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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.)