Dark alliance

Drawing on thousands of pages of formerly classified material from the CIA, the DEA, the FBI, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, along with declassified records from the Iran-Contra inquiry, Gary Webb traces how crack cocaine spread through Los Angeles. He worked with Nicaraguan journalist Georg Hodel, and the two interviewed former members of the Contra drug ring, former federal prosecutors, CIA and DEA agents, and former Central American police officials.

The book argues that the city's crack trade expanded because of official carelessness, profit-seeking, and outright criminal behavior. Webb contends that the CIA, DEA, and FBI knew about this well-connected network for most of its existence and did little to shut it down.

Webb documents several cases in which the Justice Department, the CIA, and a secret National Security Council unit led by Oliver North acted to shield the ring from public scrutiny. The book expands on the investigative reporting Webb published as a newspaper journalist.