Copyright 1996 Stern Publishing, Inc.  
                                   LA Weekly
                              December 13, 1996
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 1690 words
HEADLINE: SHERMAN'S CONTRA-DICTION
SHERIFF BLOCK LAUNCHES A PREEMPTIVE REPORT ON CONTRAS, DRUGS AND THE CIA
BYLINE: BY CHARLES RAPPLEYE
 BODY:
   In a stunning display of bravura, Sheriff Sherman Block held a news
conference Tuesday to announce that a two-month inquiry at his direction had
cleared the U.S. government of allegations it was involved in trafficking drugs.
   In fact, a close review of the 90-page summary Block made public at the press
conference shows that his investigation raised more questions than it answered
about allegations of contra involvement in drugs. Documents from the 1980s and
recent interviews with officers from several narcotics-enforcement agencies both
lend support to the charges.
   Block, however, seems to have given far more weight to statements from
government officials and others denying any U.S. involvement in drug dealing to 
fund contra activities.
   The Sheriff s inquiry came in response to a series of stories published last 
August in the San Jose Mercury News, which reported that Nicaraguan drug dealers
Norwin Meneses and Danilo Blandon had supplied large quantities of cocaine to 
notorious L.A. crack dealer Donnell Freeway Rick Ross.
   Meneses and Blandon, in turn, used some of the profits from the drug trade to
help fund the covert contra army then fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The
U.S. government, and particularly the CIA, had knowledge of the operation but 
did not move to stop it, the Mercury News alleged. The charges were based in
part on documents stemming from an L.A. Sheriff s investigation into Blandon s
drug trafficking.
   The stories ignited a storm of criticism in the black community in Los
Angeles and across the nation, and elected officials from Congress, as well as
the CIA and the FBI, promised thorough investigations.
   Block said Tuesday he also conducted an investigation, including a full
review of his department s records and extensive interviews of the deputies and 
principal suspects. A 3,600-page file was developed, which has been turned over 
to congressional investigators.
    We have found no evidence that the government was involved in drug
trafficking in South-Central, Block said, and no evidence of cover-up by this
department.
   But Block s unequivocal statement is not backed up by the report itself,
which raises many questions.
   An investigative memo compiled in 1986 and released Tuesday, for example,
contained the following passage: Informants relate that Ronnie Lister, a former 
police officer . . . has transported millions of dollars to Miami for Danilo
Blandon.
   The same memo also said that Informants relate that Danilo s uncle owns a
business in Florida, whose name is Orlando Murillo. And his uncle Orlando used
to be a bank chairman under former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza prior to
his being thrown out of power.
   (Murillo was named in a 1986 search-warrant affidavit, cited by the Mercury
News, as a bank officer through whom monies are filtered to the contra rebels to
buy arms in the war in Nicaragua. )
   The memo detailing the activities of Blandon and Lister was written by Jerry 
Guzzetta, a detective with the city of Bell police who specialized in developing
inside sources for Project Sahara, a multiagency task force targeting narcotics 
traffic in South-Central L.A. The team was tracking Ricky Ross as the
distribution arm, and Blandon as one of Ross primary suppliers.
   Guzzetta continues to assert that his information was correct, the Sheriff s 
report suggests.  Guzzetta said in his interview with investigators last month
the proceeds were used to support the Nicaraguan contra forces . . . According
to Guzzetta, the informant(s) admitted to being mules (drug/money transporters) 
between Blandon and Freeway Rick.
   Separately, Special Agent Thomas Schrettner of the federal Drug Enforcement
Agency told Sheriff s investigators last month that his own inquiries in 1986
produced a confidential informant who told him the Blandon organization was
sending proceeds from drug sales to the contras in Nicaragua.
   Key to the allegations of CIA involvement, and another focus of Block s
probe, was the role of Ron Lister, the onetime Laguna Beach police officer and
Blandon associate who was later convicted and served six years in prison on
federal drug charges.
   Lister cropped up in 1986 when officers with Project Sahara included his home
among 13 targets in a raid on the Blandon drug operation. Lister is reported to 
have declared at the time the deputies should leave him alone, as he was working
with the CIA.
   Block said Tuesday his investigators found that three deputies had lied at
the time, concocting the CIA ruse to help them cover up their own involvement 
in criminal theft of drugs and cash from the dealers they were investigating.
   It was an interesting point. Dozens of Sheriff s narcotics investigators from
the 1980s in fact fell under suspicion of criminal misconduct, and more than a
dozen were convicted on federal charges.
   One of those was Deputy Daniel Garner, who was later named by Blandon as
having stolen $40,000 in cash during the 1986 raids. At his federal trial in
1990, Garner proposed that Blandon had been affiliated with the CIA, and
sought to deter prosecutors by asserting outrageous government conduct, a
strategy later adopted by Ricky Ross. As in Ross trial last month, the ploy
failed, and Garner was convicted and sentenced to 54 months in prison.
   But Garner s scheming aside, the current Sheriff s inquiry yielded
substantial
 new testimony that Lister indeed invoked a CIA connection when
confronted by deputies in 1986, and that evidence the officers confiscated
supported the claim.
   Former L.A. Deputy Robert Juarez was among those involved in the Lister raid.
He told investigators recently that during the search of the Lister residence . 
. . Lister did mention he was with the CIA and had business dealings in South 
America.
   Juarez was another of the deputies convicted on federal charges, and was
sentenced to 60 months in prison.
   Juarez seized evidence at another location belonging to Lister during the 86 
raid. The haul included training manuals, military training films, financial
records and a box of ammunition. At the time, Juarez identified the materials as
CIA info.
   Former Deputy Virgil Bartlett recalled that evidence in more detail. He told 
investigators he had seen photographs of Ronald Lister in a contra military
compound.  When asked how he knew it was a contra installation, he said it was
only his opinion, based on the fact that everyone in the photo appeared to be
Latin. Bartlett said along with the pictures were paperwork and possibly airline
tickets from Nicaragua. Bartlett said the pictures showed Lister standing with a
general, and in the background were tents, munitions, and automatic weapons.
Bartlett said there were no names or dates on the photos that he could recall.
   Based on those comments, Block s inquiry found, There is no conclusive
evidence that the pictures were taken in Central America or depicted contra
personnel and/or weaponry.  (Bartlett was another deputy convicted on federal
charges.)
   Sheriff s deputies not subsequently charged with criminal activity also
recall Lister s claim to CIA privilege. A deputy at the Norwalk station
quoted Lister as saying, There s a bigger picture here. I m working for the
CIA. . . The government is allowing drug sales to go on in the United States. 
   On the other side of the coin, Block s inquiry presents for the first time
the latest commentary from Lister himself.
   As Nick Schou revealed in these pages two weeks ago, Lister was released from
federal prison last June. He had previously cooperated with law enforcement in a
series of drug cases, and asserted in court papers that he had provided
information relating to drug trafficking and the contra army.
   Quoted in Block s summary from a rambling November 6 interview, Lister
conceded an extensive history of drug dealing. He also acknowledged being an
active contra supporter, but ridiculed any suggestion that he was involved in
intelligence. Lister stated that he has never told anyone, at any time, that he 
worked for the CIA.
   The report continues, Lister did display some knowledge of the U.S.
intelligence community during the interview. He said that if he were affiliated 
with an organization like the CIA, he wouldn t talk about it. He went on to
say, You ve got to remember, there s 32 intelligence agencies out there. The
CIA is just one of them.
   Asked again, later, if he was involved with the CIA or helped with their
operations, Lister said, No, not knowingly.
   Explaining his current notoriety, Lister said, As soon as D (Danilo Blandon) 
got in trouble, he, uh, found that he could be more valuable if he decided to
embellish what he really was. So, and I think that s what got us, you know,
here.
   Still, Lister allowed that he had an important role in the Blandon operation.
Block s report said Lister estimated that he moved between 50-60 million dollars
for Blandon.
   Also interviewed in the Sheriff s inquiry is David Scott Weekly, an
occasional accomplice of Lister s, whom deputies say Lister named in 1986 as his
CIA contact in Washington.  (Papers confiscated from Lister then named Weekly 
as a DIA -- the acronym for the Defense Intelligence Agency -- contact.)
   Weekly provided a more cogent, but equally guarded, interview. He
acknowledged knowing Lister but emphatically denied any involvement in the
drug trade.  Weekly was then asked if he knew what the DIA is. After a pause, he
replied, Yes.  He was then asked if he knew what a DIA subcontractor was. He
replied, Well, I know -- yes and no -- yes if you re talking about one thing,
and no if you re -- you could be talking about a million other things that start
with DIA.
   While Sheriff Block contends such testimony should put the controversy to
rest, Representative Maxine Waters (D-L.A.) says she expects more to come.  This
is all very intriguing, and there are still a lot of questions to be answered.
   Waters vowed to find those answers, if I have to hold hearings at my house.
   Additional reporting by Kevin Uhrich and City News Service
GRAPHIC: Photo: Sherman Block: "No evidence"
   Credit: Ted Soqui
   Photo: Danilo Blandon: "50-60 million dollars"
   Credit: Courtesy of San Jose Mercury
   Photo: Ron Lister: Blandon 'mule'
   Credit: Courtesy of San Jose Mercury