New York Daily News - July 28, 2005
Feds snort at Post's coke tale
Federal drug agents are discrediting a New York Post front-page story that Osama Bin Laden tried to buy tons of Colombian cocaine to spike with poison and resell to Americans.
In a blaring story Tuesday headlined "Bin Laden Coke Plot," Post reporter Dan Mangan claimed the Drug Enforcement Administration was investigating the scheme. But that was news to DEA officials.
"The New York Post has refused to inform DEA of the basis of its allegations or share the document upon which the reporting is based," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said in a statement.
"However, no DEA official in Washington, Afghanistan, Bogotá or New York has any information of this type of plot by Bin Laden, and a computerized search of our databases reveals no such reporting."
Quoting "law enforcement sources familiar with the Drug Enforcement Administration's probe," the Post said the Colombian dealers rejected Bin Laden. A law enforcement source told the Daily News that the DEA never had a probe - and any suggestion that Bin Laden had a plot to poison the nation's cocaine supply simply was not credible.
A Post spokeswoman said, "We stand by our story."