While controversy continues to swirl about allegations of CIA involvement in cocaine trafficking in U.S. inner cities, a look at court records show that at least one important aspect of this connection was well known almost seven years ago. PNS reporters Dennis Bernstein and Robert Knight find a compelling example in records of a case trial in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1990. Bernstein is an award winning investigative reporter who produces an daily investigative news program for public radio. 

If and when federal investigators dig into allegations that the CIA played an active role in drug trafficking to support the contra war in Nicaragua, they need look no further than federal court records. 

 Witnesses in at least half a dozen federal trials held between 1984 and 1991 implicated contra operatives and their U.S. handlers in drug-related operations. Evidently none of their leads were followed up by law enforcement agencies. Whether public outrage over the new charges, particularly from black Americans, will compel a new government probe remains to be seen. 

 A review of sworn testimony and documentation offered in these trials indicates there is a vast shadow world of wheeler-dealers, ex-spies, former government officials, and immunized witnesses who could support charges, first raised in a San Jose Mercury News series, that the CIA knew of or participated in drug trafficking to support the contra war. 

 Perhaps the most compelling example comes in the case of Fabio Ernesto Carrasco, a prime figure in the 1990 Tulsa, Oklahoma trial that led to the conviction of Colombian cocaine trafficker Jose Rafael Abello Silva -- "the most dangerous cartel leader ever to be extradited in the United States," according to the FBI. 

 Carrasco agreed to testify against Abello, his former boss, in exchange for immunity from prosecution on other trafficking charges. 

 During several days of thorough debriefing with U.S. Customs officials and federal prosecutors, Carrasco disclosed that from 1984 to 1986 he worked as a liaison between CIA-backed contra leaders in Costa Rica and cartel operative George Morales, identified by U.S. Senate investigators and several contra leaders as a key funder of contras after Congress cut off their funds. 

 Carrasco described how contra leaders Popo Chamorro, Octaviano Cesar and others arranged for almost a ton of cocaine to be brought into Costa Rica, where members of the Morales organization supervised its transport from contra camps into the United States. 

 In the fall of 1984, according to Carrasco's detailed account, contra leaders ordered Morales to land cocaine-filled airplanes at public airports in south Florida where the flights would be "protected." Carrasco himself was on a flight to bustling Opa-locka airport in North Miami, then under heavy surveillance by federal authorities because of its proximity to South America. 

 The flight taxied to a hangar controlled by Morales, already under federal indictment for using that hangar for smuggling activities. There, Carrasco said, over 400 kilos of cocaine packed in military-style duffel bags were unloaded in plain view. 

 Carrasco's sworn statements were part of wide-ranging disclosures about drug-smuggling activities. The CIA connection did not come to light until he was cross-examined by Abello's defense attorneys. 

 In one exchange, Carrasco answered "Yes, that's right," when asked if, at the time he was working for Morales, he knew that Morales claimed to have connections to the CIA and as a result had protection to bring drugs into the United States. 

 This supports allegations that emerged in the trial earlier this year of crack dealer "Freeway" Ricky Ross, a key source for the San Jose Mercury series linking the CIA to contra drug trafficking in the U.S. 

 Carrasco said he had delivered weapons ("war weapons, not personal type weapons") and retrieved cocaine from land controlled by John Hull, a long-time CIA operative based in Costa Rica. The drugs, he said, "came in military bags, green in color." 

 Carrasco also said he often met with contra leaders who claimed they were working for the CIA in Florida and Central America, including 30 to 40 meetings with Octaviano Cesar and Popo Chamorro between 1983 and 1985 to deliver millions of dollars in proceeds from cocaine sales. 

 This is consistent with testimony given by Morales himself in 1987 before Sen. John Kerry's Committee on Narcotics and International Terrorism. Morales said two contra leaders, claiming to represent the CIA, approached him after a 1983 drug indictment and promised "they would take care of the legal problems" if he would help arm the contras. 

 At Senate Intelligence Committee hearings in late October, Jack Blum, former Kerry committee special counsel, offered this explanation of U.S. policy toward contra drug dealing. 

 "There were facilities that were needed for running the war, the clandestine air strips, cowboy pilots who would fly junker airplanes, people who would make arrangements for the clandestine movement of money," said Blum. "Every one of those facilities was a perfect facility for someone in the drug business. So there were people who were connected very directly to the CIA who had those facilities, and allowed them to be used."