---
category: Country
summary: Mexico served as a transit country for cocaine shipments and a base for CIA
  weapons manufacturing operations supporting the Contra war during the 1980s.
tags:
- geography
- north-america
- contra-war
---

Mexico served as a transit country for [cocaine](/concepts/cocaine/) shipments and a base for [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) weapons manufacturing operations supporting the Contra war during the 1980s. The country's proximity to the [United States](/places/united-states/) and its established drug trafficking infrastructure made it a natural corridor for moving narcotics northward and weapons southward.[^1]

### CIA Operations in Mexico

CIA operatives shipped cocaine through a machine-tool company they had set up in Guadalajara in 1985 and 1986 to keep untraceable weapons parts flowing to the [Contras](/organizations/contras/) during the congressional aid cutoff. Terry Reed, who helped the agency establish the company, described the operation in his account of CIA activities. The arrangement illustrated how the CIA integrated drug trafficking into its Contra supply chain.[^2]

### The Camarena Case

[Meneses](/people/norwin-meneses/) helped the [DEA](/organizations/dea/) investigate the February 1985 torture-murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in Mexico. During the trials of Camarena's killers, a longtime CIA operative in Mexico named Lawrence Victor Harrison testified that the CIA was collaborating with Mexican intelligence and cartel bosses who provided money, arms, and training facilities for the Contras in exchange for the CIA's protection of their drug enterprises. The case exposed the depth of CIA cooperation with Mexican drug traffickers.[^3]

### Transit Routes

[Blandón](/people/danilo-blandon/) described to an informant how his supplier was looking to move 2,000 kilos of cocaine he had stored in Guadalajara. A Canadian associate was bringing in a load from Mexico through [Houston](/places/houston/). The Torres brothers told the FBI that [Cornejo](/people/rafael-cornejo/) was routinely flying quantities of 200 to 400 kilograms from [Miami](/places/miami/) to the West Coast, with Mexican routes serving as an alternative supply line.[^4]

[^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. Ch. 7.
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 14.
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 25.