COCAINE AND THE DEA

Nicaraguan drug baron works with -- and against -- the DEA, FBI, and
CIA

While the FBI searched in vain for a shadowy Nicaraguan cocaine baron,
the DEA helped him get travel visas and paid him to be an informant, a
U.S. Department of Justice report says.

Miscommunication between federal agents -- along with other missteps,
limited resources and alleged sexism against a female DEA agent --
contributed to the ruthless dope dealer's evasion of justice, said the
study by the department's inspector general.

Between 1963 and 1992, Norwin Meneses, a former Bay Area resident,
allegedly killed two men, sold stolen cars, traded guns, smuggled
"massive" quantities of cocaine and boasted that he had ties to the
CIA and was supporting contras trying to topple Nicaragua's Sandinista
government.

But the report last month concluded Meneses had no CIA connection and
made only modest contributions to the contras. The failure to
prosecute him was a result not of federal intervention on his behalf
but of long-standing problems in federal anti-drug efforts.

"In short, the investigation of Meneses failed because of inadequate
resources devoted to this case and inadequate coordination between law
enforcement agencies, which are recurring law enforcement issues," the
study said.

The Meneses case also illustrates the risk inherent in prosecutors'
reliance on criminals who turn informant and may seek to manipulate
the process.

"It's always been, and always will be, dangerous to work with
informants," said Laurie Levenson, associate dean of Loyola Law School
in Los Angeles. "They work the system."

Justice Department officials declined to comment on the study. Evelyn
James, a DEA spokeswoman in San Francisco, would not discuss Meneses
but said police agencies constantly sought to better coordinate drug
cases. Informants, she added, often try to "play both ends against the
middle."

Meneses, now 55, dressed well, drove a Jaguar, owned a Mission
District bar and, in the late 1970s, lived in exclusive Hillsborough.
His sweeping criminal career and the government errors that let him
continue it are detailed in the 407-page inspector's report. Neither
Meneses nor his attorney could be located for comment.

He was born into a prominent Nicaraguan family close to the ruling
Somosa government. One of his brothers was Managua's police chief in
the 1970s.

But even as a young man, Meneses caught the eye of U.S. police. In
1968, Nicaraguan officials reported he was a suspect in the murder of
a Managua "money changer" and had fled to the Bay Area. He'd already
been convicted in San Francisco for shoplifting, misuse of slot
machines and statutory rape.

In the mid-1970s, he was suspected of running a stolen car ring in
California, New York and Nicaragua. Several DEA offices also heard he
was wholesaling cocaine in New Orleans and the Bay Area, the report
said.

San Francisco DEA agent Sandra Smith in 1981 opened the first of eight
DEA probes of the Meneses outfit. Some of his men were arrested, but
Meneses fled, and allegedly continued trafficking in the United
States, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, where he was a reputed "hit
man," it said.

Smith believed a federal task force was needed to take on Meneses and
offered to run it, but her boss refused. The first female DEA agent in
San Francisco, Smith later told the inspector her proposal was
rejected "because of sexism and the low status of women in the DEA,"
said the report. A DEA supervisor denied that was the reason.

In 1984, DEA agents arrested two of Meneses' aides, who agreed to
inform on him. One was his nephew, Jairo Meneses. The other was Renato
Pena, a San Francisco spokesman for the Nicaraguan Democratic Front
(FDN), the main contra group, who said he'd met Norwin Meneses at a
contra meeting. But the DEA closed its case against Meneses in June
1986 citing a lack of evidence, the report said.

The next month, Jairo Meneses turned to the FBI in an effort to avoid
deportation. Norwin Meneses, he alleged, had "dealt directly with
leaders of the contras and the Sandinistas since the early 1980s in an
effort to promote his cocaine enterprise. Norwin lacks any political
allegiance and will deal with anyone who will provide cocaine at the
lowest price," said a U.S. attorney's memo quoted in the study.

Meneses also allegedly arranged the assassination of a Nicaraguan
customs official who discovered he was trading guns for drugs under
the Somosa regime, the memo said.

The FBI opened its own probe of Meneses and obtained a recording in
which he discussed money laundering and his work with the late
Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Unbeknownst to the FBI, Meneses in July 1986 walked into the DEA's
Costa Rica office, offering to inform on major drug dealers. He
alleged they included Sandinista officials, which would support the
Reagan administration's public claim that the leftist government dealt
in drugs. The DEA office began using him as a source and opened
"Operation Perico" (perico is Spanish for parrot) based on his
information, the report said. "The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office
in San Francisco were surprised to learn about this use of Meneses,"
the report said. The lead San Francisco FBI agent on the case "was
also upset" that he couldn't interview Meneses, it said.

The episode prompted an early 1987 agreement between the FBI, the DEA
and federal prosecutors, but it came to naught.

The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in Los Angeles had
decided that -- instead of targeting Meneses -- it would use him to
inform on a fellow dealer. To accommodate the task force, the San
Francisco U.S. attorney's office agreed to delay seeking its own
charges against Meneses, if he'd plead guilty to them.

But Meneses apparently out-maneuvered his federal handlers. He refused
to return to Los Angeles that summer, declined to testify in court,
talked only to chosen DEA agents and demanded a promise he could live
in the United States, the report said.

The task force shut down in July 1987 with no prosecution, partly
because of Meneses' intransigence, it said.

Yet that month the wily smuggler was formally elevated to
confidential informant for the DEA in Costa Rica. It got him one
45-day visa, then another, to travel to Miami, Los Angeles and San
Francisco to meet with drug dealers on the DEA's behalf, the report
said.

Meneses' help lead to the arrest of several people and the seizure of
some cocaine. But one DEA agent later told inspectors he'd suspected
that "Meneses may have been trying to work a drug deal on his own," it
said.

And after paying him $6,877, the Costa Rica DEA office deactivated him
as an informant in December 1989 because none of his cases "appears to
have any chance of fruition," said a DEA memo cited in the report.

The U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco, meanwhile, had reopened
its case on Meneses. Another informant had told the FBI that Meneses
was a DEA informant and had boasted of avoiding prosecution because he
was a CIA informant, the study said.

But the CIA told the FBI that "a search of CIA files and indices
located no information indicating that Meneses was ever employed by or
was an informant for the CIA," the report said.

The CIA "did not have any objections or problems with a prosecution of
Menses," it said, and neither did the San Francisco DEA office.

Based on the FBI investigation, Meneses was indicted in San Francisco
in February 1989 for cocaine trafficking.

However, the inspector's report noted, "Surprisingly .E8.E8. even

after the San Francisco indictment and arrest warrant were issued,
Meneses continued to work as an informant for the DEA in Costa Rica
and travel to the United States on behalf of the DEA."

As the FBI hunted for Meneses, the DEA arranged his undercover trips
to California, Miami and U.S. embassies in Colombia and Mexico, it
said.

His DEA control agent later said he was unaware of the warrant for
Meneses's arrest, the report said, and "the FBI was apparently unaware
of his activities on behalf of the DEA."

In early 1990, the DEA and the FBI were at odds on the case, while
Meneses was at large.

Still, the DEA's Costa Rica office briefly reactivated the indicted
Meneses as an informant that May. DEA records contain no sign that it
first ensured the required "thorough coordinat(ion) between the DEA
and FBI," the inspector's report said.

In fact, the DEA seemed to be out of sync with itself. In September
1991, its offices in Guatemala, Houston and Los Angeles launched
investigations of Meneses, the study said.

But that month Meneses himself contacted the DEA's Costa Rica office,
offering to be an informant once again. A DEA agent met with him
several times in Managua to discuss the offer.

A few weeks later, the Nicaraguan police arrested Meneses with 1,500
pounds of cocaine, including some hidden in cars destined for the
United States, it said.

In August 1992, Meneses was sentenced to 25 years in a Nicaraguan
prison. When the inspector general interviewed him there last year,
Meneses denied ever selling drugs. He said he gave a small amount of
his own money to the contras, raised other funds for them and
recruited members in California. As the report noted, Meneses admitted
in a 1986 Examiner article that he had sold cocaine, but only "for
about six months."

The story also reported that, according to former contras, Meneses
helped finance at least four Bay Area contra functions and sent a
truck and video gear to contras in Honduras. Meneses denied that and
having met FDN head Adolpho Calero. Calero told The Examiner he had
met Meneses several times, but denied knowing of his contra
contributions or drug dealing.

In response to the article, the U.S. State Department said in August
1986 that some contras dealt in cocaine, but not members of the FDN.

However, the inspector concluded that Meneses was a large-scale drug
smuggler and a member of the San Francisco FDN chapter. It said he
played a "marginal" role in supporting the contras, giving them
"relatively insignificant" amounts of his drug profits.

FDN leader Calero told the inspector he had been to Meneses' home and
knew Meneses was wealthy, but had no idea he might be a criminal.

The study noted, though, that "Meneses' reputation had preceded him in
the small Nicaraguan exile community .E8.E8. people who dealt with
Meneses knew or should have known that money coming from him was
likely from an illicit source."

The inspector general's report was prompted by 1996 stories in the San
Jose Mercury News suggesting Meneses gave millions of dollars in drug
profits to the contras and was protected by the CIA or other national
security agencies. The study found these allegations
unsubstantiated.

Instead, it said, Meneses evaded prosecution because federal agencies
failed to coordinate their cases against him and wavered on "whether
Meneses should be considered a target or an informant."

Meneses was released from prison in Nicaragua in November 1997. The
San Francisco indictment of him is pending.

1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"