[Skit: Lowell Bergman, Mike Wallace & Interviewees: Judge Robert Bonner & Annabelle Grim]
A tonne of cocaine, pure cocaine worth hundreds of millions is smuggled into the United States
Sound familiar? Not the way this tonne of cocaine got here
According to what the former head of the drug enforcement administration told Mike Wallace
This drug shipment got here courtesy of what he calls
Drug trafficking by the CIA in partnership with the Venezuela national guard
Let me understand what you're saying
A tonne of cocaine was smuggled into the United States of America
By the Venezuelan national guard
Well they--
In co-operation with the CIA?
That's what-- that's exactly what appears to have happened
Until last month, Judge Robert Bonner was the head of the drug enforcement administration, the DEA
And Judge Bonner explained to us that only the head of the DEA is authorised
To approve the transportation of any illegal narcotics, like cocaine, into this country
Even if the CIA is bringing it in
Let me put it this way, Mike
If this has not been approved by DEA or an appropriate law enfrocement authority in the United States, uh
Then it's illegal, it's called drug trafficking, it's called drug smuggling
So what you're saying in effect is the CIA broke the law, simple as that
I don't think there's any other way you can, uh, rationalise around it
Back in the 1980s, the CIA was mandated by then president, Reagan
To develop intelligence on the Columbian drug cartels
And so the CIA with Venezuela's Guardia Nacional or national guard
Set up an undercover operation, a drug smuggling operation in Venezuela
That could handle the grand shipment of the Columbian cartel's cocaine on its way to market
Anabelle Grim was a DEA agent with 18 years experience when she was made agent in charge in Caracas
And she says that the CIA station chief James Campbell, and this man, Martin McFarlane, the CIA offer in charge at the center
Told her that to keep the undercover smuggling operation credible, they had to keep the cartel happy
And the way to do that was simple, deliver their dope untouched by US law enforcement
To the cartel's distributors, their dope dealers in the United States
The CIA and the Guardia Nacional wanted to let cocaine go on into the traffic
Without doing anything, they wanted to let it come up to United States, no surveillance, no nothing
Now would--, you weren't gonna stop them in Miami, or Houston, or wherever, um
These drugs were simply gonna go to the United States and then go into the traffic, and potentially reach the streets?
That's what they wanted to do, yes
I looked at that thousand kilos, at least that thousand kilos
I look at the fact, I mean, Mike, you're a taxpayer
And that was US taxpayer money that built that sand, that funded it, that maintained it
And I really take great exception to the fact that that thousand kilos came in funded by US taxpayer money
And it hit the streets of the United States
I find that particularly appalling when you look at the damaged lives that thousand kilos represents
