South America

South America was the source of the cocaine that flowed through Contra-connected trafficking networks, with Colombia and Bolivia serving as the primary production countries. The continent's drug cartels supplied the commodity that linked the Contra war to the devastation of American inner cities.¹

The Cocaine Supply Chain

A 1990 DEA report stated that the Blandón-Meneses ring was "a criminal organization that operates internationally from Colombia and Bolivia, through the Bahamas, Costa Rica, or Nicaragua to the United States." The ring sourced its cocaine from the politically connected Suarez family in Bolivia and the Ochoa family in Colombia, founders of the Medellín Cartel. Law enforcement investigators hoped to take down the biggest crack operation ever uncovered, "one whose tentacles reached all the way to South America," and cut off the L.A. ghettos' main source of supply. A pilot known as "Oklahoma Dick" regularly flew to South America to obtain cocaine for the Blandón-Meneses network.²