Contras

The Contras were Nicaraguan rebel groups organized and funded by the Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.³ Made up largely of former followers of deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza and his National Guard, the Contras were the darlings of the Reagan administration's anti-Communist foreign policy. Multiple Contra factions were implicated in cocaine trafficking during the 1980s war.¹

Major Contra Factions

The largest and best-equipped faction was the Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense (FDN), created by the CIA, based in Honduras, and commanded by Enrique Bermúdez.² The UDN-FARN was based in Costa Rica and commanded by "El Negro" Chamorro. ARDE was commanded by former Sandinista hero "Commandante Zero" and was also based in Costa Rica. The later umbrella group UNO was a CIA-inspired attempt to unite all factions under one banner.

Drug Trafficking

The Kerry Committee investigation (1987-1988) by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee uncovered direct links between drug dealers and the Contras.¹ Contra leaders acknowledged receiving drug profits with the apparent knowledge of the CIA. Drug dealers admitted under oath to giving money to the Contras and passed polygraph tests. Pilots admitted flying weapons south and cocaine and marijuana north, landing in at least one instance at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida.

Norwin Meneses worked for the Contras as a recruiter, arms supplier, and benefactor during the entire war.² Danilo Blandón sold cocaine in Los Angeles to raise funds for the Contras in the early 1980s and founded the FDN chapter in Los Angeles. Multiple Contra officials were identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as being involved in or connected to drug trafficking, including Aristides Sánchez, Fernando Sánchez, Renato Peña, Vicente Rappaccioli, and Marcos Aguado.

The Frogman Case, the largest cocaine bust in West Coast history at the time, exposed direct links between Contra drug traffickers in San Francisco and the CIA. When defense attorneys obtained letters from CIA assets Francisco Aviles and Vicente Rappaccioli claiming seized drug money belonged to the Contras, the CIA intervened to suppress the connection. A secret 1987 DEA report noted that a defendant in the Frogman case had made 51 phone calls to the FDN office in San Francisco.⁴

Political Context

The Contras were a creation of the CIA, assembled from the remnants of Somoza's defeated National Guard. After the Sandinistas overthrew Somoza in July 1979, National Guard officers who escaped poured across the borders into El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica. The CIA began reassembling these forces in 1980 under the direction of Dewey Clarridge.¹