---
category: Organized Crime
summary: Ramon Milian Rodriguez was the Medellín cartel's money-laundering expert
  who created Frigorificos de Puntarenas and testified that the cartel donated $10
  million to the Contras.
tags:
- Person
- Person/Drug_Trafficker
- Colombia
- 1980s
- Contra_War
- Congressional_Testimony
---

Ramon Milian Rodriguez was a suave Cuban-American graduate of Santa Clara University who served as the [Medellín cartel](/organizations/medellin-cartel/)'s money-laundering wizard until his arrest in [Miami](/places/miami/) in 1983, when he and $5 million in cash were taken off a Lear jet bound for [Panama](/places/panama/). Milian created an interlocking chain of companies to launder the torrents of cash pouring into the cartel's coffers, including [Frigorificos de Puntarenas](/organizations/frigorificos-de-puntarenas/).[^1]

### $10 Million Donation to the Contras

Milian testified before Senator [John Kerry](/people/john-kerry/)'s subcommittee in 1987 that he used Frigorificos to launder a $10 million donation from the Medellín cartel to the Contras, arranged by and paid to former CIA agent Felix Rodriguez. Kerry's committee didn't believe the claim, especially after Milian flunked a lie detector test on the question. But during Manuel Noriega's drug trafficking trial several years later, [Carlos Lehder](/people/carlos-lehder/), the Medellín cartel's transportation boss, confirmed under oath that the cartel had given the Contras $10 million, just as Milian had testified. Lehder said he arranged the donation himself.[^1]

[Adolfo Calero](/people/adolfo-calero/) denied the Contras received such a sum, but as Webb noted, Calero had also denied for many years that the Contras received CIA money or assistance from [Oliver North](/people/oliver-north/).[^1]

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 12: "This guy talks to God"