Listen Live
Fantastic Voyage Generic Graphics Updated Nov 2023
Black America Web Featured Video
CLOSE

Former Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry says the FBI allegedly tried to kill him over twenty years ago.

On January 18, 1990, Barry, who was serving his third term as mayor was caught smoking crack cocaine with his then girlfriend Rasheeda Moore in a hotel room. Moore purchased the cocaine from an undercover cop and was willingly cooperating with the government agency.

“The FBI had a mind to entrap me, also the FBI tried to kill me by having some substance that wasn’t proven to be crack,” Barry told reporters.

Barry added that the FBI had an EMT on the premises leading him to believe they were trying to kill him.

“Why would they have an EMT on the scene if they weren’t trying?” he said. “When we went to the lab they couldn’t say what it was,” he added.

Bill Baker, the FBI director in charge during the 1990 sting said he finds Barry’s claims completely “absurd and disappointing.” However, Baker did admit that he was not sure how the D.C. police department, who collaborated with the FBI, acquired the crack cocaine used in the operation.

Over two decades ago, the 76-year-old former mayor initially said the FBI tried to kill him shortly after his arrest alleging that the crack used in the sting was so strong that it was poisonous.

“They had me ingest cocaine, crack cocaine, which could have killed me. … I could have been dead now with 70, 80, 90 percent pure cocaine,” Barry said.

A chemist testifying during the Barry’s trial found that the cocaine used in the operation was 93 percent pure.

(Photo: AP)