During Coffey's time as editor of the L.A. Times, the paper published a lengthy three-part series examining the claims made in Gary Webb's 1996 "Dark Alliance" newspaper series. Webb had claimed that members of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua played a major role in creating the U.S. crack cocaine trade, using their smuggling profits to support their guerrilla war against Nicaragua's Sandinista government. The Times series found the "Dark Alliance" claims overstated, but was itself criticized[by whom?] for using anonymous sources, taking government claims too credulously, and failing to pursue Webb's story further.[4][5]