El Salvador is a [[Central America|Central American]] nation that played a critical role in Contra logistics and drug trafficking during the 1980s.[^1] [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango Air Force Base]], located in the capital [[San Salvador]], was the hub of CIA and [[Oliver North]]'s Contra air operations.[^2] ### Ilopango Air Force Base Ilopango was the central node in the Contra logistics network. CIA Hangar No. 4 was used for covert Contra operations until turned over to the [[National Security Council]] and North's "Enterprise" in 1985. [[DEA]] agent [[Celerino Castillo]] discovered that Contra pilots were flying drugs from Ilopango to the [[United States]] and money to [[Panama]]. When Castillo reported his findings, the CIA sent cables asking the DEA to back off, and Ambassador Edwin Corr ordered him to "stop the witch hunt."[^3] ### Drug-for-Arms Pipeline [[Enrique Miranda]] testified that [[Norwin Meneses]] used Ilopango to run a drug-for-arms pipeline: cocaine arrived from [[Colombia]], was loaded onto U.S.-bound aircraft owned by the Salvadoran Air Force and [[Southern Air Transport]], while U.S. military hardware was flown south and traded for more cocaine. [[Marcos Aguado]], a CIA-trained pilot, assumed a high-ranking position with the Salvadoran Air Force after fleeing cocaine trafficking charges in [[Costa Rica]].[^4] ### Weapons Sales [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] and Norwin Meneses entered into a partnership with [[Ronald Lister]] to sell weapons in El Salvador, traveling there with Lister to make arrangements with local governments.[^5] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Glossary of Organizations and Locations [^2]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends" [^3]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends" [^4]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends" [^5]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty"