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U.S. Customs

U.S. federal law enforcement agency responsible for border protection and customs enforcement that investigated Contra-connected cocaine trafficking through informants including Joseph Kelso.

Mentions 65 Tags OrganizationGovernmentUnited_StatesContra_War1980s

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (U.S. Customs) is a federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting the borders of the United States.1

Contra War Role

Joseph Kelso, a Central Intelligence Agency 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 on Contra bases. When Kelso's investigation was exposed, Robert Owen, serving as a conduit for Oliver North, had Kelso arrested. Evidence tapes from Kelso's investigation were turned over to North via Owen, who threw them away when the Iran-Contra Affair broke.2

Flowchart Analysis

The U.S. Customs Service analyzed a flowchart seized from Ronald Lister's home during a 1986 raid, which appeared to diagram an illegal weapons diversion scheme matching the methods used to funnel arms to the Contras.[3

Sources

  1. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" ↩
  2. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 17: "We're going to blow your fucking head off" ↩
  3. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" ↩

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