NICARAGUAN DRUG DEALER LINKED TO CONTRAS RECAPTURED

MANAGUA (Reuters) A Nicaraguan drug trafficker with reported links to a
U.S. Contradrugs scandal was recaptured over the weekend in Nicaragua
after his release from prison 10 days ago, officials said Monday.

Omar Meneses was arrested Sunday morning at his mother's home in northern
Nicaragua, Commissioner Arnaldo Pastran of the National Police told Reuters.

Criminal court Judge Eduardo Boza ordered the capture, reversing another
judge's decision to parole Meneses, who was sentenced in 1991 to 12 years
in prison for smuggling cocaine.

``Mr. Meneses still has three years, five months and 11 days before he
completes his sentence,'' Boza told Reuters.

Meneses last year emerged as a central character in a scandal over a
newspaper report of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's involvement in
financing the Contra war with drug profits.

In a series of articles, the San Jose Mercury News alleged that U.S.
officials tacitly allowed Meneses to distribute drugs in California's
AfricanAmerican neighborhoods in the 1980s to help fund the CIAsponsored
Contra uprising against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government.

The series sent shock waves through the black community and the CIA and
Justice departments opened investigations.

Boza asked the Supreme Court to investigate one of its magistrates who
formerly represented Meneses' brother and made the recommendation leading
to Meneses' release.

Meneses' attorney said he would appeal Boza's ruling.