San Salvador

San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, hosted Ilopango Airbase, the central hub for Central Intelligence Agency and Oliver North's Contra resupply operations and a key transshipment point for cocaine during the 1980s. The base's Hangar No. 4 served as the operational center for both weapons shipments to the Contra army and return flights carrying narcotics into the United States.¹

Ilopango Air Base

DEA agent Celerino Castillo III, based in Guatemala City, was warned on his first day that the U.S. was running a covert operation at Ilopango. CIA agent Felix Rodriguez (using the alias "Max Gomez") managed the day-to-day Contra resupply operation at the base. CIA records showed Hangar No. 4 had been used by the Agency for covert Contra operations until it was turned over in 1985 to the National Security Council and North's illegal arms network, "The Enterprise." According to former Meneses aide Enrique Miranda, Meneses's drug-laden planes were flying out of Ilopango. North had selected the base as the hub for his Contra air force, and his operatives worked there "practically unfettered," according to Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh.²

Cocaine Flights

In March 1986, a DEA cable reported that a pilot named Carlos Amador "was intending to fly into Ilopango, pick up cocaine at Hangar No. 4, and take it to Miami." When Castillo's investigation escalated, the CIA station in El Salvador sent a desperate message to Costa Rica Station advising the DEA not to make any inquiries into anyone regarding Hangar No. 4, since "only legitimate CIA supported operations were conducted from this facility." Castillo fired off reports to DEA headquarters in Washington, D.C. about suspicious activities of Contra pilots, listing their names, destinations, tail numbers, and criminal records, but received no replies.³