CIA Chief to Attend Town Meeting on Drug Controversy

CIA Director John Deutch will attend a town hall meeting at Locke High School in Watts on Friday to discuss recent allegations that the agency may have eased the way for Nicaraguan drug dealers to sell crack cocaine in South-Central Los Angeles in the early 1980s.

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Carson), who requested Deutch’s visit, said she hopes that by bringing the director to Watts “we can begin to address some of the many questions that my constituents want to ask.”

The meeting will begin at 3 p.m. at Locke’s Hobbs Hall auditorium, 325 E. 111th St.

Last week, the CIA filed documents saying an internal investigation turned up no record of a relationship between the CIA and Nicaraguan drug dealers who operated a South-Central cocaine ring during the 1980s. The drug dealers are known to have passed a small amount of their profits on to CIA-supported Contra rebels.

In addition to Deutch, Millender-McDonald said she has invited several members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to attend Friday’s meeting.