---
category: Private Organization
location: Irvine, California
start: 1912
summary: Fluor Corporation employed former CIA Deputy Director of Operations Bill
  Nelson and was connected to Ron Lister's security business that supplied weapons
  and night vision equipment.
tags:
- organization
- corporate
- contra-war
---

Fluor Corporation, a major engineering and construction firm, employed former [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) Deputy Director of Operations Bill Nelson as its vice president for security and administration. Nelson had been the CIA's head of covert operations worldwide from 1973 to 1976. A Fluor spokeswoman initially denied Nelson had been affiliated with the company until confronted with documentary evidence.[^1]

### Connection to the Contra Supply Chain

[Ron Lister](/people/ron-lister/), the former [Laguna Beach](/organizations/laguna-beach-police-department/) police officer who partnered with [Danilo Blandón](/people/danilo-blandon/) in drug trafficking and weapons procurement, claimed to have high-level CIA contacts. [Chris Moore](/people/chris-moore/), who worked in Lister's office, recounted that "Ron said the guy was the former Deputy Director of Operations or something, real high up there. All I know is that this supposed contact of his was working at the Fluor Corporation." Lister's notes chronicled meetings at the Fairmont Hotel in [San Jose, California](/places/san-jose/) with a customer named "Ivan," who was uninterested in Lister's scrambler phones but asked him to procure "Varo night vision equipment." Lister told drug dealers he dealt with that his "friends in Washington" could make their legal problems disappear.[^2]

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9.
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9.