---
aliases:
- Seth Rosenfeld
born: 1956-01-01
category: Authors & Journalists
created: 2026-05-17
summary: San Francisco Examiner reporter whose 1986 investigative stories exposed
  the Frogman Case Contra drug connections and Norwin Meneses's cocaine trafficking
  network.
tags:
- Person
- Journalist
- UnitedStates
- 1980s
- DarkAllianceInvestigation
title: Seth Rosenfeld
updated: 2026-05-17
---

Seth Rosenfeld was an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Examiner whose 1986 stories provided the first hard evidence of a Contra drug ring operating in the United States.[^1]

### The Frogman Case Expose

In spring 1986, Rosenfeld broke the story of the [Frogman drug case](/events/frogman-case/), exposing the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/)'s handling of the $36,000 found in [Julio Zavala](/people/julio-zavala/)'s nightstand in 1983. Rosenfeld reported Zavala's claim from prison that he had personally delivered about $500,000 in drug profits to the [Contras](/organizations/contras/) in [Costa Rica](/places/costa-rica/). Rosenfeld also unearthed [Carlos Cabezas](/people/carlos-cabezas/)'s long-buried testimony about selling [Horacio Pereira's](/people/horacio-pereira/) cocaine to raise money for the Contra revolution. Coming on the heels of Associated Press reports about Contra cocaine trafficking, Rosenfeld's story provided the first hard evidence of a Contra drug ring operating in the United States.[^1]

### The Meneses Expose

A month before the State Department issued a White Paper dismissing all Contra drug allegations, Rosenfeld published another front-page story exposing [Norwin Meneses](/people/norwin-meneses/)'s cocaine trafficking network and his involvement with the [FDN](/organizations/fdn/) in [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) and [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/). Rosenfeld reported on Meneses's meetings with CIA agents [Enrique Bermúdez](/people/enrique-bermudez/) and [Adolfo Calero](/people/adolfo-calero/) and other Contra leaders. He reported that the FDN's spokesman in San Francisco had been convicted of cocaine charges. He disclosed Meneses's donations at FDN fund-raisers. The story was considerably more damaging than the Frogman story because it directly involved the CIA's primary army with a major international cocaine and arms trafficker.[^1]

### Government Reaction

[U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello](/people/joseph-russoniello/) mailed a four-page letter to the Examiner's editor calling Rosenfeld's Frogman story "one of the most blatant attempts at contrived news-making we have witnessed in recent years" and suggesting it was a political stunt to harm the Contras' chances of getting aid from Congress. The State Department issued a White Paper portraying Cabezas and Zavala as liars and dismissing Rosenfeld's reporting as malarkey - while studiously avoiding any mention of Meneses. Though the Examiner's Meneses expose appeared just two days before the House was to vote on Reagan's $100 million Contra aid package, not a single major newspaper in the country touched the story.[^1]

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 15: "This thing is a tidal wave"