Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a Central American nation bordering Nicaragua to the south that served as the primary operational base for the Southern Front Contras during the 1980s.¹ The country's northern region, adjacent to the Nicaraguan border, became a hub for cocaine trafficking, arms smuggling, and covert operations involving the Central Intelligence Agency, DEA, and Contra forces.²

Contra Southern Front

Costa Rica hosted the Southern Front Contra armies, including ARDE under Eden Pastora and UDN-FARN under Fernando Chamorro. CIA operative John Hull operated a ranch in northern Costa Rica near the war zone that served as a transshipment point for both military supplies and drugs. Marcos Aguado and other CIA-linked pilots used airstrips in the country, including one on Hull's property, to move cocaine northward and weapons southward.²

Meneses Operations

Norwin Meneses moved to Costa Rica in 1984 after winding up his affairs in San Francisco, establishing himself at a beachfront ranch. He owned several houses and large ranches in northern Costa Rica near the war zone. An informant told the DEA that "Norwin receives political protection from Jose Marti Figueres, the son of former Costa Rican President Jose 'Pepe' Figueres." Meneses operated legitimate fronts useful for laundering cash, including a restaurant across the street from the U.S. Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica, a gambling club, and a bean processing factory with Troilo Sanchez as partner.³

Meneses officially became a DEA informant at the U.S. Embassy in San Jose in July 1986. DEA attaché Robert Nieves served as his control agent throughout the remainder of the 1980s. Despite his drug dealing being well known to the CIA, the DEA, and Costa Rican authorities since 1984, Meneses was neither arrested nor expelled during all the years he lived there.³

Drug Trafficking Investigations

Joseph Kelso, a CIA and U.S. Customs informant, gathered testimony from six witnesses willing to testify that DEA agents in Costa Rica were skimming cocaine from seizures, making counterfeit money, and protecting cocaine labs on Contra bases. Costa Rican narcotics official Warren Treece reported cocaine lab locations to Sandalio Gonzalez but said they were not investigated because of leaks from the DEA. Costa Rican prosecutor Jorge Chavarria said the DEA "knew about the Contras and drugs. All these flights and pilots that were flying in and out with drugs could not have been ignored by the DEA. They were looking in the other direction."⁴

Costa Rica's biggest newspaper, La Nacion, published an extensive series on Contra drug connections in December 1986, focusing on Meneses.⁵