Barry McCaffrey, director of the federal Office of Drug Control Policy, had good reasons to add his voice to those calling for a formal inquiry into drug-smuggling charges against the CIA.

The drug czar says there must be a full and thorough investigation into the allegations raised in stories by the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. It alleges that the CIA-backed Contra war in Nicaragua was financed in part by profits from a Contra-connected drug ring that sold cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs.

The paper says the scheme was hatched by two civilian leaders of the Contras and the CIA's military chief in Honduras at the time. The drug operation is said to have been set up after then-President Ronald Reagan approved covert aid to the Contras.

CIA Director John Deutch has cast doubt on the allegations, but he has ordered the agency's inspector general to look into the charges and file a report within three months. That's a good first step, but Congress should get into the act by conducting its own inquiry.

The most vociferous supporter of congressional hearings is probably Rep. Maxine Waters, whose South-Central Los Angeles congressional district is said to have been the site of the drug-trafficking network.

These wouldn't be the first such hearings. In the late 1980s, a Senate panel looked into allegations that the Contras had engaged in drug trafficking. One former Senate aide told Reuters that it's clearly wrong to say the CIA was ``moving crack cocaine into California.''

On the other hand, the unidentified aide said individual CIA officers in the field knew about the trafficking but refused to pass the information up the chain of command. Lawmakers apparently are just as irresponsible if they refused at the time to make such information public.

The aide's comments don't make the allegations any less shocking. Any CIA employee who engaged in such behavior or tolerated it should be punished for having damaged the public trust and acting counter to the agency's mandate.