Spain

Spain was where DEA agent James Kible visited jailed Medellín Cartel boss Jorge Ochoa in 1984 and attempted to persuade him to publicly implicate the Sandinistas in drug trafficking. The approach demonstrated the U.S. government's willingness to use the drug war for political purposes.¹

Political Manipulation of Drug Enforcement

Kible's visit to Ochoa in a Spanish prison was part of a broader pattern of the U.S. government attempting to manufacture propaganda against the Nicaraguan government. While the DEA was ostensibly fighting drug trafficking, agents like Kible were being used to recruit drug lords for political operations. The irony was that the same government protecting Contra-connected drug traffickers like Danilo Blandón and Norwin Meneses was simultaneously trying to use imprisoned cartel leaders to smear the Sandinistas. Ivan Gomez, the alleged CIA agent present at Contra drug meetings, was reportedly living in Spain.²