Cocaine Importing Agency (Central Intelligence Agency or CIA nickname)

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to World War II’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The CIA has long been accused of importing drugs into the United States, as depicted in the film Kill the Messenger (2014). The CIA has been popularly nicknamed “Cocaine Import Agency” since at least 1988 and “Cocaine Importing Agency” since at least 1989.

The CIA has also been nicknamed “The Agency,” “Pickle Factory” (since at least 1965), “The Company” (since at least 1972), “Christians In Action” (since at least 1978), “Capitalism’s Invisible Army” (by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1981), “Capitalism’s International Army” (since at least 1995), “Virginia Farm Boys” (after its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, as used in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible), “Certified Idiots of America” (since at least 1996), “Clowns In America” (since at least 2010), “Crooks In Action” (since at least 2010) and “Catholic Intelligence Agency” (since at least 2012).
   
 
Wikipedia: Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the principal intelligence-gathering agencies of the United States federal government. The CIA’s headquarters is in Langley, Virginia, a few miles west of Washington, D.C. Its employees operate from U.S. embassies and many other locations around the world. The only independent U.S. intelligence agency, it reports to the Director of National Intelligence.
 
The CIA has three traditional principal activities, which are gathering information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals; analyzing that information, along with intelligence gathered by other U.S. intelligence agencies, in order to provide national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers; and, upon the request of the President of the United States, carrying out or overseeing covert activities and some tactical operations by its own employees, by members of the U.S. military, or by other partners. It can, for example, exert foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division.
 
21 December 1988, The Stars and Stripes, “Short, sharp songs of Michelle Shocked” by Michael Abrams, pg. 17, cols. 2-3:
While the string was being replaced she spouted what she calls her “two cents worth of politics,” a put-down of the present administration’s policy toward the homeless and the CIA’s alleged involvement with drugs-for-arms deals (she called it the “Cocaine Import Agency”).
 
17 November 1989, The Progress (Clearfield, PA), “Human Rights Activist Keynote Speaker at PSU” by John Brennan, pg. 16, col. 4:
She said it is no coincidence it has appeared in society at this moment and that she had heard brothers call the CIA the cocaine importing agency.
   
Google Books
The Guild Practitioner
Volume 46  
1989
Pg. 61:
Many of the young small-time drug pushers in our communities say that they know what the initials, C.I. A. really stand for — Cocaine-Importing-Agency
   
Google Books
Why L.A. Happened:
Implications of the ‘92 Los Angeles Rebellion
By Haki R. Madhubuti
Chicago, IL: Third World Press
1993
Pg. 152:
Is it any wonder that “Black youth in California now refer to the CIA as the Cocaine Importing Agency?”
     
Google Groups: ca.general
ACTION: Fight Health Insurance Attempt to Block Reforms
Jim I. Walker
10/7/93
(...)
Listen- our government doesn’t TRY that hard to stop drugs (I do believe drugs should be legalized and handguns should be illegal- there’s a big difference between hurting yourself and knowingly killing others) we even PROMOTE drugs.. How the hell do you think the CIA (some call it the Central Intelligence Agency, I call it the Cocaine Import Agency) gets all of their money?
 
Google Books
Prevailing Winds Magazine
Issues 1-8
1995
Pg. 6:
Many people quip that “CIA” stands for “Capitalism’s International Army.” Others say it stands for “Cocaine Import Agency.”
       
Google Groups: alt.drugs
A Drug Strike Force that is Corrupt
Number 420
3/2/98
(...)
She uncovered evidence implementing the CIA (a.k.a. the Cocaine Importing Agency) for bringing crack cocaine in to Los Angeles, California.
 
Google Groups: alt.politics.usa.misc
Lobster Issue 37 published
Lobster
6/16/99
(...)
*Official: CIA does mean ‘Cocaine Importing Agency’ after all
 
YouTube
C.I.A (Cocaine.Import.Agency) ...The Drug Affair (part 1)
jakoxn
Uploaded on Oct 20, 2008
60 Minutes
November 21, 1993
 
Twitter
Sarah Connor
‏@SarahConnorTbay
”@TheRealNews: Journalist Gary Webb Gets the Last Word in ‘Kill the Messenger’ http://bit.ly/1qcOOum ” #CIA Cocaine Importing Agency
3:45 PM - 11 Oct 2014
 
Twitter
J∀BЯÖ
‏@justabrobro
A neat fact is that CIA stands for Cocaine Import Agency
4:32 PM - 11 Nov 2014