Freeway Ricky Ross: How John Kerry Exposed Reagan’s Role in Creating the Drug Epidemic in America

by Freeway Ricky Ross

“Can’t you tell that I came from the dope game? — Blame Reagan for making me into a monster — Blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra — I ran contraband that they sponsored” — Jay-Z, “Blue Magic”

John Kerry being nominated to Secretary of the State brings his ever looming presence within the Iran Contra Scandal full circle. The man responsible for uncovering a scandal that cocaine was being brought into the United States as part of a multicontinental black market with the knowledge of the CIA and U.S. government will now hold one of the most powerful international offices in the world. The backdrop of his presence on Capitol Hill will always be built upon pillars of his desire to have America be honest to itself, and the rest of the world as to its own actions here and abroad.

In early 1986, the 42-year-old Massachusetts Democrat stood almost alone in the U.S. Senate demanding answers about the emerging evidence that CIA-backed Contras were filling their coffers by collaborating with drug traffickers then flooding U.S. borders with cocaine from South America… In taking on the inquiry, Kerry challenged President Ronald Reagan at the height of his power, at a time he was calling the Contras the “moral equals of the Founding Fathers.” Kerry’s questions represented a particular embarrassment to Vice President George H.W. Bush, whose responsibilities included overseeing U.S. drug-interdiction policies… Kerry’s probe infuriated Reagan’s White House, which was pushing Congress to restore military funding for the Contras. Some in the administration also saw Kerry’s investigation as a threat to the secrecy surrounding the Contra supply operation, which was being run illegally by White House aide Oliver North and members of Bush’s vice presidential staff.
The Reagan administration did everything it could to thwart Kerry’s investigation, including attempting to discredit witnesses, stonewalling the Senate when it requested evidence and assigning the CIA to monitor Kerry’s probe. But it couldn’t stop Kerry and his investigators from discovering the explosive truth: that the Contra war was permeated with drug traffickers who gave the Contras money, weapons and equipment in exchange for help in smuggling cocaine into the United States. Even more damningly, Kerry found that U.S. government agencies knew about the Contra-drug connection, but turned a blind eye to the evidence in order to avoid undermining a top Reagan-Bush foreign policy initiative. — Salon.com

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