Drug Trade - Dark American History (Page 3)

A teddy bear detective projects images of planes and suited figures; a CIA-Contra file sits on the desk.

Drug Trade

The CIA-Contra Connection: Did the Government Help Flood Black Neighborhoods?

Gary Webb's 1996 Dark Alliance investigation tied Contra-connected drug trafficking to the LA crack epidemic. The CIA's own inspector general later confirmed the agency shielded those traffickers.

Comic panels on Len Bias: a giraffe athlete's death and the sentencing law passed after it.

Drug Trade

Len Bias and the 1986 Drug Laws: How One Death Changed Sentencing

Len Bias died from powder cocaine in June 1986. Six weeks later Congress passed mandatory minimums with a 100-to-1 crack disparity — with no hearings no experts and no analysis of who would pay.

Comic page on Freeway Rick Ross with a supply chain diagram of stuffed animal distributors.

Drug Trade

Freeway Rick Ross: The Biggest Crack Dealer in American History

Ricky Donnell Ross moved more than $600 million in crack cocaine through Los Angeles in the 1980s by buying directly from Contra-connected Nicaraguan suppliers — undercutting every competitor.

Drug Trade

How Crack Hit America: The Drug That Rewrote the Rules

Crack cocaine appeared in South Central Los Angeles and the South Bronx around 1984 — selling for $5 a rock. Inside the chemistry price point and structural rupture that followed.