--- aliases: - Contra - Nicaraguan Contras category: Paramilitary created: 2026-05-17 location: Honduras relations: - fn: 2 reverse: true start: 1981 type: funded with: '[[Central Intelligence Agency]]' - end: 1986 fn: 4 reverse: true start: 1985 type: funded with: '[[The Enterprise (Iran-Contra)]]' start: 1980 summary: Nicaraguan rebel armies of the 1980s, built largely from Somoza's National Guard and backed by the CIA and then by Oliver North's private network, whose supply lines were used by cocaine traffickers. tags: - Organization - Nicaragua - Contra - CIA - IranContra - DarkAllianceInvestigation updated: 2026-09-22 --- The Contras were the armed opposition to the [Sandinista](/organizations/sandinistas/) government of [Nicaragua](/places/nicaragua/) from 1980 to 1990. Their largest army, the [FDN](/organizations/fdn/), was built around officers of [Anastasio Somoza](/people/anastasio-somoza/)'s [National Guard](/organizations/nicaraguan-national-guard/) and based in [Honduras](/places/honduras/); the southern armies of [Eden Pastora](/people/eden-pastora/)'s [ARDE](/organizations/arde/) and of [UDN-FARN](/organizations/udn-farn/), under [Fernando "El Negro" Chamorro](/people/fernando-chamorro/), operated from [Costa Rica](/places/costa-rica/).[^1][^2] ### Formation The [Legion of September 15](/organizations/legion-of-september-15/), formed in 1980 and led by [Enrique Bermúdez](/people/enrique-bermudez/) and Justiniano Pérez, became the military arm of the Nicaraguan Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ADREN). In May 1981 the ADREN, the Nicaraguan Democratic Union and MISURASATA agreed in principle to combine; the FDN was established in September 1981, and the merger was completed in early 1982.[^2] According to [Gary Webb](/people/gary-webb/), the CIA had begun reassembling National Guard officers in 1980, and [Dewey Clarridge](/people/dewey-clarridge/), chief of its Latin America Division from 1981 to 1984, directed the program and recruited Pastora in 1981.[^1] [Adolfo Calero](/people/adolfo-calero/) left Nicaragua in December 1982 and became the FDN's president and commander-in-chief.[^2] In mid-1985 the factions were joined in the United Nicaraguan Opposition ([UNO](/organizations/uno/)) under Calero, Arturo Cruz and Alfonso Robelo.[^2] ### Money Congress restricted aid to the Contras from 1982 in the [Boland amendments](/events/boland-amendment/); the House voted 228 to 195 on July 28, 1983, to stop all aid, and the amendment of October 1984 barred any agency of the government from supporting them.[^1] [Oliver North](/people/oliver-north/) of the [National Security Council](/organizations/national-security-council/) then organized private supply. The [Enterprise](/organizations/the-enterprise-iran-contra/) run by [Richard Secord](/people/richard-secord/) and [Albert Hakim](/people/albert-hakim/) took in money from the arms sales to [Iran](/places/iran/) and from private donors; about 3.8 million dollars of its receipts reached the Contra supply operation.[^4] The fundraiser Carl Channell brought North to [Nelson Bunker Hunt](/people/nelson-bunker-hunt/), who gave 475,000 dollars in 1985 to the tax-exempt foundation through which Channell raised money for the Contras.[^4][^5] Before North's network existed, the National Security Council had channeled money to the Contras through [Saudi Arabia](/places/saudi-arabia/) and the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/).[^6] In mid-1985 Congress voted 27 million dollars in "humanitarian" aid, administered by the [State Department](/organizations/state-department/)'s [Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office](/organizations/nhao/), which hired air carriers including [SETCO](/organizations/setco/), owned by the Honduran trafficker [Juan Matta Ballesteros](/people/juan-matta-ballesteros/), and [Frigorificos de Puntarenas](/organizations/frigorificos-de-puntarenas/), a Costa Rican seafood company controlled by Miami traffickers.[^1] The Enterprise flew supplies from Hangar No. 4 at [Ilopango](/places/ilopango-airbase/) in [El Salvador](/places/el-salvador/); the shootdown of one of its aircraft over Nicaragua on October 5, 1986, and the capture of [Eugene Hasenfus](/people/eugene-hasenfus/) exposed the operation.[^1][^4] ### Drugs In September 1981 the CIA received an allegation that the ADREN had decided to smuggle drugs into the [United States](/places/united-states/) to finance its war, beginning with cocaine carried to [Miami](/places/miami/) on a commercial flight in July 1981; it sent the report to the State Department and others on September 14 and to the [DEA](/organizations/dea/), the [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/), Customs and Treasury on October 28, 1981.[^2] The [Frogman Case](/events/frogman-case/) of 1982 and 1983, a federal task force investigation in [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) that arrested more than fifty defendants and seized 555 pounds of cocaine, included [Julio Zavala](/people/julio-zavala/) and [Carlos Cabezas](/people/carlos-cabezas/). When Zavala's lawyer sought depositions in Costa Rica to show that 36,000 dollars seized from him had been given to him by Contra officials, the CIA's Costa Rica station learned of the plan, a CIA lawyer met the prosecutor, the depositions were canceled and the money was returned. A memorandum by the CIA lawyer said the depositions could damage "the CIA's image and program in [Central America](/places/central-america/)," and CIA records stated that the money was returned at the CIA's request; the U.S. Attorney, [Joseph Russoniello](/people/joseph-russoniello/), said it was returned because the case was not worth the cost. The [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/)'s inspector general concluded that Zavala or people acting for him had fabricated the claim that the money was the Contras'. Cabezas testified that drug profits from the ring went to the Contras. According to Webb, the letters came from [Francisco Aviles](/people/francisco-aviles/) and [Vicente Rappaccioli](/people/vicente-rappaccioli/), whom the CIA's Costa Rica station described as Contra officials and agency assets, and a DEA report of 1987 noted that a defendant in the case had made 51 telephone calls to the FDN office in San Francisco.[^1][^3] The DEA office in Costa Rica used [Norwin Meneses](/people/norwin-meneses/), who had raised money and bought equipment for the FDN, as a source of information from July 1986 and as a registered informant from 1987; in January 1987 the FBI in San Francisco asked whether an indictment of him "will result in national security problems with other agencies," and it deferred his prosecution.[^3] His associate [Danilo Blandón](/people/danilo-blandon/), who sold cocaine in [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/) to [Ricky Ross](/people/ricky-ross/), became a paid informant of the Justice Department in 1994.[^3] According to Webb, Blandón founded the FDN's Los Angeles chapter and sold cocaine in the early 1980s to raise money for it, and the FBI identified the Contra officials [Aristides Sánchez](/people/aristides-sanchez/), [Fernando Sánchez](/people/fernando-sanchez/), [Renato Peña](/people/renato-pena/), Rappaccioli and [Marcos Aguado](/people/marcos-aguado/) as involved in or connected to drug trafficking.[^1] The Senate subcommittee under [John Kerry](/people/john-kerry/) reported in December 1988 on drug trafficking by people supporting the Contras.[^7] Webb summarized its findings: Contra leaders acknowledged receiving drug profits with the apparent knowledge of the CIA, traffickers testified under oath that they had given money to the Contras and passed polygraph tests, and pilots described flying weapons south and cocaine and marijuana north, in one instance landing at [Homestead Air Force Base](/places/homestead-air-force-base/) in Florida.[^1] In 1998 the CIA's inspector general, [Fred Hitz](/people/fred-hitz/), testified that the agency "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity."[^1] The Justice Department's report on the affair, signed on December 17, 1997, was held back by Attorney General [Janet Reno](/people/janet-reno/) under section 8E of the Inspector General Act, "the first time that publication of one of our reports has been prevented in this manner," and released in July 1998.[^3] ### Prosecutions [Alan Fiers](/people/alan-fiers/), chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force, pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress; Clarridge was indicted in 1991 for perjury and false statements.[^1] On December 24, 1992, President [George H.W. Bush](/people/george-hw-bush/) pardoned both, with [Caspar Weinberger](/people/caspar-weinberger/), Clair George, [Elliott Abrams](/people/elliott-abrams/) and [Robert McFarlane](/people/robert-mcfarlane/);[^4] Attorney General [William Barr](/people/william-barr/) had advised him to pardon the Iran-Contra defendants and favored "the broadest" pardons.[^8] [^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. [^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Inspector General. *Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States,* Volume II: *The Contra Story,* October 8, 1998, sections on organizations, Adolfo Calero and Enrique Bermudez. https://irp.fas.org/cia/product/cocaine2/ [^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. *The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions.* December 1997, executive summary, chapters II, III and VIII, appendix E and epilogue. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/special/9712/ [^4]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters.* 1993, including the summary of prosecutions. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/ [^5]: Gwynne, S. C. "Bunker Hunt," *Texas Monthly,* September 2001. [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993. [^7]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations. *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy.* S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras [^8]: Miller Center, University of Virginia. "William P. Barr Oral History," April 5, 2001. https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/william-p-barr-oral-history