Julio Zavala person
also: Zavala, Savada, Zabala, Savala
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Carlos Cabezasperson · 19Costa Ricacountry · 11San Franciscocountry · 11Contrasorganization · 8CIAintelligence service · 7Fuerza Democrática Nacionalorganization · 5Doris Solomonperson · 5Zavala trialevent · 5Carlos Cabrazaperson · 4Horacio Perinaperson · 4U.S. Department of Justiceorganization · 4Avelasperson · 3Robert Peckhamperson · 3Frogman Caseevent · 3Judd Iversonperson · 3Nicaraguacountry · 3Norwin Menendezperson · 3Louis Lupinperson · 3Miamiplace · 3Colombiacountry · 3Mark Zinidesperson · 2U.S. State Departmentorganization · 2Los Angelesplace · 2San Joséplace · 2
Claims (10)
CIA covered_up
Julio Zavala documented
“would not press the issue of the Costa Rican deposition. As the matter stands now, a CIA cable said, CIA equities are fully protected. That was actually the quote. CIA equities are fully protected. So the CIA intervened in a legal proceedin…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 48:06
Julio Zavala supplied_arms_to
Nicaragua documented
“had been making silencers and sending them to Nicaragua for the revolution. The same informant who reported the Contra leader, Adolfo Calero, the FDN's political boss and longtime CIA agent, was definitely involved in the cocaine traffickin…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 1:08:22
CIA spied_on
Julio Zavala documented
“declassified CIA Inspector General report shows that the agency had been wise to Zavala since 1980. So the CIA knew all of this and did nothing about it. That year, a CIA operative reported that Zavala was supplying drugs to a Nicaraguan of…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 56:06
Julio Zavala member_of
FARN documented
“In early 1980, he was part of the FARN, according to the commander. The contra letter said Zavala, who stood accused by the Justice Department of being a cocaine kingpin, was actually a contra official who had been working for the resistanc…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 32:11
Julio Zavala member_of
PCNF documented
“In early 1980, he was part of the FARN, according to the commander. The contra letter said Zavala, who stood accused by the Justice Department of being a cocaine kingpin, was actually a contra official who had been working for the resistanc…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 32:11
Julio Zavala recruited
Carlos Cabezas host_asserted
“now divorced relative for a loan to go back to law school and Savada has a better idea he says why don't you come work for me and I can make you a lot of money and it'll only be a part-time job like running money and you don't have to actua…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 45:41
U.S. State Department covered_up
Julio Zavala documented
“He also forgot about the 1982 FBI teletypes that named Contra officials Fernando and Trujillo Sanchez as the drug ring suppliers. They're both, by the way, Contras, too. In a white paper subsequently circulated to Congress by the U.S. State…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 16 @ 41:41
FARN funded
Julio Zavala documented
“Zavala had made several trips between California and Costa Rica on their behalf. And during his last visit, he was given $45,000 from Farn in order to buy stuff for them. And this letter is basically saying they want their money back. So de…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 33:35
Contras trafficked
Julio Zavala documented
“and a member of the board of directors of the Contra organization, Avella's role as director of the Contra's support group office in San Jose, and their formal claim of drug-tainted money. Case could be made that the CIA funds are being div…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 53:00
Julio Zavala trafficked
Contras documented
“that some of the cocaine money was going to the Contras. He told the jury of his meeting with Horacio Pereira and that Pereira's nervousness over the Contras' profits being misspent by hard-drinking Zavala. Pages from the ledger book in whi…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 56:07
Mentions (50)
▶ 37:35
They won't do it. They didn't want to respond. They didn't want to provide any information. But some information trickled out anyway, and it got awfully close to exposing the Norwin Menendez-Daniello Blanton drug operation. In the spring of…
▶ 38:03
found in Zavala's nightstand. Remember they gave it back because it was for the Contras. It was reported that Zavala's claim from a prison cell in Arizona that he personally delivered about $500,000 in drug profits to the Contras in Costa R…
▶ 41:08
And he writes a letter to a reporter who actually says what he already knows to be true, accusing them of lying. U.S. attorney guys. Nor did he mention that two high-ranking FDN barn officials had written letters to the court attesting to Z…
▶ 41:41
He also forgot about the 1982 FBI teletypes that named Contra officials Fernando and Trujillo Sanchez as the drug ring suppliers. They're both, by the way, Contras, too. In a white paper subsequently circulated to Congress by the U.S. State…
▶ 42:10
And Rosenfeld's story was dismissed as gobbledygook. One upping Rosanello, the State Department claimed that Capresa and Zavala had never said anything about the Contras until long after their conviction. They did not, quote, they did not r…
▶ 45:03
drug trafficking. His name was Julio Zavala, Z-A-V-A-L-A. So, two years older and recently divorced from Cabresa's sister, Julio Zavala was living the big life. He had plenty of money. So, Cabresa decides he's going to go ask his…
▶ 45:41
now divorced relative for a loan to go back to law school and Savada has a better idea he says why don't you come work for me and I can make you a lot of money and it'll only be a part-time job like running money and you don't have to actua…
▶ 46:11
He thinks that's a swell idea. So being the cocaine dealer that Zavala was, he was a very busy guy. He wasn't nearly as successful as Menendez was, but Zavala was definitely a good mid-level cocaine trafficker in San Francisco. He sold coca…
▶ 46:42
to street level dealers. So he thought it would be great to have an accountant work for him and keep his books. And that was what Zavala was going to do for him. So it also included taking money to Miami and sometimes even to Nicaragua. And…
▶ 47:17
But it just so happens that Zabala didn't share all of his concerns with poor Cabresa. And what he really wanted, because he was starting to feel some heat, is he wanted to lay low and let someone else, if he was going to get busted, take t…
▶ 47:45
around some of the drug dealings that Cervala had been involved in. The local DEA agents had busted several people in South San Francisco for a half a kilo of cocaine. One of the women arrested was a Contra fundraiser by the name of Doris S…
▶ 48:15
So they're in jail, and Samala mentions that the cocaine they'd been busted with wasn't hers, that it belonged to her boyfriend, who she called Noel. That's not his real name. A month later, DEA agent Louis Lupin stopped by Bledjingo's hous…
▶ 49:16
a guy by the name of Julio Zavala, as in Zavala, the guy that hired Cabresa. Agent Lupens was sitting in the courtroom. Could Julio Zavala be Noel? The agent hurried over to the jail and asked to see the visitor's log for the time that Dora…
▶ 49:51
three different times in 11 days. Checking with the San Francisco Police Department, Lupin discovered that Zavala, a Nicaraguan immigrant, was no angel. Just a month before, Solomon had been arrested. Zavala and another man had been nabbed …
▶ 50:21
She called the police and when the irate dealer was busted out, was hustled out to the curb, the cops found five ounces of cocaine in the Cadillac that Zavala had parked outside. To be precise, it wasn't actually Zavala's Cadillac. It had a…
▶ 50:51
Lupin noticed that the other man arrested with Zavala that day was Emundo Roca. He had been one of those that Dora Solomon had identified months later. And in Roca's wallet, the police had found a slip with Julio and a number. It was a real…
▶ 51:28
So, that was the way Zavala's luck had been going. He had been busted twice. His girlfriend had been busted. His friend, Roka, had been busted twice. The charges against Zavala had been dropped each time. You know, like he was being protect…
▶ 52:01
He had customers in Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. He was also making a lot of trips into Oakland's black neighborhoods selling cocaine to African-American dealers. His business was booming. When asked, Zavala said that he …
▶ 52:31
with a cover story for his frequent trips to Miami and to Central America. But that story didn't explain why the telephone in his apartment was ringing nonstop with a steady stream of people that came in and out at all hours. What he needed…
▶ 53:02
He was going to basically take over the network and Zavala was going to head down to Costa Rica and hang out with his girlfriend. Maybe get married, you know, just kind of fade into the background. Still going to get his cut, but he wasn't …
▶ 53:35
so I could quit my job. And he said, I was going to be delivering cocaine and collecting money so that he could have a little bit of time to cool off. That's actually in testimony. At that time, Mr. Savala was having problems himself with s…
▶ 54:04
which was the next big drug deal coming up. Zavala told Cabraza that he'd pay him $500 for each kilo of cocaine that he delivered, plus a percentage of any drug debts that he collected. There would be an added bonus that Zavala knew Cabraza…
▶ 55:30
again, she was let go. She had all of this. It's like that story of Epstein and the ABC reporter. I had it all. She had it all. And because she had it all and had figured out way too much for the CIA to be comfortable with her to continue i…
▶ 56:06
declassified CIA Inspector General report shows that the agency had been wise to Zavala since 1980. So the CIA knew all of this and did nothing about it. That year, a CIA operative reported that Zavala was supplying drugs to a Nicaraguan of…
▶ 57:11
Webb goes on to say that hiring Capresa was a genius idea for Zavala because everybody liked him. He had a great personality. Zavala and his girlfriend, Dora Solomon, the one that had been arrested and then had the bail hearing where they f…
▶ 57:47
Cabeza flies down there routinely to keep Zavala apprised of the business going on in San Francisco. So Cabeza said that the cocaine he and Zavala were selling came from two separate sources. One was Alvaro Minota, a Colombian who lived in…
▶ 59:49
and to know who to pay what when the drugs were sold. They were even of different qualities. He got proof in December 1981 when Zavala called him from Costa Rica and told him to catch the next plane down. Zavala wanted him to meet some frie…
▶ 1:03:31
in the Zavala network. Although it was Sanchez and Perena's idea to raise the funds for the Contra by engaging drugs, Cabreza says it was Zavala who came up with the idea that Cabreza would serve as the go-between and basically run the netw…
▶ 1:03:56
two other men to pick up two kilos of cocaine from Perea. But Perea was suddenly uncomfortable with the arrangement. And he basically said that he wanted to cut Zavala out because he didn't trust him. Now, Cabraza owes everything that he's …
▶ 1:04:23
kind of privately tell Zabala what they said. Zabala tells him to go ahead because now he trusts Capresa even more for him telling him that they wanted to cut him out. So Capresa basically keeps Zabala in on it, but he rearranges his financ…
▶ 25:05
The freighters were found in Houston the following year, busted with $18 million worth of cocaine behind a steel wall. The shipping line was partly owned by the Colombian government. They are a narco state and still are today. The hammer fe…
▶ 25:31
At 7 a.m. on February 15th, federal agents and local police raided 14 locations in San Francisco, including Cabraza's house and Zavala's apartment, scooping up everyone. The haul included the Colombian supplier of Alvaro Carvajal Minota, Ca…
▶ 30:16
They are contributing economically to the Contras, unquote. It would take another three years before an American journalist made the connection. Zavala complained to the court that similar stories had appeared in Spanish-language press in C…
▶ 30:46
was unable to raise after getting a look at the evidence the FBI had compiled against him. His attorney advised him to cut a deal with the government and testify against Savala, which he did. A year later, shortly before his trial was to be…
▶ 32:11
In early 1980, he was part of the FARN, according to the commander. The contra letter said Zavala, who stood accused by the Justice Department of being a cocaine kingpin, was actually a contra official who had been working for the resistanc…
▶ 32:38
P-C-N-F, a longtime member of the F-A-R-N, which fights for the restoration of democracy, that's a laugh, in the Republic of Nicaragua under the slogan God, Fatherland, and Freedom. The reason they were writing Peckham, the Contra stated, w…
▶ 33:06
In addition to finding guns, practice grenades, multiple passports, and silencers, other machine guns, found $36,000 in his nightstand, which was confiscated as illegal drug proceeds. These guys are writing a letter to the judge saying that…
▶ 33:35
Zavala had made several trips between California and Costa Rica on their behalf. And during his last visit, he was given $45,000 from Farn in order to buy stuff for them. And this letter is basically saying they want their money back. So de…
▶ 34:09
to actually make them put that on record. If what they were saying was true, he argued, Zavala was going to defend himself on the grounds that the agents of the U.S. government was intricately involved in alleged conspiracy and either sanct…
▶ 37:57
We want to show that this money was found and his possession came from the Contras. Zinaid said, I appreciate all that. That's been apparent. Let's assume for a moment, and I don't believe these people, that I think they're lying. I mean, I…
▶ 41:24
Peckham granted the defense motion to fly to Costa Rica for the purpose of taking depositions of the two people that signed the letter. Six days later, the Costa Rican CIA station fired off a cable to Langley to warn that a federal prosecut…
▶ 43:20
The Justice Department and a federal prosecutor handling the Zavala case, CIA officials decided needed to be discreetly approached. So in other words, they're going to get involved in a law case. On August 3rd, 1984, CIA headquarters instru…
▶ 43:48
Langley reassured the nervous Costa Rican station that there is no reason to believe that Zavala's attorneys knew that there was any association between them and the CIA. The whole thing could just blow over if their planned legal action su…
▶ 47:38
Peckham issued an order that afternoon resealing the records he'd made public only that morning. Five days later, Zinaids filed a three-paragraph agreement that said simply that the United States will not introduce the $36,000 in their case…
▶ 48:06
would not press the issue of the Costa Rican deposition. As the matter stands now, a CIA cable said, CIA equities are fully protected. That was actually the quote. CIA equities are fully protected. So the CIA intervened in a legal proceedin…
▶ 53:00
and a member of the board of directors of the Contra organization, Avella's role as director of the Contra's support group office in San Jose, and their formal claim of drug-tainted money. Case could be made that the CIA funds are being div…
▶ 53:25
And Capicoli and Avelas could prove most damaging, especially if any relationship, no matter how induced, were to continue. As long as Capicoli and Avelas continue to play any role in the anti-Sandinista movement, any public disclosure of t…
▶ 55:20
In October 1984, the federal government returned the $36,000 to Avelas and Zavala. And not a moment too soon, eight days after the check was issued, the U.S. Congress, outraged by the disclosure that the CIA and the Contras…
▶ 56:07
that some of the cocaine money was going to the Contras. He told the jury of his meeting with Horacio Pereira and that Pereira's nervousness over the Contras' profits being misspent by hard-drinking Zavala. Pages from the ledger book in whi…
▶ 56:37
Zavala was convicted of trafficking and sentenced to prison. Caprese's testimony went unchallenged. It also went unreported, though the San Francisco news media had fairly swooned when Caprese and Zavala were arrested. Not a single reporter…