I’m reposting this in light of the attacks in Iran to show the long history of US right wing association with the Iranian Theocracy.
In the post Questionable Associations we discussed the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Les Wexner. Wexner was the owner of Southern Air Transport, an air cargo company that was formerly owned by the CIA and used in covert deliveries and travel. Wexner bought it, Epstein had power of attorney, and the CIA still used it. Notably the planes were used to smuggle guns and probably cocaine during Ronald Reagan’s Iran Contra Scandal. Cocaine was allegedly taken from Central America to the US, the money was used to buy weapons from Iran and they were flown to arm the Contras.
In the 1990s, Les Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein were involved in relocating Southern Air Transport (a CIA front organization with ties to the Iran-Contra affair and alleged CIA drug smuggling) from Miami to Columbus. Southern Air transported goods related to Wexner’s businesses, but in 1996, Customs agents found a hidden shipment of cocaine on one of the planes. Southern Air was shut down in 1998 after Wexner had received federal aid for the relocation of the airline, just weeks before the CIA Inspector General released its official findings on Contra cocaine trafficking allegations. Wikipedia
Though cocaine was found being smuggled on one of Southern Air Tranport’s planes the claims the CIA was smuggling the drug are officially “unsubstantiated.”
Some of the unsubstantiated cocaine is believed to have been sold to a Los Angeles former drug dealer named “Freeway” Ricky Ross. This theory is laid out in the book Dark Alliance by author Gary Webb and in the documentary American Drug War: The Last White Hope by director Kevin Booth.
Selling unsubstantiated cocaine to black people seemed acceptable to these Iran Contra operatives.
- Breaking It On Down 4dforum