San Francisco is a city in northern [[California]] that served as the primary base of operations for [[Norwin Meneses|Meneses]]'s [[cocaine]] trafficking network on the U.S. West Coast from 1980 to 1984 and the location of key federal investigations into Contra drug dealing.[^1] ### Meneses Operations Norwin Meneses settled in San Francisco in 1980 after entering the [[United States]], buying property in nearby [[Pacifica, California|Pacifica]] including a used car lot, commercial buildings, a travel agency, a restaurant, and two houses. He drove a gray Jaguar sedan registered in his own name. From San Francisco, Meneses ran a drug distribution network that moved cocaine through the Bay Area and south to [[Los Angeles]], where [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] served as his representative.[^2] ### Frogman Case The San Francisco-based Frogman cocaine ring, prosecuted in 1983, was the first major drug case to expose the link between Contra fundraising and cocaine trafficking. [[Julio Zavala]] and [[Carlos Cabezas]] brought cocaine into San Francisco from [[Costa Rica]] hidden inside Peruvian woven baskets. When defense attorneys obtained statements from CIA assets [[Francisco Aviles|Francisco Avilés]] and [[Vicente Rappaccioli]] claiming seized drug money belonged to the [[Contras]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] intervened directly to suppress the evidence.[^3] ### Law Enforcement The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s San Francisco office pursued investigations into Norwin Meneses throughout the late 1980s. Agents [[Douglas Aukland]], Don Hale, and Gordon Gibler assembled evidence to indict Meneses for running a continuing criminal enterprise, but U.S. Attorney [[Joseph Russoniello]] rejected the case in February 1987. San Francisco Examiner reporter [[Seth Rosenfeld]] published a front-page story exposing Meneses's Contra connections in 1986, two days before a House vote on Contra aid.[^4] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 3: "The brotherhood of military minds" [^2]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 3: "The brotherhood of military minds" [^3]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom" [^4]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 20: "It is a sensitive matter"