Mexico

Mexico served as a transit country for cocaine shipments and a base for Central Intelligence Agency weapons manufacturing operations supporting the Contra war during the 1980s. The country's proximity to the 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 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 helped the 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 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. The Torres brothers told the FBI that Cornejo was routinely flying quantities of 200 to 400 kilograms from Miami to the West Coast, with Mexican routes serving as an alternative supply line.⁴