Red Cocaine by Joseph Douglass part 2

WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT RED COCAINE

'A powerful and well-documented case of a deliberate policy decision, first by the authorities in Beijing and then in Moscow, to contribute to the decay of American society.... Red Cocaine puts the facts on record. We ignore the message it reveals at our own peril'.

DR RAY S. CLINE, former Deputy Director for Intelligence, CIA.

'Red Cocaine at last blows the lid off the most explosive aspect of drug trafficking, the Soviet connection. Here is the shocking story of the drugging of America by international Communism'. ROBIN MOORE, Author of The French Connection.

'This eye-opening book proves the insidious involvement of the Soviet intelligence services in the deliberate spread of the drug menace in the United States'. CHAPMAN PINCHER, Author of Secret Offensive etc.

'Red Cocaine is a seminal work which is essential reading for all serious students of the continuing Leninist World Revolution today (1999). A sine qua non for understanding why Western civilisation is under such relentless and ruthless attack is to be aware of the history of the long-term drug offensive against the West by Russian and Chinese inteffigence, as a key element of the ongoing assault on the structures and institutions of society in order to 'change loyalties' irrevocably for revolutionary purposes'. CHRISTOPHER STORY, Editor and Publisher, Soviet Analyst, 1999.

WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT COCAINE

'We will disarm the capitalists with the things they like to taste'. CHOU EN-LAI,

1958

'Deception and drugs are our first two strategic echelons in the war...'. NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, 1963

'I was ordered to load up the United States with drugs'. MARIO ESTEVEZ GONZALEZ, Cuban intelligence agent, 1981.

'Drugs are used as political weapons. The target was the youth...'. ANTONIO FARACH, high-level Nicaraguan official, 1984.

'Drugs are considered to be the best way to destroy the United States. By undermining the will of American youth, the enemy is destroyed without firing one bullet'. MAJOR JUAN RODRIGUEZ, Cuban intelligence officer, citing and invoking Antonio Gramsci, Lavrentii Beria and Sun-Tzu in a single sentence, 1988. [Sun-Tzu: the ancient Chinese military deception strategist].

'Opium should be regarded as a powerful weapon. It has been employed by imperialists against us, and now we should use it against them'.

[Fact: Mao Tse-Tung deployed drugs against Chinese populations - Ed.].

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LATE GENERAL JAN SEJNA BY THE U.S. DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY [DIA]

'... Source has provided reliable information to the US Government for over 20 years'. DIA [POW/MIA], 18th April 1992.

'... Source has provided reliable information to the US intelligence community for many years.... Source did submit to a polygraph examination during which no deception was detected'. LT. GENERAL CLAPPER, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, 27th April 1992.

'... has made significant contribution to Defense Intelligence [Dl] products addressing various aspects of the political/military affairs of the former Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact [and] provided substantive support to allied intelligence services.... Proven track record as a Defense Intelligence Agency substantive expert...  record of  excellence  in  substantive  support  to  Defense  Intelligence'. DAVE SISSON, Senior Analyst, Defense Intelligence Agency, November 5,1992, Inter-office letter to Alan Young.

ABOUT THE SECOND EDITION

Where the context allows, no attempt has been made to amend the dates, timeframe and thus, the tenses, used in the text. However wherever the Editor felt that the interests of clarify would be served, tenses have been amended. Red Cocaine first appeared in 1990, and the text reflects this context. The situation is now far worse than described in the book, and nothing in Red Cocaine has become irrelevant in the intervening years. The reader will find it helpful to bear in mind, though, that there has been no discontinuity since the events oi 1989-91, when the world imagined that the 'Cold War' had ended. Rather, the Leninist revolutionaries have been working, to cite Lenin, 'by other means'.

NOTE ON THE USE OF BRITISH ENGLISH

In conformity with the publisher's usual practice, spelling and the structure of sentences has been converted to British English, except of course where the context dictates otherwise. The first edition of Red Cocaine was written, naturally, in American English. It is the policy of Edward Harle Limited to use British English,

as a general rule. In 'translation', the Author's meaning and intentions have been followed throughout. Exceptions to the use or British English forms here include the retention of the American format for dates (e.g., January 1,2000), and of course the use of American spelling in quotations or wherever else the context so demands. There are also certain difficulties with words like 'program', for which the American usage has been retained in most contexts.

XVI                                         RED COCAINE

WARNING

This book has been known to generate strong emotional responses. Red Cocaine is a case study of evil: of the governments and people responsible for flooding the United States with drugs; of American public officials who have suppressed intelligence and looked the other way to favour 'special interests' and also to advance secret political agendas.

The information presented in Red Cocaine explains why the so-called war on drugs in the United States has been so ineffective. It challenges the erroneous belief that the drug problem is 'home-grown', the result of America's otherwise unexplained 'thirsf for drugs. This erroneous belief, carefully nurtured by politicians and drug traffickers, stands between America and the waging of an effective war on drugs for a very simple reason: a nation simply cannot wage war on its own people. This belief that Americans themselves are the cause is used by public officials to justify their poor results - and doing nothing about the nefarious activities of governments, politicians, intelligence services and the banks.

Red Cocaine was written to explode this belief, to expose the real forces behind the illegal drug trade, and to reveal the political protection that enables drug trafficking to survive and grow. Nothing has emerged since this book was published nearly a decade ago to contradict any of the information contained herein. On the contrary, the evidence is even more overwhelming that the analysis cannot be refuted. Indeed, it is highly significant that no refutation has been attempted - for the obvious reason that none is possible.

Although Red Cocaine primarily addresses the drugs offensive directed by Soviet and Chinese intelligence against the United States, all Western countries are targeted, as part of the World Revolution's relentless, manic struggle to remodel the world according to what is clearly a diabolical model. In order for the drug scourge to be addressed constructively in any country, the information contained in Red Cocaine should be absorbed first.

One purpose of republishing and updating Red Cocaine, therefore, is to make the work readily available to the concerned general reader, and to professionals and policymakers not only in the United States - where demand for the book has remained intact over the years - but also in key targeted countries around the world. Furthermore, the publisher pledges that this classic book will remain in print - since the central mission of Edward Harle Limited is to ensure the continuing availability of works which will assist all those

who have to struggle against the Leninist World Revolution being waged against us in its

new, more insidious and 'invisible' manifestations.

PREFACE

At dawn on July 14, 1989, Cuba's General Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez was executed by firing squad, along with three other Cuban officers. Ochoa was one of Cuba's most popular Army officers. A recipient of the Hero of the Republic medal, his career dated back 31 years to the revolution, when he was a member of the famed Camilo Cienfuegos brigade. More recently, he had commanded the Cuban forces in Ethiopia, the Cuban advisory group in Nicaragua, and the 50,000 Cuban troops in Angola.

General Ochoa was found guilty of helping Colombia's Medellin drug cartel smuggle cocaine into the United States. His trial, which was conducted in secret, began on Sunday, June 26, 1989. The star witness was General Raul Castro, the Minister of Defence and Fidel Castro's brother, deputy, and expected successor. Raul Castro denounced Ochoa and called for exemplary punishment. All members of the military tribunal also denounced General Ochoa. The military prosecutor, General Juan Escalona, said in his conclusion that General Ochoa 'betrayed his people, his fatherland and Fidel... and cast a slur on the prestige and credibility of the revolution'.

The trial and sentencing were conducted with despatch. Along with Ochoa, thirteen other officers were charged. Four, including Ochoa, were sentenced to death, the rest receiving long prison terms. No one offered any defence. All of the accused pleaded guilty. At one point, as reported by the Cuban News Ministry, Ochoa answered 'No' when asked if Raul Castro had known of his activity. But, no less than a dozen defectors from Cuban intelligence and its Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for internal security, as well as from Nicaraguan intelligence and its Ministry of Interior, diplomats from Nicaragua, and assorted drug traffickers, have stated unequivocally that both Fidel and Raul Castro knew about Cuba's involvement in drug trafficking, approved it, and profited from it. Which is the true story? Was Fidel involved or not?

Luis Carlos Galan was a Colombian Presidential candidate. He was a prominent sen- ator who had campaigned against the drug lords. It bought him a casket.

On August 18, 1989, he was shot down by assassins believed to be working for the drug cartels. His murder followed similar slayings of four other officials who were acting

against the interests of the drug lords - one, two days earlier, and three only a few hours before Galan's murder. In response, President Virgilio Barco ordered the arrest of all sus- pects. Overnight, 11,000 people believed to have been connected to the drug cartels were arrested. None of the top drug dealers were among those apprehended, and most of those arrested were released within a day or two.

Immediately following the mass arrests announced in Bogota, President Bush announced a $65 million military equipment-assistance program for Colombia. More was to be included in the forthcoming drug strategy program, not only for Colombia, but for other beleaguered nations such as Peru, Bolivia and Mexico. However, a former Bogota City Council member, Clara Lopez Obregon, raised a serious issue concerning the utility of such assistance: 'You can't enforce the law if within the law enforcement agencies you have people from the other side'.

As an indication of the scale of the problem here, when Cuba and Czechoslovakia first established drug operations in Colombia in the early 1960s, all recruited personnel were first subjected to intense background security investigations. One was performed by the Communist Party of Colombia and the other by a Communist agent who was a high official in Colombia's Ministry of Interior.

Are those in the United States who are responsible for planning military assistance for

Colombia aware of such complications? How do they assess the threat in Colombia?

Following the mass arrests in Colombia, there were a series of bombings, as the gov- ernment and the cartels declared war on each other. The very next week, more than 500 people were arrested for violating a curfew that had been imposed in Medellin, home of the infamous Medellin drug cartel. Among those arrested were 27 Cubans carrying forged Costa Rican passports. What were they doing there? Clearly, they could not, by any stretch of the imagination, have been tourists or businessmen.

Several defectors had previously reported strong ties between Cuba and the cartels. The principal go-between was said to be Cuban Ambassador Fernando Ravelo Renedo, who works for Manuel Pineiro Losada, head of the Cuban Communists' 'Americas Department', which has special responsibility for sabotage and subversion throughout the Western hemisphere. Pineiro was previously the head of Cuban intelligence. Cuba is also the main sponsor of Colombia's M-19 guerrilla revolutionaries and the military/terrorist arm of Colombia's Communist Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), both of which are also heavily involved in narcotics production and trafficking.

In late 1985, an almost unknown form of cocaine, 'crack', was introduced to the US market -just in time for the Christmas holidays. By mid-January, it was reported in eight States; by June 1986, it had spread across the nation and had become recognised as a severe challenge.

By 1989, the use of crack had become epidemic. It is now believed to be the main cause of drug use increase in recent years, the main cause of escalating crime and violence in American cities, and the main cause of escalating child abuse, hospital emergency room overload, and babies born with addiction and learning disabilities.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration published a study on crack entitled Crack

Cocaine Overview 1989. A similar report had been published in 1988. Both reports con-

cluded: 'Large-scale, interstate trafficking networks controlled by Jamaicans, Haitians and Black street gangs dominate the manufacture and distribution of crack'. Their primary targets are also identified: the inner-city minorities, mainly Black people and Hispanics, although crack is also making its way into rural and suburban areas. The principal suppli- ers mentioned in the study are two: Cubans and Colombians. A US Justice Department study revealed, also in 1989, that women are now as likely to be hard-core drug users as men. Another study showed that AIDS cases among drug addicts were expected to sur-

Preface                                                    3

pass those among homosexuals within one or two years. The focus of the AIDS epidemic is shifting to the poor, drug-ridden urban neighbourhoods. More than 40 percent of reported AIDS cases have occurred among Black people and Hispanics, although these two groups only constitute about 20 percent of the US population. Again, the responsible drug is crack.

The speed with which crack has spread, its focused distribution, and its sales price and marketing, which is designed to capture the young and ignorant with only a few dol-

lars to spend, all suggest a trained professional organisation. William Bennett, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, referred to this phenomenon as 'an innova- tion in cocaine retailing'. Where did the crack come from? Is what we are seeing the result of a planned operation? If so, who is responsible?

In 1988, ABC-TV presented a moving account of the drug scourge entitled 'Drugs: A Plague Upon the Land', narrated by Peter Jennings. Jennings concluded the news special with a thought-provoking observation:

If this is a war on drugs - and everyone from the President on down calls it that - shouldn't it be fought like a war?'

If we could prove that the drug problem in the United States was directed by Communist power, what do you think would happen then? Wouldn't the government be mobilised? Wouldn't the best minds in the country be enlisted to plan strategy? There'd certainly be no limit to the amount of money available to fight the war. Every institution in the country would be involved. No one would say, "It doesn't affect me"".

Clearly, Jennings was not suggesting that there was a Communist power behind the drug trade. He was only using the example to raise an important question: namely, why was the United States not fighting a serious war on drugs? Nevertheless, in using this example, Jennings had indirectly raised what might be an even more serious question: namely, that if there were a Communist power behind the drug trade - the Soviet Union, for example - who would believe it?

My anxieties concerning the origins of drug trafficking date back to 1984, when I read an article that described the linkages between the trafficking and revolutionary terrorists in Latin America. The author described the manner in which Cuba assisted the smugglers to move drugs into the United States and, as part of the same operation, provided arms to terrorists and revolutionaries. Evidence on this activity had been collected by the US Attorney's office in Miami and had resulted in the indictment of four high-level Cuban officials by a Federal grand jury in November 1982.

But the story seemed incomplete to me. Court testimony linked the trafficking oper- ation to Cuba's intelligence service, the Direccion General de Inteligencia, or DGI, and to the top Cuban leadership, Fidel and Raul Castro.

But, I wondered, how could Cuba, and especially the DGI, be involved, if the Soviet Union were not behind the operation? The DGI had been under the direct control of Soviet intelligence since the late 1960s. Thus, it seemed extremely unlikely for a DGI operation of this significance to have been conducted without Soviet approval and direction.

As I delved more deeply into the subject, it became apparent that Cuba was not an isolated example. There was also extensive data linking the People's Republic of China to

international drug trafficking. Additionally, there was evidence that Nicaragua, Bulgaria, Hungary, [the former] East Germany and North Korea were also involved in trafficking as a matter of official state policy. But, while it seemed inconceivable that these countries could be involved without the Soviet Union also being involved, I still had no direct data on Soviet involvement.

All this was to change radically one day in 1985 when I was having lunch with Jan Sejna, a former high-level Czechoslovak military-political official who had defected to the United States in 1968. General Sejna remains, to my knowledge, the highest positioned Soviet Bloc official ever to seek political asylum in the West, and the only such official who was actually a member of the decision-making hierarchy. It was during the luncheon conversation that I first asked General Sejna if he had any direct knowledge of Soviet involvement in international narcotics trafficking. For the next hour or two, he provided extensive details on Soviet narcotics trafficking operations, including their use of satellite countries, the dates of the key decisions, and most importantly, the basic Soviet strategy.

The information was alarming. Clearly, Sejna's knowledge was of extreme impor- tance, or so I thought. I also suspected that none of the US agencies involved in fighting the drug trade was aware of this information, which turned out to be correct. It was clear to me that Sejna's knowledge was so extensive that a thorough debriefing would require a sub- stantial effort and considerable time. I went to work soliciting support for the task. In the process, my excitement turned to dismay as I began to recognise that none of the US agen- cies with responsibilities in the drug war were interested in obtaining Sejna's knowledge.

In retrospect, this should have come as no surprise. I have had the unique opportu- nity to work with General Sejna over the past ten years. This was not the first time that I had encountered a disinterest within the US Government on subjects of strategic impor- tance where Sejna had extensive expertise. Strategic deception; the Soviet long-range plan; Soviet political and military strategy; coordinated Soviet Bloc intelligence operations; Soviet decision making; Soviet Bloc training of international terrorists; and, Soviet Bloc intelligence penetration of organised crime, are just a few examples.

It is quite clear that the national security and policy communities do not like what Sejna has to say, and hence do not pursue his knowledge. Why is more difficult to explain. The problem is not credibility. Sejna's testimony has been confirmed over and over again. It is consistent with his background and with other sensitive information. Sejna is acknowledged to be an excellent source at the highest levels in the intelligence commu- nity. No, the problem is not one of evaluating and then rejecting data; it is one of not want- ing to know in the first place.

In a very real sense, the problem is similar to the challenge faced by government officials when informed that an entire region in the Soviet Union was being systematically starved to death; or, that a regime with which government and business leaders were con- sorting had just killed 60 million of its own citizens; or, that our partner in detente was sys- tematically violating each of the new arms control treaties while destabilising numerous independent governments around the globe, also in direct violation of numerous treaties, international agreements, and personal assurances, no-one wants to hear the news.

But the news is important and needs to be broadcast, because the possible conse- quences are so serious. How is it possible to fight an effective war on drugs if the accepted image of that war is deficient, or if the primary forces and players are not recognised? The logical answer is that it is not possible.

How then is it possible to bring about a change? This is a question which everyone

Preface                                                    5

who is concerned about the drug crisis is bound to consider and take seriously.

In examining the problems associated with drug trafficking, my personal concern is

that the situation is far more serious than any of us realise precisely because of the political warfare that is being waged; the extensive Communist involvement; the deliberately planned undermining of the health of our youth and our system of values; the corruption prevalent within circles of power and influence; the breakdown in law and order (at home as well as abroad) and associated deliberate political destabilisation; the power of experi- mental drugs that have not yet been introduced to the marketplace; and the misguided, self-imposed policies and private interests that prevent us from understanding the true nature of what is happening. These 'missing factors' are the focus of this book. The situa- tion is especially serious because of these factors, and because they are not part of the

'accepted image'. Nor is this likely to change unless and until people demand a change.

While there has been a great temptation for me to expand this study and to delve into many related and parallel dimensions of Soviet intelligence strategy directed against the United States, our friends and allies, I decided to focus strictly on the drug-trafficking dimension in order to keep the message as simple as possible. Only material believed suf- ficient to present a credible case focused on the Latin American-United States drug-traf- ficking situation is included. No attempt has been made to include complementary details on Chinese or Soviet Bloc drug-related intelligence and political influence operations in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Australia, the Far East, or Southeast Asia, except for operations during the Vietnam War, which is discussed in Chapter 6. However Chapter 12 is entirely new, having been completed in December 1998.

It is hoped that the material presented here, which raises serious cause for concern that the drug challenge is not as simple as many authorities would have us believe, may

stimulate interest in directing the appropriate agencies to collect and assemble all pertinent data. From my perspective, this is the first step to waging an effective war on drugs: develop a thorough understanding of what is happening and who is involved.

Without such understanding, how can an effective counter-strategy ever be developed and implemented? And without it, how can Western civilisation be preserved?

JOSEPH D. DOUGLASS, JR

Falls Church, Virginia

1. ABC News Special, Drugs: A Plague on the Land, 10th April 1988, New York: Transcript produced by

Journal Graphics, Inc., 1988, page 13.

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