Affairs and Communications at this time. This individual had an extensive background in radio broadcasting.

⁽²⁴⁾ ''Nancy'' was an alias for Marieluz Guillen Serano, who was a Sandanista intelligence penetration of ARDE. She returned to Nicaragua after working at ARDE Headquarters and was used by the Sandinistas in a propaganda effort directed against Pastora, ARDE and CIA.

⁽²⁵⁾ According to DEA, ''These allegations were never substantiated.''

⁽²⁶⁾ An ERP is an Agency group that is responsible for reviewing the conduct of Agency staff employees, not assets, and making employment, administrative, or disciplinary recommendations. It usually is used only for an employee in a trial period of employment.

⁽²⁷⁾ August 20 appears in three places as the date of the memorandum, two typed and one stamped. The concurrence date of August 11, nine days prior to the date of the memorandum is handwritten along with Chase's signature.

⁽²⁸⁾ Hull provided a copy of a document that cites the results of calculations based on information contained in the Pilot's Operating Handbook and FAA Approved Flight Manual, 1977 Model 402B (D1544-1-13-RPC-1000-6/78 and conversations with an individual, identified as a factory representative for Cessna, the manufacturer of the Cessna 402B that Betzner is alleged to have flown to and from Hull's ranch. According to that document, after taking into consideration the weight of the cargo-configured Cessna 402B, fuel, oil, and the pilots, the aircraft would weigh 5,961 pounds—just 339 pounds below the manufacturer's recommended maximum gross takeoff weight of 6,300 pounds. With the addition of 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of cocaine the weight of the aircraft would exceed the maximum gross takeoff weight by 761 pounds. The document further stated that a 2,670 foot takeoff roll on a paved runway would be required for this aircraft loaded to its recommended maximum gross takeoff weight. It noted that Hull's runway was grass and would require approximately a 15 percent longer takeoff roll. This would bring the required runway length to 3,070 feet. According to the document, the useable length of Hull's runway was only 1,500 feet.

⁽²⁹⁾ ''Corbo'' is an alternate spelling of ''Corvo.''

⁽³⁰⁾ According to a Staff report prepared for Senator Kerry's Subcommittee in October 1986, Robert Owen, a contract employee of the NHAO and an intermediary between Oliver North and the Contras from late 1984 to mid-1985, was responsible for the NHAO contract with Frigorificos.

⁽³¹⁾ The Kerry Report noted that, throughout Palmer's career as a government informant, the various agencies using him did not seem to know that he was involved with more than one agency in more than one operation. Palmer's varied operations all involved the same airplane , and the result was ''chaos and confusion.'' The DEA eventually persuaded the Detroit prosecutor to drop the indictment against Palmer, because of his cooperation with law enforcement.

⁽³²⁾ According to the May 13, 1987 Customs response, another Vortex/Universal pilot affiliated with the Contra program was briefly detained at a Florida airport by INS in 1986 ''when he could not produce an INS I94 card.'' The Customs response stated that the aircraft that the pilot was flying ''is allegedly involved in smuggling operations'' although the precise nature of the alleged smuggling activity was not specified.

⁽³³⁾ The NHAO flights ended on June 30, 1986.

⁽³⁴⁾ Castillo declined to be interviewed under standard DoJ and CIA/OIG procedures.

⁽³⁵⁾ An October 29, 1986 cable advised CIA Headquarters that preliminary checks with senior Contra officials had indicated no contact between the U.S. citizen and the FDN.

⁽³⁶⁾ Rodriguez says he used an alias--''Maximo Gomez''--while in El Salvador.

⁽³⁷⁾ Preceding sections of this Report discuss the extent to which CIA shared information related to alleged drug trafficking by specific individuals and organizations associated with the Contras. This section examines the extent to which information about alleged Contra-drug trafficking was shared in a more general sense.

⁽³⁸⁾ According to DEA, ''DEA's first priority is to protect its ongoing investigations, and secondly, to share as much information as is possible with Federal, State, Local or foreign authorities with whom we work.''

⁽³⁹⁾ Preceding sections of this Report discuss the extent to which CIA shared information related to alleged drug trafficking by specific individuals and organizations associated with the Contras. This section examines the extent to which information about alleged Contra-drug trafficking was shared with Congress in a general sense.

⁽⁴⁰⁾ As discussed earlier in this Report, the unnamed resistance leader appears to have been Jose Davila.

Appendix A

⁽²⁾ Disposable Patriot. Revelations of a Soldier in America's Secret Wars by Jack Terrell with Ron Martz, National Press Books, Inc.: 1992.

Appendix E