RT 11/20/1993    By Arthur Spiegelman
     NEW YORK (Reuter) - The Central Intelligence Agency helped smuggle 
at least a ton of cocaine worth $20 million into the United States in an 
effort to infiltrate Colombian drug cartels, a former head of the U.S. 
Drug Enforcement Administration says.
     In a report to be broadcast Sunday by the CBS program "60 Minutes," 
former DEA head Judge Robert Bonner said the CIA operation, in 
conjunction with the Venzuelan National Guard, was illegal because his 
agency refused to approve it.
     Others quoted in the report said the operation in 1990 might have 
been designed to lead the agency to drug king Pedro Escobar and to find 
out how the cartels used Venezuela as a trans-shipment point for cocaine 
smuggled into the United States.
     They said the CIA cooperated with National Guard General Ramon 
Guillen Davila, who on the program denied any wrongdoing and said he was 
being set up as a fall guy. He described how drugs could not be placed 
on board one plane because the box they were in was too big to get 
through the door.
     One CIA spokesman said of the incident: "We found a problem, we 
investigated it and we fixed it." Another called it "a regrettable 
incident."
     But the agency disputed "60 Minutes" conclusion that the agency was 
involved in an illegal drug-smuggling operation.
     A CIA spokesman, questioned by Reuters, said that a joint CIA and 
DEA investigation turned up no evidence "of criminal wrongdoing 
involving illegal drug shipments into the United States by anyone 
working for the CIA."
     But he added that one of the agency's officers was dismissed and 
others disciplined for "instances of poor judgment and management."
     Asked if the report was true, a CIA spokesman said: "If an 
impression has been left that there was collusion by CIA agents to 
co-ship massive quantities of cocaine with a rogue Venezuelan general 
with whom it was co-operating, that would be extremely unfortunate, 
untrue and misleading."
     The CBS program said at least a ton of cocaine was smuggled into 
the United States using an informer close to Colombia's drug cartels and 
the Venezuelan National Guard. The cartels paid the smugglers more than 
$2,000 per pound but "60 Minutes" said it was not known where the money 
went.
      The Washington Post, the New York Times, and the newsweekly, U.S. 
News & World Report, also reported the allegations of CIA involvement in 
drug smuggling.
     The Times, in its Saturday edition, said much of the nearly pure 
cocaine wound up on the streets of the United States although it did not 
estimate the value of the street sales.
    Bonner said on "60 Minutes" that only the DEA can give permission to 
a U.S. government agency to participate in drug smuggling as part of a 
wider criminal investigation and that the CIA broke the law.
     He said the CIA had asked DEA for permission to smuggle drugs into 
the United States and added, "We said no, no way. We will not permit 
this. It should not go forward. And then, apparently, it went forward 
anyway."
