In the mid-1990s, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Gary Webb set off a national firestorm with a three-part series in the San Jose Mercury News. His investigation alleged that profits from crack cocaine sales in Los Angeles’ Black neighborhoods had helped fund Nicaraguan rebels during the 1980s, and that the CIA knew more than it cared to admit.
The revelations outraged communities already devastated by the crack epidemic and President Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs,” raising questions about whether the government had looked the other way. But Webb’s reporting was quickly dismissed by major media outlets, and his career unraveled. Yet his story still sparks debate today, leaving many to wonder: what else lies hidden in America’s past, and what really happened to the journalist who dared to uncover it?
Click through the following gallery to explore how a shadowy network linked the US government, the CIA, and Los Angeles drug traffickers.