The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 4

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Transcript

0:00 I just sent it to you again, Bridget. Okay. Can you hear me? Yep. Great. I was having some issues. I had to go out and come back in. Okay. All right. You're up as co-host now. Okay. And I just saw your other post. I will call you after the show. That's okay. You think you figured it out? You know, patterns and patterns and patterns. And it gets to where, in the back of your head, patterns start.

0:35 And if anything, I'm more encouraged than ever at what's going on. And we are in a very spiritual and very real war. Yep. Absolutely. All right. We are going to start chapter three. Hopefully we can get through it all. It's called the Brotherhood of Military Minds. It is part four in our series. And it starts off with.

1:06 Daniello Blanton. He says that he never intended to become a cocaine trafficker. Sure, buddy. When he arrived in L.A. in 1979. He says he did it out of patriotism. Isn't that nice? When the bugle sounded and the call to serve came, Blanton was hustling sheet metal at an auto exchange in Los Angeles.

1:37 Okay, sure. And the next thing he knows, he's selling cocaine instead of cars. As Blanton tells the story, his transformation occurred shortly after getting a call from a friend, you know, from Miami, the place where he stopped off before he got there. And the call was from Donald Barrios, B-A-R-R-I-O-S. Barrios.

2:07 told Blanton that someone wanted to meet him, a man that would be flying into L.A. His name was Norwin Menendez. Blanton was to meet him at the airport and listen to everything that he says. He had to talk to me about something, Blanton said. For most Nicaraguans, that would have come as unwelcome news. Menendez had a nasty reputation.

2:38 In his home country, Blanton had heard him referred to as El Padrino, the godfather, and he'd heard rumors of drug trafficking. So a lot of the people in the Somoza government was involved in drugs already. So you can take what Blanton says with a grain of salt. A 1982 FBI report said Menendez had a reputation as a hitman.

3:10 who had killed in Nicaragua, you know, for the Somoza government. Barrios didn't say why he wanted Blanton to meet with him, but Blanton figured it had something to do with the Contras, because he, Barrios, was in the Contras.

3:32 In the Contra Revolution organization, you know, the one Blanton's actually sending money down to that he's intimately involved in. And for some reason, he has no clue why this guy wants to talk to him because he's the guy that they're sending money to. People who knew Barrios described him as a wealthy former insurance broker and finance year from Managua, who had immigrated to the States along long before the revolution and married an American woman.

4:00 They say Barrios was a relative of the former Nicaraguan president, Valito Barrios del Chamorro. And if you guys have not looked up the Chamorros in Nicaragua, you should. The widow of a crusading journalist, Pedro Chamorro.

4:31 who in 1987 was murdered and it sparked an uprising that eventually toppled Somoza. Norwin Menendez, record show, was a partner of Valletta Chamorro in a finance company before the revolution. So, and the guy that's like going to weddings with the president, Somoza and everything is pretending like he doesn't know this guy.

5:01 After the Sandinista takeover, Donald Barrios reportedly became a financial angel to Sandinistas, to the dispossessed, sorry, I'm screwing this all up, to basically the people that were in exile from Nicaragua that had been formerly attached to the Somoza government. Helping them settle in Miami and find jobs, he also became

5:32 business partners with some of them, including at least two members of the Samosa General Staff and the owner of the largest pharmaceutical company in Nicaragua. And we know what pharmaceuticals do. At the same time, he called Blanton in L.A. Barrios was partners with Samosa's old guerrilla hunter, Gustavio.

6:01 El Tigre Medina, the counterinsurgency expert who'd ravaged the northern mountains routing out the Sandinistas. Medina was head of G4, the officer in charge of all supplies for the National Guard at the end of the war. He fled Managua with Somoza on the morning of his regime ending.

6:30 His story was, he said, I was in the plane right behind his. Because of his activities during the war, Medina is among the minority of Nicaraguans who have not gone home because he's not wanted. Medina and Barrios started a restaurant and an investment company in Miami. Record show.

6:53 And just so that you guys know, this is the typical front for CIAs, restaurants and investment companies. Not making any allegations, but that is a pattern. Other partners included former Colonel Ario Samariba, head of the G1 for the Guard. And the G1 would be the administrative personnel guy. His other partner was Enrique.

7:24 Sanchez, a member of a wealthy Nicaraguan family that had played a key role in founding the Contras. Blanton's hunch was that Menendez and the Contras turned out to be correct, the topic of the meeting. The meeting, he said, was to start additional funding flowing to the Contra revolution. After picking up

7:57 Menendez at the airport, Blanton said, he started telling me that we had to do some money, that we had to do some money, and to send it to Honduras. Because remember, they moved it from Guatemala to the Contra camp to Honduras. Later at a restaurant, Menendez explained his idea more fully. He told me to make some drug business in LA to raise money for the Contras.

8:25 And that's the way it started. Blanton was shocked by the suggestion, he said. And I didn't agree right away because I had to think about it. Joining up with a man like Menendez would be agreeing to work for a killer, a career criminal. The word usually meant parakeet, one of his other nicknames, Menendez's.

8:54 The CIA, in a recent declassified 1986 cable, described Menendez as the kingpin of narcotic traffickers in Nicaragua prior to the fall of Somoza. The agency would later describe him as the Cali cartel's representative in Nicaragua. And they just so happened to be in the pharmaceutical business. You see where I'm going with this?

9:26 business was the cover for cocaine laboratories. And this is during the Somoza government. So they know all about this. And these guys are connected to the Cali Cartel, which is the state-sponsored narco group of Colombia. In fact, he had been selling cocaine since before there were even things called cartels.

9:58 In the small world of international cocaine smuggling, Menendez was one of the original pioneers. Back when the Medellin kingpin Carlos Lader was still just a car thief sitting in a cell in Danbury, Connecticut's federal prison, Menendez was making deals directly with the Peruvian cocaine manufacturers.

10:26 According to Nicaraguan police officials, Menendez's relationship with the drug lords of Colombia began during the marijuana era in the 70s. And the story they tell of his first big deal was illustrative of his way of doing business. A guy by the name of Roger Mayorga is a former Sandinista intelligence officer.

10:55 who also headed up investigations for the Nicaraguan National Police Narcotics Unit. Mayorga says the drug kingpin's association with the Colombians began after a plane full of marijuana made an emergency landing at a ranch owned by Somoza. The Managua police were called and they arrested the Colombian pilot, seized the plane, and confiscated the load.

11:24 In Samosa's Nicaragua, the Managua Police Department was a branch of the National Guard because, of course, they were. The National Guard officer who commanded the Managua police for many years was Colonel Edmundo Menendez Cantario, Norwin's brother. Got to keep it all in the family. Colonel Menendez.

11:55 came to an understanding with the Colombians who own the aircraft. Mayorga said the pilots in the aircraft were allowed to leave, but the load of marijuana remained behind as quote-unquote evidence. Somehow the evidence got turned over to the brother, Norwin, and he just trafficked it. That's convenient. The role played by the Nicaraguan National Guard is...

12:27 in creating Menendez's criminal empire can't be overstated. The National Guard, which when one researches it, called one of the most totally corrupt military establishments in the world. And we trained them, by the way. It was permeated with Menendez's family members. In addition to Edmundo, another brother, Brigadier General Furman,

12:56 Menendez commanded the National Guard garrison at another large city and a commercial and cultural center not far from Managua. The family's long ties to the National Guard and its history of basically being a death squad and terror organization would help explain Norwin's later activities on behalf of the Contras. The whole Menendez family

13:25 was anti-Sandinista to the death. It is a hate that seems almost genetically ancestral. The National Guard wasn't just an army. It had its hands in everything. If the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, and the IRS, the Army, the Air Force, the Marines, the National Guard, the Coast Guard, Customs, Immigrations, and the Postal Service was all rolled into one, that would make up...

13:55 the Somoza's National Guard. It had power over every part of your everyday life in Somoza's Nicaragua. Nicaragua is one of the few countries we are aware of in which all arms shipments that go into the country, whether they're sporting goods or whatever, have to be received by the National Guard. That came from a State Department official named Sally Shelton.

14:26 when she testified in front of Congress in 1978. We have been shipping hunting equipment, for example. They are in effect purchased by the National Guard and then resold if they don't use it themselves. The stunned congressman said, say that again? The National Guard is a wholesaler for ammunition and rifles? She responds, they are passed through the National Guard and sold.

14:58 It is more of an accounting procedure, she told him. But everybody laughed. But the pervasive corruption of the National Guard was no laughing matter in Nicaragua to the Nicaraguans. Gambling, alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, and every vice are protected and people are exploited by the National Guard.

15:27 Nicaraguan's Roman Catholic bishops complained in a letter to Somoza about this very thing. Quote, widespread corruption continues unchecked and public scandals further undermine the confidence in the morale of the people, unquote. To many, the National Guard was little different than the mafia. It sounds exactly like the mafia, which is why that guy's nickname is the Godfather.

15:57 was closest to Edmundo. He was known as Mundo, for short, who was one of his favorite generals. In 1960, Mundo, who'd been trained in irregular warfare by the School of Americas in Panama, you know, that's probably why they call it a death squad, conducted a series of bloody operations against Sandinistas in a town in northern Nicaragua.

16:28 Those campaigns killed key members of the Sandinistas and crippled the guerrilla movement for years. Later, Somoza gave Mundo the National Guard Choices Plum control of the Managua police, a perch from which a man was so inclined, if he was so inclined, could carry off any scam known to man. He was known to be unscrupulous.

16:59 When it came to making profit off of any vice, quote, you have to realize that you did a lot of things in your career in the National Guard and you progressed up through the ranks. So you might have been a lot of things, unquote, explained one of the Somoza's secretaries. Now, police chief, that's one of the best. That's a nice job. That was the last job Edmundo.

17:28 had in his military career. Then he retired, and they made him a diplomat. He's a mafia guy. Under Mundo's watchful eye, Managua became an open city for Brother Norwin, who by the late 1970s owned discotheques, VIP clubs, drive-in whorehouses with waterbeds and porn tape, and a thriving drug business.

17:59 I'm the chief police and my brother's going to run all the vice. That's sweet. Norwin ran all of the rackets for the National Guard. And remember, his brother's the chief of police. San Francisco cocaine trafficker Rafael Cornejo, who had worked for the Menendez family since the 1970s, told a pre-revolution.

18:31 down in Managua where he would spend weekends partying with the Menendez brothers. You'd walk down the street with Mundo and everyone would salute you. We went riding around in Jeeps, you know, guys with big guns everywhere around us. It was a trip. Though never a member of the National Guard, Norwin did his part for the Somoza regime. In his teens and 20s,

19:00 Acquaintances of his said that he was an undercover informant for basically their FBI. Samosa's plainclothes secret police, which rooted out subversives or anyone that they thought was Sandinista or Sandinista affiliates. Before going to Guatemala to start up the League of September 15, Colonel Ricardo Lau.

19:30 spent much of his career with that organization and was one of its lead torturers. Former Managuan police chief, Rene Vaness, an early member of the Sandinista government, said Norwell Menendez infiltrated any group that the government wanted investigated, posing as a news photographer or reporter.

20:01 other times as a disaffected son of a powerful Somoza family member. In a magazine interview in 1996, Menendez told of starting up an armed guerrilla group to support Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba, but insisted that he was not a communist. And it's probably not that far-fetched since many of the people

20:31 in the dictatorships of Somoza and Guatemala, all joined in on the pre-Sandinista Castro revolution on the side of Castro. Because remember, the CIA had already determined Batista had a short lifespan in Cuba, and they actually were involved in training with Fidel Castro.

21:01 When Mundo and the National Guard as his protectors, Norwin appears to have literally gotten away with murder. In the spring of 1977, Norwin found himself under investigation by the chief inspector of the Customs Department. A particularly tenacious sleuth named Oscar Reyes Zelaya. Inspector Reyes and the FBI believed Norwin was running a massive car theft ring.

21:31 which was using the National Guard to import stolen American cars into Nicaragua and then selling them to various people in the Somoza government. Importing cars through the National Guard allowed the buyer to evade tariffs the Nicaraguan government placed on imports.

21:51 According to press reports, Norwin first tried to get the annoying inspector off his tail by setting him up with an attractive woman in a Managua hotel in order to blackmail him. The woman, Pamela Castoni, then went to the police claiming that Inspector Reyes had raped her. When the investigation revealed that Castoni was a friend of Norwin's, Reyes was cleared.

22:19 and the sexual maneuver was used only to exacerbate the prosecution against Norwin. On the evening of June 2, 1977, the chief inspector got a phone call at his house, allegedly from a man who wanted to give him a payoff in order to drop the Menendez investigation. Dressed in a bathrobe and flip-flops, Reyes hopped in his Jeep and drove to an alley behind a nearby supermarket where the man was waiting to meet him.

22:48 Whoever it was in the alley shot Reyes three times in the stomach and throat, but he didn't complete the job. Bleeding profusely, the inspector was taken to the emergency room at the hospital in Managua. As he lied wringing on a cot, the dying Reyes spotted his friend Pablo Zamora Mahler, the chief investigator for the Managua Police Department, standing nearby. Pablo!

23:16 Protect me, Reyes cried. This is Norwin. Norwin Menendez sent away to kill me. Reyes died a short time later. Norwin was arrested and jailed on suspicion of murder. But after a quote-unquote rigorous and exhaustive investigation ordered by his brother, Norwin was cleared of everything. Menendez claimed he was at a hotel when the killing happened and both Rafael...

23:47 One of his San Francisco-based cocaine traffickers and his nephew, Jamie Menendez, who also was dealing cocaine in the Bay Area, backed up the story, testifying that Norwin was with them. So all the drug guys get together with the criminals in the government to cover each other. Reyes's murder was never solved, but the Justice Department would later receive compelling evidence that Menendez was behind it.

24:17 just as the dying inspector had claimed. In 1986, federal prosecutors in San Francisco debriefed Edmundo Menendez's son, Herrero, who informed them that during the Somoza regime, Norwin Menendez smuggled weapons, silencers, and video equipment into Nicaraguan, which he exchanged for money and narcotics. The operation was discovered by Oscar Reyes,

24:49 who was a high-ranking customs official under Somoza. Norwin then arranged for Reyes' assassination. After the publicity died down, Norwin calmly resumed his smuggling ventures, but the FBI kept an eye on him. As Somoza's government teetered on defeat, the Bureau laid plans to keep Norwin from ever coming to the U.S.

25:12 In 1979, the FBI office in Mexico City asked that Menendez be included in the Bureau's Top Thief program and requested an arrest warrant, if for no other reason than to preclude him from coming to the U.S. The FBI also asked for a hold on his immigration status so he could be questioned if he tried to cross the border. But the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, citing

25:39 Norwin's political connections in Nicaragua didn't do any of it. And it would not be the last time that the office would exhibit such odd reluctance to tackle the Menendez crime family. You know, because they're in on it. One longtime Contra supporter in Norwin's said Norwin's arrest and the subsequent scandal that enveloped Edmundo so upset Somoza.

26:08 that it may have triggered his heart attack in July of 1977, after which he went off to the U.S. to recuperate. Edmundo soon left the police department and was promoted to brigadier general and retired from the National Guard. Somoza sent him off to Guatemala to be Nicaraguan's ambassador there. It would be Edmundo's last assignment. On September 16, 1978, Ambassador Menendez was machine-gunned,

26:39 in Guatemala City, catching three bullets in his back. Two days later, as he clung to life at a medical center, a revolutionary group, the People's Guerrilla Army, claimed credit for the assassination. The ECP's communique described Menendez as being far more than a diplomat. According to the People's Guerrilla Army, he was overseeing

27:08 counterinsurgency operations all over Central America for the CIA. Menendez Cantarero enjoyed special privileges amongst Guatemalan authorities and army commanders. Exploiting his ambassadorial position in Guatemala as a smokescreen, he actually discharged the duties of coordinator

27:37 between the Guatemalan Army and the Nicaraguan National Guard, and also between Somoza and the Guatemalan government. They're both CIA stooges. He's just their go-between. He coordinated political repression for all of Central America and the operation undertaken by the governments of this area against any popular movements.

28:03 They claimed that the ambassador was gunned down to show solidarity with the struggle of the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas never forgave my brother Emundo for the guerrillas activity. Emundo Menendez lingered for another 15 days before dying. At his funeral, Somoza held him as a martyr. The nature of Emundo.

28:31 Menendez's relationship with the U.S. government had some questions. The CIA has refused to disclose any information about him. Not that they don't have it. It's sealed for national security reasons. The State Department incredibly has claimed it can find no records with his name mentioned anywhere. A stunning admission given Menendez's stature in the Somoza government as its chief law enforcement officer and...

29:02 a fellow ambassador. In light of Emundo's murder, Norwin figured the Sandinistas probably had the same fate in mind for him, and he left Nicaragua in early June of 1979. He caught a flight to El Salvador, went to Ecuador for a while, then to Costa Rica, where he had businesses and at least six ranches, before finally immigrating to the U.S. in 1980. He applied for political asylum.

29:32 Menendez had homes in Florida and Alabama. He said, but he spent most of his time in neither of those homes, but in San Francisco, where all the cocaine was being distributed. He started buying up property there in 1978. After the Sandinistas gained control of Managua, the Bay Area in San Francisco, like Miami, Houston, and LA, saw a huge influx of Nicaraguans who had

30:04 supported Somoza and in fact had been trained by the CIA at the School of Americas and basically were the underlings or terrorists that had been trained to keep the Sandinistas in check. Just like that same pattern that we see repeated after every fall of a CIA propped up dictator, they bring all of their killers here to live among us. Not surprisingly, the Contra support groups

30:37 quickly popped up in all of those same cities. The Menendez played a key role in getting the San Francisco organization going. Even before the term Contra was being used, there were meetings of anti-Sandinistas at Menendez's house, which were attended by politicians, former Somoza government officials, and other exiles interested in starting the movement.

31:06 A DEA informant who knew Menendez told the Justice Department in 1997 all of this. Menendez posed as a successful businessman purchasing, guess what dealer, guess what business? A used car lot. He had commercial buildings and a travel agent and a restaurant. All the typical CIA fronts.

31:35 He zipped around town in a Jaguar. His nephews bought bars and nightclubs. Norwin purchased two houses in Pacifica, a small town just down the coast from San Francisco, one for himself and one for his brother, Ernesto. He spent much of his time in San Francisco's Mission District, working out of his travel agency office that was listed as being owned.

32:05 by his nephew, Jamie Menendez. The mission is heavily Hispanic, with a history of hospitality to Central American revolutionaries. According to Roberto Vargas, a San Franciscan who had later became the Sandinistas' ambassador to China, the mission was home to several of the Sandinistas' future commandantes.

32:35 who practiced their sharpshooting skills at rod and gun clubs all over the California coast. Menendez's ability to freely travel in and out of the U.S., buying property, starting business, and applying for political asylum, all under his own name, speaks volumes for his lack of concern.

32:55 about any American law enforcement official doing anything to him. You know, the way you would act if you were representing the CIA. Yeah, he acted just like that. How someone with Menendez's record was ever allowed into the U.S. in the first place, Gary Webb says, is a mystery. But if you know about Gladio, it's not a mystery at all. The Justice Department, IG, tried in 1997 to figure out how he was able to get here.

33:28 And travel in and out of the U.S. He found huge gaps in his immigration file. You know, like somebody might have taken stuff out of it. The IG didn't even try to explain how he was able to obtain visas from U.S. embassies all over the world. You know, the same ones that the CIA works at. While he supposedly was under DEA and FBI investigations. It's entirely possible, though.

33:58 that Uncle Sam was just repaying him for his former services or his current ones. Menendez told the Justice Department that he met with CIA agents shortly after the Sandinista takeover of Nicaragua to teach them how to cross his country's borders undetected, a claim that makes a certain amount of sense given his considerable expertise in that area.

34:23 By 1986, Menendez was boasting that he had U.S. government agents escorting him across borders all over. You know, like he's actually working for the CIA. Same thing. Cocaine King Penn's easy access to U.S. shores becomes even more disconcerting when one considers just how much the federal government knew about him.

34:48 He'd been turning up in law enforcement files with some regularity for over 20 years. In 1968, he was suspected of murdering a money launderer in Managua and Nicaraguan authorities asked the CIA and FBI to search for him in San Francisco, where they knew he was. During their quote-unquote unsuccessful search, federal agents found records of other crimes that Norwin had committed while he was in San Francisco.

35:17 In the 1960s, like statutory rape, shoplifting, misuse of slot machines, court records show that the DEA first picked up word that Norwin was a drug dealer in 1974. By December of 1976, its office in Costa Rica had identified him as an actual cocaine supplier.

35:45 A FBI became aware in April of 1978 that Norwin and his brother Ernesto were smuggling 20 kilos of cocaine at a time into the United States and identified his nephew, now travel agency owner, Jamie Menendez, as their San Francisco distributor. What better place to distribute cocaine than a travel agency? The DEA learned.

36:12 that Menendez was dealing cocaine in Miami as well, bringing it into the country in commercial airliners. The following year, the New Orleans DEA had determined that Menendez was responsible for smuggling cocaine into that city too. The DEA's Operation Alligator was the sweep, as the sweep was called, resulted in an indictment of numerous people for smuggling cocaine.

36:42 It was determined that Norwin Menendez was a source of the cocaine. One of the men arrested in the DEA operation, Manuel Porro, would end up in Guatemala as a commander of the Legion of September 15. And the CIA would link him repeatedly to criminal activity there. Nonetheless, he would go on to serve as a top aide to CIA agent Aldolfo

37:14 Calero, the political leader of the Contras, and would handle some of the Calero's Caribbean banking activities, i.e. money laundering. By the fall of 1981, the time Blanton says Menendez recruited him to sell dope for the Contras, the DEA had Menendez under active investigation for cocaine trafficking and possible weapons trafficking.

37:40 The DEA had developed information over the past several years that the Menendez family had been involved in smuggling and distribution of cocaine in San Francisco. Stated an affidavit signed by a DEA agent, Sandra Smith. Smith, who was one of the DEA's first female agents in San Francisco, recalled that her investigation of the Menendez family

38:08 was the only thing that I ever worked on in all the time I worked there. In that business, if you have people coming in from Nicaragua bringing cocaine and the rumor was they were taking guns back, that's an interesting combination. Starting in the late 1970s, Smith said she began gathering string, gathering.

38:32 the string on the Menez family, putting together the comings and goings. She said Menez was living in a gorgeous house in Burlingham, a ritzy suburb of San Francisco. Periodically, she and a customs agent would stake the house out, sitting in the parking lot nearby at an elementary school and jotting down license plate numbers of cars going in and out. We really didn't have anybody on the inside.

39:01 That was part of the problem. The local San Francisco police was also running across various Menendez's, often in the company of large quantities of cocaine. Omar Menendez, another nephew, was arrested for cocaine sales at a bar in Mission, owned by his nephew, Jamie, in June of 1980.

39:27 Another nephew, Roger Menendez, was arrested with 20 pounds of cocaine. That's a crap load of cocaine. And more than $8,000 on his body. That same month, Omar got busted again with a quarter pound of cocaine. By mid-1981, Sandra had put together enough information from her investigation and from the DEA files to sketch out a fairly detailed portrait of the family steeped in drug trafficking.

39:56 The Nicaraguan, it appeared, had cocaine coming in from everywhere. Menendez had an endless supply of cocaine, from what I could see, Sandra said. In June of 81, Smith got a break in her case. Detective Joseph Lee of Baldwin Park Police in Southern California got a tip that a cocaine dealer in West Covina, a Nicaraguan named Julio Bermudez,

40:26 the guy we were talking about last time, well, it says here he just has the same last name as Enrique, which is the guy we were talking about, sorry, was making two trips a month to San Francisco where he had contacts with large cocaine smuggling organizations headed by Norwin Menendez. The informant told Lee that Bermudez

40:53 was bringing down between 14 and 20 pounds of cocaine on each trip. Another informant reported that Bermudez called San Francisco and places his order by telephone before each trip. The police subpoenaed his phone records for the previous three months, and sure enough, they found 51 long-distance phone calls to the phone number in San Francisco.

41:21 and a number belonging to Norwin's nephew, Herrero Menendez. It was enough for the Baldwin cops, along with the members of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Customs Service, to put a tail on Bermudez and stake out his house. On November 12, 1981, Bermudez left his house with a small beige suitcase and drove off in a Buick.

41:49 The cops followed, observing him stop to pick up another man, Jose Herrera, before heading to L.A.'s airport. The duo bought two one-way tickets to San Francisco and got there at 3.40 when DEA agent Smith picked up their surveillance. Smith watched as the two traffickers were met outside the terminal.

42:15 by an unidentified Latino man driving a gold Toyota with a car registered to Herrera, one of the traffickers. They drove to a small house and the three men went inside. After a bit, Bermudez came out, opened the trunk and got the briefcase out, which he had behind the driver's seat. Then he drove off. Bermudez arranged to shake his tail in traffic.

42:42 35 minutes later, though, the cops spotted the car in another part of the area parked outside Herrero Menendez's house. Bermudez came out two hours later and drove back to the first house. The sequence of events provided the cops with enough evidence to get a search warrant and they hit Bermudez's house in West Covina two days later, catching the dealer with three pounds of cocaine, an enormous amount for the time. But Bermudez promptly admitted.

43:12 He had bought from Norwin Menendez. They also found $17,000 in a drug ledger bearing an entry 11-11-81, $90,000 to Herrera. Bermudez was hustled off to jail and Smith got her warrant for the Menendez house. On November 16th, the police hit

43:39 Herrero's place and caught him with drugs and drug paraphernalia. They found a plastic bag containing Thai stick, a potent form of grass, an envelope containing $9,000, a scale, and a 12-gauge shotgun, a .22 caliber pistol, and other addresses, books, passports, and all kinds of other stuff.

44:05 Convinced the family was a major trafficking organization, Smith said she asked her supervisor if she could work the case full time. The answer was not encouraging. He said, well, that sounds like a good idea. Who would run it? She laughed and said, I think it was just that me being a female, somehow I didn't have credibility. The investigation soon fell apart. Julio Bermudez was released on bail and promptly skipped the country, never to be seen again.

44:35 Once again, the San Francisco U.S. Attorney's Office declined to pursue the case against Norwin or his nephew, and the file was closed. Smith said she never worked the Menendez family again. They had me assigned to do other things, like Hell's Angel case, and I really didn't have enough time. This was a pretty big case for me, and I think I had been given free reign and some assistance and some time to do it. I think I could have really done something.

45:05 I'm not so sure that the DEA management took it very serious and they never allowed me to do what I needed to do. Norwin Menendez said he was well aware that the DEA was after him in 1981 and came close to catching him during its investigation of the Bermudez.

45:33 He was in love with Bermudez's sister, Patricia, at the time and was often in the house in West Covina. The DEA, in fact, described Norwin as the owner of the three pounds of cocaine found there when they did their bust. But the arrest of one of his distributors and his nephews didn't slow him down any. The Menendez organization moved 900 kilos of cocaine, almost a ton.

46:02 into the U.S. in 1981 alone, which would have generated $54 million in sales. Blanton accepted Menendez's pitch to become a cocaine salesman for the Contras, he said, after he and the drug kingpin took a trip down to Honduras for another pep talk from a CIA agent, Enrico Bermudez.

46:28 At a Contra camp near the Nicaraguan border, Bermudez told them of the trouble that the FDN was having in raising funds and obtaining equipment. He said they needed money. He was in charge. Okay, so how do we run money or raise money in California? Menendez confirmed that Blanton's account of the meeting with the CIA agents who

46:57 was an old friend of the Menendez's family. I've known him since he was a lieutenant, Menendez said, adding that his brother, Edmundo, had been friends with Enrique Bermudez even longer. They'd known each other since childhood. Menendez, who was on a fundraising committee for the Contras, said that Bermudez put Blanton in charge of raising money in Southern California.

47:24 Menendez raised funds in the Bay Area and it would be Blanton's job to do the same in the southern part of the state. Menendez became Bermudez's intelligence and security advisor in California. So he's basically working for the CIA, running drugs, which is why he's never caught and why when they do catch him, the U.S. attorney doesn't do anything.

47:57 There was an understanding among them. No one would join the Contra forces down there without my knowledge or approval. Blanton confirmed that, telling the CIA that Menendez's role in the Contra operations in California was basically a personnel recruiter and drug trafficker to raise money and buy weapons. Aldopo Calara.

48:28 The CIA agent, who was the head of the Contra's political directorate, denied that the two cocaine traffickers had any official positions with the Contras. But Calera confirmed that Menendez had come to Honduras to meet with Bermudez and had brought him a crossbow as a gift. Another top Contra, former director Edward Chamorro,

48:56 acknowledged that Menendez was involved with both the Contra and Bermudez. It was very early when the Contras did not have any supporters. Very early, the Contras was trying to raise money. This man, Menendez, was connected with all the Contras of Bermudez because the military was kind of like a brotherhood.

49:22 and they had all been attached or assigned or trained by the Samosan military. It was a brotherhood. Blanton insisted that Bermudez never mentioned drug sales during his fundraising pitch, but from Blanton's description of Bermudez's instructions, it didn't need to be said directly. The Contra commander apparently had a pretty good idea of what was going on. There's a saying,

49:51 that the ends justify the means, and that is what Mr. Bermudez told us about the Honduras operations and inferring it was the same for the drug operation. Blanton doubted that Bermudez knew specifically they would be selling cocaine to raise the cash, but Contra commander Eden Pastora has said it would be naive to think that Bermudez didn't know he was asking drug dealers.

50:21 to raise money, and they were coming back there to get the drugs. It was well known in pre-revolutionary Nicaragua that Menendez was involved in illicit drug business. He had hotels, and it was also said that he was involved in cocaine. In those days, cocaine sales were not very common, so the fact that he was already involved in it would have been a huge red flag.

50:49 if you didn't want to be in the cocaine business in the future. Besides, at that point, Bermudez's contra group, the Legion of September 15, was already busily involved in cocaine smuggling and Bermudez knew it, as did all of the CIA in that area.

51:11 By September of 81, Langley was informed by Cable that the Legion's leadership had made a decision to engage in drug smuggling to the U.S. in order to finance its anti-Sandinista operation. The Cable said Bermudez reportedly had advised against the idea, but apparently he didn't object too strenuously. The CIA's Cable reported that a successful trial run had already taken place.

51:38 Langley was informed that a suitcase full of cocaine was smuggled onto a commercial airliner in July of 1981 by a Legion officer. It was then sold in Miami and the profits given to the Contras. The CIA's inspector general found no evidence that the CIA officials was running the Contra program and didn't do anything about it. At their meeting with Bermudez, Blanton said that Bermuda

52:07 Bermudez asked him and Menendez if they could assist in the procurement of weapons. In court testimony, Blanton called it a mission that they took them to Costa Rica to contact some people to get some connections on how to do it. We have to get in contact with someone that was going. We were going to give some money to buy weapons, drug monies.

52:34 Where have we heard that story before? The trip, let's see, both he and Menendez were escorted to an airport by armed Contras. A summary of his CIA interview states, quote, unbeknownst to Bermudez and the Contras, Blanton says, he was carrying $100,000 in drug proceeds.

53:08 to be used in a Bolivian drug deal. In the process of departing the airport, Blanton was stopped and detained by Honduran officials. Blanton states that his Contra escort, seeing that Blanton had been detained with money, assumed that Blanton had been given the funds by Bermudez to purchase arms for the Contras. As a result of the Contras interceding on Blanton's behalf,

53:35 affected the return of the money and secured Blanton's release. In doing so, Blanton said, the Contra escorts told the Honduran airport authorities that Blanton and Menendez were Contras. Blanton states that he was allowed to leave the next morning and that he joined Menendez, who had not been detained and who had been allowed to travel to Guatemala. They were unable to contact the arms dealer that they were looking for, Blanton said.

54:04 So he returned to California with Menendez to begin their cocaine business. Menendez simply hand him the dope. He brought Blanton to San Francisco for a two-day seminar on drug dealing. So it's a class now. Mr. Menendez explained to me how, you know, how to see the quality, how to sell it by the ounce or by the kilo, Blanton said.

54:32 Menendez also showed him how to transport the drug undetected in pickup trucks by putting the cocaine in the compartment of the door on the driver's side. Menendez brought in a one-eyed Nicaraguan exile by the name of Rayol Vega as a transportation consultant. Vega, who lived in L.A., was an old hand at driving dope cars for Menendez.

55:01 Norwin wanted that I went to Rio Vega to show me how to drive, how to do it, because he used to do it all the time. Menendez was a fount of advice on how to avoid problems. He told Blanton not to give out cocaine on credit. Don't do this. But I don't know to whom to sell it. But he told me to go and visit a few people.

55:30 And I start. Menendez gave him two kilos of cocaine worth about $60,000 at the time and the names of some of the customers in LA and told him to hit the streets. The cocaine was provided at no cost, but with the understanding that Blanton would pay Menendez out of the profits. When Blanton began doing this as a matter of a business,

55:57 Blanton insists that he didn't actually sell his first ounce of cocaine until 1982. But others who knew him at the time said he had been dealing in drugs much, much earlier than that. The Torres brothers would later tell the FBI that Blanton picked up his first two kilos from Menendez in 1980, shortly after Blanton moved to LA area. You know, like right after he'd been in Miami and recruited.

56:27 Guy needs to get his story straight. He also says that he was introduced to Menendez right around that same time. In approximately 1980, Danielle Blanton, Frank Vigel, and Douglas Diaz traveled to San Francisco area where they obtained two grams of cocaine from Menendez. Blanton, Vigel, and Diaz returned to LA area and they had 30 days to sell all the cocaine.

57:00 Frank Vigel is a Contra supporter who had worked as a public relations director for Menendez in one of his nightclubs in Managua. Though he admits being in Los Angeles in the 1980s, he denies traveling with Blanton. Blanton

57:25 has identified Diaz as the guy who would drive Menendez's cocaine to Los Angeles occasionally, but he said Diaz was not with him during his training period. Because he said his training period happened two years later. Blanton's wife's uncle, economist Orlando Morello, also agrees that Blanton was selling drugs for Menendez before 1982.

57:51 I was in Costa Rica, he said, and Chapita called me and said, I have a serious problem with Danilo. Chapita told him they started a small business, but that Danilo was dealing drugs and had gotten in debt to Menendez, who was now pressing her for the money. I sent her $5,000, Morello said. He acknowledged that his money was probably used to pay off Menendez, but said Chapita is my niece.

58:20 and my only relative, and Danilo is a very dangerous man, so I help her when I can. Morello placed the call from his frantic niece in 1981, either January or February. One DEA informant told the Justice Department that Blanton was a drug dealer even before he came to the United States and had known Menendez for years, long before meeting him at L.A.

58:50 You know, like maybe in Miami where he also has a house when he came there before he went to L.A. Longtime Menendez's employee, Rafael Correo, claimed that Blanton and Menendez knew each other in Nicaragua before the war. Danilo was sort of in the background of a group that hung around Mundo. I saw him several times at parties. In an interview with journalist George Hodel.

59:22 Former Sandinista leader Moise Hansen, who is related to Blanton's mother-in-law, said Blanton was involved in drugs and contraband prior to the Sandinista takeover. Hassan had known Blanton since college, where Blanton was a student activist on behalf of Somoza. The DEA, in a sworn statement filed in San Diego federal court,

59:51 cooperated Hassan's statement in a sealed search warrant affidavit. Filed in May of 1992, DEA agent Chuck Jones wrote, quote, Blanton fled Nicaragua after Somoza regime was deposed. Blanton had been a cocaine trafficker in Nicaragua prior to the fall of Somoza, but had enjoyed protection through family political influence.

1:00:18 Since 1982, Blanton had been a cocaine trafficker in the United States, unquote. That's actually in an affidavit. At the time, Jones made that statement. He was Blanton's case agent. Four years later, though, when defense attorneys accused federal prosecutors of hiding Jones's revealing affidavit from them,

1:00:43 Agent Jones would suddenly remember that it wasn't Blanton he'd been referring to when he prepared that affidavit. No, no. He later claimed he'd confused Blanton's background with Menendez. Regardless of when Blanton's career as a cocaine trafficker began, by the time he says he started selling drugs for the Contras, they were no longer just a ragtag group running through the jungle on their own. They were.

1:01:15 by 1982, the property of the CIA. Lock, stock, and barrel selling drugs in America with the CIA as cover. So that's it. Oh, what happened to Miss Bridget? I think X needs to do another update. So there you have it. The CIA in the drug business in 1980 in America.

1:01:56 It seems it keeps throwing me out. It doesn't want me talking to you. Okay. Well, talk to me now. That's just crazy. I tell you what, the car dealer angle, I totally did not see coming. I mean, you covered it in the last, the last show, but I wasn't able to talk then. So, but it now makes sense. It totally makes sense. And remember the Yawan brothers.

1:02:23 In D.C., the guys that was getting all the data working for Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who, by the way, her family's originally from L.A., they owned a used car dealer and rental homes and had no money to do either. And the speculation is that the used car dealer.

1:02:47 was for people to fly in to Washington, D.C., drive around with no trace of being there, stay in one of those homes that they supposedly quote-unquote owned, so there's no hotel records of them being there, and then they can leave the country, and there's no record of them being there. Makes perfect sense. Yeah. I mean, it really does. And that's why they also have a travel agent, because they can use basically fake IDs, fake visas, fake everything, get all the tickets for everybody.

1:03:18 And that's why they love having a travel. And restaurants are the perfect money laundering. We saw that with Autoscore Zinni, who owned a restaurant, because back then it was all cash business. It was the perfect way to launder money. Absolutely. Yeah, because it would hide and blend easily, you know? Yeah.

1:03:44 Yeah, so every time we read these stories and they start telling me what business they're in, I'm like, okay, you're CIA. Yeah, there's definitely hallmarks. Go ahead. Oh, I was just saying there's definitely hallmarks, boy, that stand out. Yeah, when you're on your, you know, 100th episode of tracking down the bad guys.

1:04:17 It all ends exactly the same way. They never get arrested because they're protected. And it's just like Alphys says, when he was doing drugs and just outside of Los Angeles where he lives, you could only go so far up. You can arrest the local dealer, but if you had information via wiretaps or whatever, or stakeouts, there were people.

1:04:44 That you were told if you brought them in, they were going to be released and they would not be prosecuted. And now he knows why. Right. You know, it's funny. Once you have these key pieces, a lot of things start making sense. Yeah. Yeah. And that poor guy. So he goes off to be a Marine and he finds out that that was all about a drug operation. And then he comes home to be a cop. He ends up as a drug cop and finds out he can't do his job there either.

1:05:23 Right. He's just stuck in it. But well, and the whole time he's trying to do the right thing. Yeah. Yeah. And risk his life doing it both times. Right. Absolutely. That's got to like kick you in the stomach. Yeah. Or somewhere. Yeah. Somewhere. We'll stay with the stomach. All right. So that's it on this Friday.

1:05:53 I am going to be on. I reposted it earlier. I'm going to be on. Let's see. Let me get back to my calendar. DC Lidstone's show tonight at 7. If you guys are interested. He has a lot of questions about Operation Gladio. I've never been on his show. He's a good friend of several.

1:06:19 other mutual acquaintances. I've never actually talked to him one-on-one. So it'll be a good, it'll be an interesting conversation to say the least. So anyway, that's it for today. And we're making good progress. At least they chopped up these chapters in bite-sized pieces that we seem to be able to get through each chapter in a session, which is very helpful.

1:06:50 So anyway, you guys, if I if you don't make the show tonight at seven, have a nice weekend and I'll see you back here on Monday. Take care.

Entities here

Daniel Blanton34 Nicaraguan National Police30 Norwin Menendez25 Anastasio Somoza25 Contras25 Nicaragua25 San Francisco23 Sandinistas21 Enrique Bermudez21 United States20 Edmundo Menendez15 Los Angeles14 Managua13 CIA12 Jamie Menendez9 Sandinista Revolution9 Guatemala8 Julio Bermudez8 Oscar Reyes Zelaya8 Miami8 Sandra Smith7 Donald Barrios7 Menendez Family6 Assassination of Oscar Reyes Zelaya5 Colombia4 Costa Rica4 Legion of September 154 Honduras4 Assassination of Edmundo Menendez Cantarero4 U.S. Department of Justice3 Jose Herrera3 West Covina3 Gustavo Leòn Fierro3 Mission District3 U.S. Customs Department3 Adolfo Calero3 Orlando Morello3 Chuck Jones3 Roger Mayorga3 Rafael Cornejo2

Claims made here

Daniel Blanton recruited Norwin Menendez host_asserted ▶ 2:07

“told Blanton that someone wanted to meet him, a man that would be flying into L.A. His name was Norwin Menendez. Blanton was to meet him at the airport and listen to everything that he says. He had to…”

Donald Barrios member_of Contras host_asserted ▶ 3:10

“who had killed in Nicaragua, you know, for the Somoza government. Barrios didn't say why he wanted Blanton to meet with him, but Blanton figured it had something to do with the Contras, because he, Ba…”

Donald Barrios member_of Valito Barrios del Chamorro host_asserted ▶ 4:00

“They say Barrios was a relative of the former Nicaraguan president, Valito Barrios del Chamorro. And if you guys have not looked up the Chamorros in Nicaragua, you should. The widow of a crusading jou…”

Norwin Menendez member_of Valito Barrios del Chamorro host_asserted ▶ 4:31

“who in 1987 was murdered and it sparked an uprising that eventually toppled Somoza. Norwin Menendez, record show, was a partner of Valletta Chamorro in a finance company before the revolution. So, and…”

Gustavo Leòn Fierro member_of Nicaraguan National Police host_asserted ▶ 6:01

“El Tigre Medina, the counterinsurgency expert who'd ravaged the northern mountains routing out the Sandinistas. Medina was head of G4, the officer in charge of all supplies for the National Guard at t…”

Norwin Menendez trafficked Daniel Blanton host_asserted ▶ 7:57

“Menendez at the airport, Blanton said, he started telling me that we had to do some money, that we had to do some money, and to send it to Honduras. Because remember, they moved it from Guatemala to t…”

Norwin Menendez trafficked Cali Cartel documented ▶ 8:54

“The CIA, in a recent declassified 1986 cable, described Menendez as the kingpin of narcotic traffickers in Nicaragua prior to the fall of Somoza. The agency would later describe him as the Cali cartel…”

Roger Mayorga member_of Sandinistas host_asserted ▶ 10:26

“According to Nicaraguan police officials, Menendez's relationship with the drug lords of Colombia began during the marijuana era in the 70s. And the story they tell of his first big deal was illustrat…”

Roger Mayorga member_of Nicaraguan National Police host_asserted ▶ 10:55

“who also headed up investigations for the Nicaraguan National Police Narcotics Unit. Mayorga says the drug kingpin's association with the Colombians began after a plane full of marijuana made an emerg…”

Edmundo Menendez member_of Nicaraguan National Police host_asserted ▶ 11:24

“In Samosa's Nicaragua, the Managua Police Department was a branch of the National Guard because, of course, they were. The National Guard officer who commanded the Managua police for many years was Co…”

Nicaraguan National Police supplied_arms_to Nicaragua documented ▶ 13:55

“the Somoza's National Guard. It had power over every part of your everyday life in Somoza's Nicaragua. Nicaragua is one of the few countries we are aware of in which all arms shipments that go into th…”

Norwin Menendez spied_on Sandinistas host_asserted ▶ 19:00

“Acquaintances of his said that he was an undercover informant for basically their FBI. Samosa's plainclothes secret police, which rooted out subversives or anyone that they thought was Sandinista or S…”

Ricardo Lau member_of Legion of September 15 host_asserted ▶ 19:00

Norwin Menendez trafficked Nicaraguan National Police documented ▶ 24:17

“just as the dying inspector had claimed. In 1986, federal prosecutors in San Francisco debriefed Edmundo Menendez's son, Herrero, who informed them that during the Somoza regime, Norwin Menendez smugg…”

Norwin Menendez ordered_assassination_of Oscar Reyes Zelaya documented ▶ 24:49

“who was a high-ranking customs official under Somoza. Norwin then arranged for Reyes' assassination. After the publicity died down, Norwin calmly resumed his smuggling ventures, but the FBI kept an ey…”

Edmundo Menendez assassinated People's Guerrilla Army host_asserted ▶ 26:39

“in Guatemala City, catching three bullets in his back. Two days later, as he clung to life at a medical center, a revolutionary group, the People's Guerrilla Army, claimed credit for the assassination…”

Edmundo Menendez member_of Guatemalan Army host_asserted ▶ 27:08

“counterinsurgency operations all over Central America for the CIA. Menendez Cantarero enjoyed special privileges amongst Guatemalan authorities and army commanders. Exploiting his ambassadorial positi…”

Manuel Porro member_of Legion of September 15 documented ▶ 36:42

“It was determined that Norwin Menendez was a source of the cocaine. One of the men arrested in the DEA operation, Manuel Porro, would end up in Guatemala as a commander of the Legion of September 15. …”

Adolfo Calero headed Contras documented ▶ 37:14

“Calero, the political leader of the Contras, and would handle some of the Calero's Caribbean banking activities, i.e. money laundering. By the fall of 1981, the time Blanton says Menendez recruited hi…”

Julio Bermudez trafficked Norwin Menendez documented ▶ 43:12

“He had bought from Norwin Menendez. They also found $17,000 in a drug ledger bearing an entry 11-11-81, $90,000 to Herrera. Bermudez was hustled off to jail and Smith got her warrant for the Menendez …”

Norwin Menendez trafficked United States documented ▶ 45:33

“He was in love with Bermudez's sister, Patricia, at the time and was often in the house in West Covina. The DEA, in fact, described Norwin as the owner of the three pounds of cocaine found there when …”

Norwin Menendez trafficked Contras host_asserted ▶ 46:02

“into the U.S. in 1981 alone, which would have generated $54 million in sales. Blanton accepted Menendez's pitch to become a cocaine salesman for the Contras, he said, after he and the drug kingpin too…”

Norwin Menendez recruited Daniel Blanton host_asserted ▶ 46:02

Enrique Bermudez appointed Daniel Blanton host_asserted ▶ 46:57

“was an old friend of the Menendez's family. I've known him since he was a lieutenant, Menendez said, adding that his brother, Edmundo, had been friends with Enrique Bermudez even longer. They'd known …”

CIA covered_up Norwin Menendez host_asserted ▶ 47:24

“Menendez raised funds in the Bay Area and it would be Blanton's job to do the same in the southern part of the state. Menendez became Bermudez's intelligence and security advisor in California. So he'…”

Norwin Menendez laundered_money_for Contras host_asserted ▶ 47:57

“There was an understanding among them. No one would join the Contra forces down there without my knowledge or approval. Blanton confirmed that, telling the CIA that Menendez's role in the Contra opera…”

Enrique Bermudez headed Legion of September 15 documented ▶ 50:49

“if you didn't want to be in the cocaine business in the future. Besides, at that point, Bermudez's contra group, the Legion of September 15, was already busily involved in cocaine smuggling and Bermud…”

Legion of September 15 trafficked Contras documented ▶ 50:49

CIA covered_up Legion of September 15 documented ▶ 51:38

“Langley was informed that a suitcase full of cocaine was smuggled onto a commercial airliner in July of 1981 by a Legion officer. It was then sold in Miami and the profits given to the Contras. The CI…”

Norwin Menendez supplied_arms_to Contras host_asserted ▶ 52:07

“Bermudez asked him and Menendez if they could assist in the procurement of weapons. In court testimony, Blanton called it a mission that they took them to Costa Rica to contact some people to get some…”

Rayol Vega trained Daniel Blanton guest_asserted ▶ 55:01

“Norwin wanted that I went to Rio Vega to show me how to drive, how to do it, because he used to do it all the time. Menendez was a fount of advice on how to avoid problems. He told Blanton not to give…”

Norwin Menendez supplied_arms_to Daniel Blanton host_asserted ▶ 55:30

“And I start. Menendez gave him two kilos of cocaine worth about $60,000 at the time and the names of some of the customers in LA and told him to hit the streets. The cocaine was provided at no cost, b…”

Daniel Blanton trafficked Norwin Menendez guest_asserted ▶ 55:57

“Blanton insists that he didn't actually sell his first ounce of cocaine until 1982. But others who knew him at the time said he had been dealing in drugs much, much earlier than that. The Torres broth…”

Daniel Blanton trafficked Nicaragua documented ▶ 59:51

“cooperated Hassan's statement in a sealed search warrant affidavit. Filed in May of 1992, DEA agent Chuck Jones wrote, quote, Blanton fled Nicaragua after Somoza regime was deposed. Blanton had been a…”

CIA funded Contras host_asserted ▶ 1:01:15

“by 1982, the property of the CIA. Lock, stock, and barrel selling drugs in America with the CIA as cover. So that's it. Oh, what happened to Miss Bridget? I think X needs to do another update. So ther…”