Horacio Pereira Lanuza, known as "La Burra" (a female donkey), was a drug dealer and gambler from Estelí, [[Nicaragua]], who served as the primary Costa Rican cocaine broker for [[Norwin Meneses]]'s organization and the conduit for drug funds from the [[San Francisco]] Bay Area to the [[Contras]] in [[Costa Rica]] and [[Honduras]].[^1] ### Background and Connection to Meneses Pereira and Norwin Meneses had been business partners before the revolution, owning cattle and cattle ranches together. Both were from Estelí, where Pereira controlled gambling clubs. They had known each other since childhood. Pereira fled to Costa Rica after the [[Sandinistas]] took power and became one of Meneses's top cocaine dealers there.[^2] The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] identified Pereira in November 1982 as a source of cocaine for the [[Frogman Case|Frogman drug ring]] in San Francisco.[^2] ### Role in the Contra Drug Network In December 1981, Pereira and [[Troilo Sanchez|Troilo Sánchez]] met with [[Carlos Cabezas]] in Costa Rica and proposed selling cocaine to raise funds for the Contras. Pereira represented [[UDN-FARN]] and the [[FDN]] in Costa Rica and stated that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] would control the delivery of drug money.[^2] When Pereira grew suspicious that [[Julio Zavala]]'s heavy drinking was jeopardizing Contra funds, he cut Zavala out of the operation and insisted that Carlos Cabezas personally assume responsibility for the money, "because the money belonged...to help the Contra revolution." Pereira devised the smuggling method of hiding cocaine inside Peruvian woven baskets, with each basket containing about a kilo concealed within wax-coated strings in the framework.[^2] Cabezas delivered drug money to Pereira or FDN logistics officer Joaquín "Pelón" Vega in Honduras. On one occasion Cabezas and another person delivered approximately $250,000 to Pereira and Sánchez. Costa Rican authorities described Pereira as the biggest cocaine trafficker in their country during the early 1980s.[^2] ### Arrest and lenient treatment On December 2, 1982, Pereira was arrested in [[Miami]] boarding Air Florida Flight 473 to Costa Rica with $70,000 he had failed to declare. An FBI informant named Donald Peralta had tipped off the bureau. Despite being known to the FBI as a major international cocaine trafficker, Pereira was released after paying a small fine. He returned to Costa Rica and immediately resumed drug trafficking.[^2] ### Death Norwin Meneses stated that Pereira was murdered in [[Guatemala]] in the early 1990s.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Cast of Characters [^2]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom"