DEA

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice and the principal federal agency responsible for enforcement of anti-drug laws.³ It is the successor to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). During the Contra war, multiple DEA agents and offices were involved in or aware of Contra-connected cocaine trafficking.

Contra War Involvement

DEA agent Celerino Castillo discovered Contra cocaine trafficking at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador and was subsequently forced to retire.² "The Snowman" Nieves, head of the DEA office in Costa Rica, was identified by Norwin Meneses as his control agent. While Nieves was DEA attaché in Costa Rica, the DEA office was alleged by Costa Rican officials to be involved in drug trafficking and protecting cocaine labs in Contra war zones. Nieves later became head of all DEA operations internationally before resigning in 1995 and joining Oliver North's company Guardian Technologies.²

Joseph Kelso, a former Central Intelligence Agency operative and undercover Customs informant who investigated DEA involvement in cocaine trafficking in Costa Rica, was beaten and threatened with death by DEA agents, deported, and arrested for probation violation.

Castillo Investigation and Ilopango

Celerino Castillo discovered Contra cocaine trafficking at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador and was subsequently forced to retire.² Castillo began firing off reports to DEA headquarters in January 1986 about suspicious activities of Contra pilots, listing their names, destinations, tail numbers, and criminal records. He received no replies and no offers of assistance. When Ambassador Edwin Corr requested an internal DEA review, the DEA informed him that Castillo's information was "totally inaccurate" and ordered him to close the investigation. The DEA later claimed under FOIA that it had no reports from Castillo about drug trafficking at Ilopango—a claim the Justice Department Inspector General exposed as false, having located and quoted from the reports.⁶

Costa Rica: Kelso Investigation

In 1986, Joseph Kelso, a CIA and U.S. Customs informant, gathered testimony from six witnesses willing to testify that DEA agents in Costa Rica were skimming cocaine from seizures, making counterfeit money, and protecting cocaine labs including on Contra bases. DEA agent Robert Nieves had Kelso arrested and threatened his life. Kelso's evidence tapes were turned over to Oliver North via Robert Owen, who threw them away when the Iran-Contra Affair broke. The DEA never investigated the allegations. DEA director Jack Lawn told Congress he had never heard of the case.⁷

Relationship with Blandón

Danilo Blandón became a DEA informant after his 1992 arrest. The government secured his cooperation by dropping charges against his wife Chepita Blandón, granting her U.S. citizenship, reducing his sentence from life to twenty-eight months, and releasing him on unsupervised probation to work as a full-time paid informant. Blandón subsequently served as the chief confidential informant in the DEA reverse sting that arrested Ricky Ross.¹

The DEA possessed extensive knowledge of Blandón's drug dealing years before recruiting him as an informant. The agency opened a NADDIS file on Blandón on May 24, 1983, after receiving a tip from a confidential informant that he was a member of a cocaine trafficking organization. In early 1984, while Blandón's political asylum application was under review at the State Department, the DEA learned from an informant that he was "the head" of his own cocaine distribution organization based in Los Angeles. The DEA similarly opened a NADDIS file on Blandón's wife Chepita on March 15, 1985, after she was reported as a "member of a cocaine distribution organization" - yet she was granted political asylum later that same year. It is State Department policy to check with the DEA before approving asylum applications. When the Justice Department's Inspector General examined the Blandóns' immigration records, he found them "in disarray."⁴

Relationship with Meneses

Norwin Meneses worked as a DEA informant from 1985 to 1991 despite being under federal indictment for drug trafficking since 1989.² In Costa Rica, DEA agent Sandalio Gonzalez handled Meneses as an off-the-books informant whose name did not appear in DEA databases until 1987, preventing other DEA offices from knowing about his status. DEA public affairs chief James McGivney offered to facilitate an interview with Meneses but demanded a "quid pro quo"—that reporters leave out details about Danilo Blandón's relationship with the DEA.⁵

During 1987 Senate subcommittee hearings, Senator John Kerry told DEA director Jack Lawn that "the head of the DEA office in Costa Rica was interviewed by this committee and he told us that the infrastructure that was used to supply the Contras was used to smuggle drugs." Lawn said he was not familiar with the report. The DEA's position was that there was "no credible evidence" to support such allegations. The DEA officer in question, Robert J. Nieves, was Meneses's control agent throughout the remainder of the 1980s.⁵

Despite obvious and widespread trafficking through Contra war zones in northern Costa Rica, a U.S. Senate subcommittee reported in 1988 that it was "unable to find a single case against a drug trafficker operating in those zones which was made on the basis of a tip or report by an official of a U.S. intelligence agency." Costa Rican prosecutor Jorge Chavarria said the DEA "knew about the Contras and drugs. All these flights and pilots that were flying in and out with drugs could not have been ignored by the DEA. They were looking in the other direction."⁵

Operation Perico

In December 1986, DEA agent Gonzalez in Costa Rica launched "Operation Perico," sending Norwin Meneses and a CIA operative known as "Roberto" to infiltrate Blandón's drug ring in Los Angeles. The operation was conducted without informing FBI agent Aukland, who was leading the federal investigation of the same targets. In early January 1987, Meneses and Roberto met with Blandón and FDN official Ivan Torres, gathering intelligence about the drug operation and its connections to the Contras. The CIA operative's debriefing reports captured admissions that CIA representatives were aware of Contra drug activities and did not mind.⁸

Other DEA offices were angered by the Costa Rican operation. The San Francisco office cabled Costa Rica complaining it had no idea "who was being targeted by Meneses and [Roberto]" or what they were supposedly investigating. An accompanying cable to DEA headquarters inquired "whether an indictment of Meneses by the San Francisco FBI will result in national security problems with other agencies." After Meneses completed his mission and returned to Costa Rica, he refused to continue as an informant. Once the OCDETF investigation was shelved in July 1987, the DEA rehired Meneses and began issuing him visas that allowed him to travel in and out of the United States at will.⁸

San Diego Reverse Sting

The DEA's most significant operation involving Blandón as an informant was the March 1995 reverse sting that arrested Ricky Ross. After Blandón was recruited as a full-time paid informant following his 1992 arrest, he reestablished contact with Ross, who had been released from prison in 1993 and was attempting to go straight with the Freeway Academy youth center project. Blandón called Ross repeatedly, paged him constantly, and pressed him to resume drug dealing. Ross's probation officer James Galipeau confirmed Blandón's persistence: "The son-of-a-bitch called him while he was in the car with his probation officer!"⁹

When Ross's associate "Chico" Brown proposed a drug deal with Blandón to settle a $30,000 debt, Blandón served as the government's inside man. On March 2, 1995, at the Bonita Plaza Mall in Chula Vista, DEA agents watched as Brown handed $169,445 to Blandón's Colombian associate in exchange for 100 kilos of cocaine in a booby-trapped Chevy Blazer. DEA agent Charles Jones said federal agents blocked the vehicle and activated a kill switch. Ross was captured after a brief foot chase. The DEA had been taping Ross's conversations with Blandón throughout the operation.⁹

Attempt to Suppress the Dark Alliance Story

In October 1995, Gary Webb was contacted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hall, who warned that Webb's reporting could endanger Blandón and compromise ongoing investigations. On October 19, 1995, Webb met with SAC Craig Chretien and six agents at the National City regional office. Chretien asked Webb to omit Blandón's DEA ties; agent Chuck Jones denied any knowledge of Blandón's Contra drug history but inadvertently confirmed the DEA knew about it during the exchange. Chretien proposed trading information about Norwin Meneses if Webb would drop the Blandón angle. Eight days later, Robert Nieves resigned as head of the International Division and Chretien was promoted to replace him.¹⁰

The DEA's public affairs office in Washington later attempted to broker a deal: an interview with Meneses in exchange for omitting Blandón's DEA ties. Freelance journalist Georg Hodel beat them to it, locating Meneses in a Nicaraguan prison.¹⁰