---
category: Organized Crime
summary: Brother of FDN officials Aristides and Fernando Sanchez, business partner
  of Norwin Meneses in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, identified by the FBI as a cocaine
  source for the Frogman ring in San Francisco.
tags:
- Person
- Drug_Trafficker
- Contra
- Nicaragua
- Costa_Rica
- 1980s
- Dark_Alliance_Investigation
---

Troilo Sánchez Herdocia was a playboy brother of [FDN](/organizations/fdn/) leaders [Aristides](/people/aristides-sanchez/) and [Fernando Sánchez](/people/fernando-sanchez/) who served as a cocaine supplier for [Norwin Meneses](/people/norwin-meneses/)'s Contra drug network. The [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) identified him in November 1982 as a source of cocaine for the [Frogman drug ring](/events/frogman-case/) in [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/).[^1]

### Background

Troilo had been a partner of Norwin Meneses in one of Norwin's nightclubs in [Managua](/places/managua/) and was one of his drinking buddies. A pilot, Sánchez claimed he flew for the [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) in [Nicaragua](/places/nicaragua/) in the early 1960s during preparations for the [Bay of Pigs](/events/bay-of-pigs/) invasion, which was partly staged from Nicaragua. By the late 1970s he was a hopeless drug addict, spending large sums of his family's fortune on heroin, cocaine, women, and gambling. The [Sandinistas](/organizations/sandinistas/) seized what remained, and Troilo and his wife Isanaqui fled to [Costa Rica](/places/costa-rica/), where they became partners with Norwin Meneses in a bean-processing factory.[^2]

Norwin Meneses described the relationship as familial: "We are like family. [Isanaqui] came many times to visit my brother Mundo, who was a general and the police chief of Managua and was later assassinated in [Guatemala](/places/guatemala/) for the Sandinistas."[^2]

### Role in Contra Drug Trafficking

In December 1981, Troilo and [Horacio Pereira](/people/horacio-pereira/) met with [Carlos Cabezas](/people/carlos-cabezas/) in Costa Rica and proposed selling cocaine to raise funds for the [Contras](/organizations/contras/). The FBI identified Troilo as operating out of Costa Rica alongside Horacio Pereira and Fernando Sánchez as a source of cocaine for the San Francisco drug ring. Former Contra official Leonardo Zeledón Rodríguez told UPI in 1986 that "Troilo sold 200 pounds of cocaine and received $6.1 million for it."[^2]

### Legal Troubles

Troilo was arrested on drug charges in Costa Rica in the mid-1980s but was acquitted. He recovered from his drug addiction and was living in Nicaragua as of 1998.[^1]

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Cast of Characters
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom"