---
aliases:
- Eric Swenson
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
created: 2026-05-17
summary: Former assistant U.S. attorney who reported Norwin Meneses's Contra drug
  activities to the Justice Department and stated that the CIA was fully aware of
  Meneses's criminal operations.
tags:
- Person
- LawEnforcement
- 1980s
- DrugTrafficking
- DarkAllianceInvestigation
title: Eric Swenson
updated: 2026-05-17
---

Eric Swenson, a former assistant U.S. attorney familiar with investigations into [Norwin Meneses](/people/norwin-meneses/), stated that the drug lord's activities with the [Contras](/organizations/contras/) were well known to the [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/) because he had personally reported them. Justice was not the only agency with this knowledge.[^1]

### CIA Awareness

"The [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) knows about this guy," Swenson said in an interview. "I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do. The CIA knows a lot of crooks. I mean, the CIA knows." A 1998 CIA Inspector General's report later confirmed Swenson's assertion, establishing that as early as 1984 the agency possessed information tying Meneses to a drug and arms network in Costa Rica operated in partnership with top Contra official [Sebastian "Guachan" Gonzalez](/people/sebastian-gonzalez/).[^1]

### Context

Swenson's confirmation that both Justice and the CIA were aware of Meneses's Contra connections came during a period when Meneses could easily have been indicted on federal cocaine trafficking charges. One of his top lieutenants had pleaded guilty and publicly implicated him. But allowing Meneses to take the witness stand was out of the question - he knew too much about the [FDN](/organizations/fdn/)'s involvement with drug merchants and could have led investigators to [Danilo Blandón](/people/danilo-blandon/)'s cocaine operation in South Central Los Angeles.[^1]

[^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"