This paper addresses the problem of blind multiple access interference (MAI
) and inter-symbol interference (ISI) suppression in direct sequence code d
ivision multiple access (DS CDMA) systems, A novel approach to obtain the c
oefficients of a linear receiver using the maximum likelihood (ML) principl
e is proposed. The method is blind because it only exploits the statistical
features of the transmitted symbols and Gaussian noise in the channel, We
demonstrate that an adequate linear constraint on these coefficients ensure
s that the desired user is extracted and the resulting linearly constrained
maximum likelihood linear (LCMLL) receiver can be efficiently implemented
using the iterative space alternating generalized expectation-maximization
(SAGE) algorithm. In order to take advantage of the diversity inherent to m
ultipath channels, we also introduce a blind rake multiuser receiver that p
roceeds in two steps. First, soft estimates of the desired user transmitted
symbols are obtained from each propagation path using a bank of appropiate
LCMLL receivers, Afterwards, these estimates are adequately combined to en
hance the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR), Computer simulatio
ns show that the proposed blind algorithms for multiuser detection are near
-far resistant and attain convergence using small blocks of data, thus outp
erforming existing linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) blind recei
vers.