Frigorificos de Puntarenas, S.A., was a small fleet of fishing boats based in the Pacific Coast village of [[Puntarenas]], [[Costa Rica]], with a sister import company in [[Miami]] called Ocean Hunter. The firm was created by [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín cartel]] money-laundering wizard [[Ramon Milian Rodriguez]] as part of an interlocking chain of companies to launder cocaine profits. Drug money would go into one company and emerge clean through intercompany transactions. In 1982, Frigorificos was taken over by a group of major Miami-based drug traffickers who began using it to help the [[Contras]].[^1] ### State Department Contract In 1985, the [[State Department]]'s [[NHAO|Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office (NHAO)]] hired Frigorificos to distribute "humanitarian" aid to the Costa Rican Contras. The arrangement was engineered by [[Robert Owen|Rob Owen]], [[Oliver North]]'s courier and a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] asset, who identified the company's operators as "people that were involved in Ocean Hunter in Costa Rica [who] had been helpful to the cause." These included Frank Chanes, reported to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] as a drug trafficker in 1984, and [[Moises Nunez|Moises Núñez]], a CIA agent suspected by Interpol of drug trafficking. More than $260,000 in U.S. taxpayer funds flowed through Frigorificos's bank accounts during 1986. Some was wired in never-explained transfers to banks in Israel and South Korea.[^1] ### Drug Trafficking Evidence Former drug pilot [[Fabio Ernesto Carrasco|"Tito" Carrasco]] testified as a U.S. government witness that Frigorificos was being used during the Contra war "to load cocaine inside the containers which were being shipped loaded with vegetables and fruit to the United States." A January 1986 [[DEA]] seizure confirmed that Núñez's partners shipped a 414-pound cocaine load to Miami amid crates of yucca. The FBI first learned of Frigorificos's drug involvement in September 1984 when the president of the Cuban Legion identified Chanes as an owner of Ocean Hunter who was giving financial support to the Contras from narcotic transactions.[^1] ### CIA Cover-Up When the CIA interrogated Núñez in March 1987 about drug trafficking through Frigorificos, Núñez revealed that "since 1985, he had engaged in a clandestine relationship with the National Security Council" and refused to elaborate because of "the specific tasks he had performed at the direction of the NSC." CIA headquarters immediately ordered the questioning stopped. [[Alan Fiers|Alan Fiers Jr.]] confirmed the halt was "because of the NSC connection and the possibility that this could be somehow connected to [North's] Private Benefactor program." For years afterward, the CIA shielded both Núñez and Felipe Vidal from criminal investigations, lying to the DEA that it had no information about Núñez's trafficking activities.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 12: "This guy talks to God"