Joseph Russoniello

Joseph Russoniello served as U.S. attorney in San Francisco during the period when Norwin Meneses could have been indicted on federal cocaine trafficking charges in the spring of 1985. One of Meneses's top lieutenants had already pleaded guilty to cocaine charges and publicly implicated Meneses as a major trafficker.¹

Relationship with CIA

Russoniello maintained what was described as a "cozy relationship" with the Central Intelligence Agency. Against the backdrop of that relationship, and given the political sensitivity of any exposure linking Contra leadership to drug trafficking, Meneses was not charged. The drug lord was in a position to expose the FDN's long involvement with drug merchants and could have led investigators to Danilo Blandón's cocaine operation in South Central Los Angeles.¹

Significance

The decision not to prosecute Meneses occurred during a politically volatile period. The Boland Amendment had just cut off all CIA funding for the Contras in October 1984. Any scandal linking Contra directors—including Adolfo Calero, Enrique Bermúdez, Edgar Chamorro, and Frank Arana—to drug trafficking would likely have wiped out what little congressional support remained.¹

Response to Rosenfeld's Exposes

When San Francisco Examiner reporter Seth Rosenfeld broke the Frogman drug case story in spring 1986, exposing Contra drug connections, Russoniello mailed a four-page letter to the Examiner's editor calling the reporting "one of the most blatant attempts at contrived news-making we have witnessed in recent years." He insisted there was "absolutely no evidence of CIA involvement" and "no evidence to warrant the insinuation the defendants were connected to the Contras except. . .their own statements offered after the fact of arrest." Russoniello did not disclose that Carlos Cabezas—as a witness for his own office—had testified about selling dope for the Contras under oath in 1984, or that two high-ranking UDN-FARN officials had written letters to the court attesting to Zavala's official Contra position.²

When Senator John Kerry's investigators sought records on Meneses and the Frogman case, Russoniello stonewalled. Kerry Committee lawyer Jack Blum said Russoniello "was as rabid a right-wing true believer as ever came down the road and who was bound and determined to prevent anyone from learning anything about that case. He and the Justice Department flipped out to prevent us from getting access to people, records, finding anything out about it." Blum said Kerry and Russoniello got into "a screaming match" over the telephone.²

Rejection of Meneses Indictment

In February 1987, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Douglas Aukland and Gordon Gibler met with Russoniello and presented a prosecution memo detailing Norwin Meneses's long history of drug dealing. The FBI agents had assembled enough evidence to indict Meneses for running a continuing criminal enterprise, a racketeering offense carrying a possible life term. Three informants were willing to testify publicly, one of whom claimed Meneses was a gun runner who may have worked for the CIA.³

Russoniello's office rejected the proposal within a week. Meneses would not be prosecuted, the agents were told, so long as the Blandón investigation was still underway in Los Angeles. Russoniello's office claimed a deal had been struck with the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney: once the L.A. case was done, Meneses would plead guilty to "a cocaine-related charge as part of his cooperation agreement." Justice Department investigators later found no record of any such deal. The two federal prosecutors reported to have agreed to the scheme, Crossan Andersen and Eric Swenson, both specifically denied that an agreement ever existed. The "cooperation agreement" appears to have been fabricated to placate the FBI agents after their racketeering case was rejected.³