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Much media atten­tion was devoted in 1996 to “Dark Alliance,” a San Jose Mer­cury News series dis­cussing appar­ent links between San Fran­cisco Bay Area con­nec­tions to the CIA-Contra related cocaine traf­fic and the crack epi­demic afflict­ing Amer­i­can inner cities and Afro-American com­mu­ni­ties. In 1989, Napa Sen­tinel edi­tor Harry Mar­tin drew on con­tacts within the law enforce­ment and intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ties to doc­u­ment a San Fran­cisco Bay Area con­nec­tion to the CIA-Contra related drug traf­fic that goes well beyond the scope of the Mer­cury News series. Nick­named “the Drug Tug Case,” the series ana­lyzes a dizzy­ing series of con­nec­tions that came to light dur­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion of the bust of a barge laden with scores of tons of hashish and mar­i­juana in San Fran­cisco Bay. In addi­tion to a revolving-door arrange­ment in which bank­ruptcy prop­er­ties were used to main­tain own­er­ship of the Isla Jesusita (a drug and weapons-staging area off the coast of Costa Rica), the oper­a­tion involved peo­ple who fig­ured in the Chris­tic Institute’s ill-fated inves­ti­ga­tion. The series also cov­ers: the mys­te­ri­ous deaths of peo­ple involved in the case; strange legal maneu­ver­ing indica­tive of a cover-up; the rip-off of peo­ple who invested in a mort­gage com­pany that served as a money-laundering front in the inves­ti­ga­tion and indi­ca­tions that the cover-up of the case still goes on. In addi­tion, the pro­gram touches on some of the other inves­tiga­tive series that Harry has done on the National Secu­rity estab­lish­ment over the years. (Recorded 11/10/96.)