Dennis Ainsworth

Dennis Ainsworth was a former San Francisco-area economics professor, staunch conservative, and Republican party stalwart who became deeply involved in Contra support activities starting in late 1983.¹ His discovery of the FDN's cocaine trafficking connections led him to the FBI, which took no action.

Contra Support Work

In late 1983, Ainsworth began assisting Nicaraguan refugees who had settled in San Francisco after fleeing the Sandinistas. He met Julio Bonilla, the local coordinator of the FDN, at a seminar at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in February 1984, and was drawn into the Contra support organization USACA, founded by Don Sinicco. Ainsworth used his political connections to arrange high-profile events for Adolfo Calero, including a private reception at the exclusive St. Francis Yacht Club on June 4, 1984, with about sixty of San Francisco's most influential business leaders and Republicans.¹

Discovery of Drug Trafficking

At a dinner after the yacht club reception, Norwin Meneses (a man Ainsworth had not previously noticed) paid the bill for the entire party. When Ainsworth asked who the man was, a Nicaraguan friend told him, "You don't want to know." At a cocktail party for Calero two days later, Ainsworth observed Meneses meeting privately with Calero. Meneses then began attending USACA meetings and making financial contributions.¹

When Renato Peña and Jairo Meneses were arrested on cocaine trafficking charges in November 1984, Ainsworth began suspecting FDN involvement in drugs. Peña confessed to him his role in the Contra drug network. Alarmed, Ainsworth began investigating and received a DEA intelligence report dated February 6, 1984, from a friend in Washington, describing Meneses as "the apparent head of a criminal organization responsible for smuggling kilogram quantities of cocaine to the United States." Ainsworth said: "I had gone through the Looking Glass. I had crossed over into the nether world that 99 percent of the population wouldn't even believe existed."¹

FBI Complaint and Aftermath

In September 1985, a U.S. Customs official told Ainsworth that "national security interests" prevented him from making narcotics cases, and that two Customs officers "who felt threatened and intimidated by National Security interference in legitimate narcotics smuggling investigations had resigned and had assumed false identities." The agent also told Ainsworth that Meneses "would have been arrested in a major drug case in 1983 or 1984 except that he had been warned by a corrupt officer."¹

Other law enforcement sources told Ainsworth "they had a file on Meneses that was two feet thick." But Ainsworth found no outstanding warrant for Meneses. "Here you had a major cocaine trafficker who was deeply involved with the Contras, and apparently, everyone but me knew about it." In early 1987, Ainsworth went to the FBI and warned that the FDN "has become more involved in selling arms and cocaine for personal gain than in a military effort to overthrow the current Nicaraguan Sandinista government." The FBI took no action. Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's staff similarly showed no interest. Ainsworth received death threats but the FBI was unimpressed. Frightened, he fled California for the East Coast. "I thought I was part of the establishment. And all of a sudden I was a leper."¹