---
category: Iran-Contra
summary: Frank Arana was an FDN director who flew to San Francisco with Edgar Chamorro
  in 1982 to establish the Contra support network in California.
tags:
- person
- nicaraguan
- contra-war
---

Frank Arana was an [FDN](/organizations/fdn/) director who flew to [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) with [Edgar Chamorro](/people/edgar-chamorro/) in October 1982 to select leaders for the [Contra](/organizations/contras/) support committee. Arana's trip to San Francisco placed him at the center of the Contra political operation in [California](/places/california/), which overlapped with [Norwin Meneses](/people/norwin-meneses/)'s [cocaine](/concepts/cocaine/) trafficking network on the West Coast.[^1]

### The San Francisco Connection

Arana and Chamorro's visit to San Francisco was part of the effort to establish the Contra support infrastructure in the United States. The political and fundraising operations they set up ran parallel to the drug trafficking activities that Meneses was simultaneously conducting in the same communities. The overlap between the FDN's political leadership, including Arana, and the cocaine trafficking network illustrated how intertwined the Contra war and the drug trade had become on the West Coast.[^2]

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