vault backup: 2026-05-13 21:30:09

10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ramon Milian Rodriguez.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+category: "Organized Crime"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Person/Drug_Trafficker
+  - Colombia
+  - 1980s
+  - Contra_War
+  - Congressional_Testimony
+summary: Ramon Milian Rodriguez was the Medellín cartel's money-laundering expert who created Frigorificos de Puntarenas and testified that the cartel donated $10 million to the Contras.
+---
+Ramon Milian Rodriguez was a suave Cuban-American graduate of Santa Clara University who served as the [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín cartel]]'s money-laundering wizard until his arrest in [[Miami]] in 1983, when he and $5 million in cash were taken off a Lear jet bound for [[Panama]]. Milian created an interlocking chain of companies to launder the torrents of cash pouring into the cartel's coffers, including [[Frigorificos de Puntarenas]].[^1]
+
+### $10 Million Donation to the Contras
+
+Milian testified before Senator [[John Kerry]]'s subcommittee in 1987 that he used Frigorificos to launder a $10 million donation from the Medellín cartel to the Contras, arranged by and paid to former CIA agent Felix Rodriguez. Kerry's committee didn't believe the claim, especially after Milian flunked a lie detector test on the question. But during Manuel Noriega's drug trafficking trial several years later, [[Carlos Lehder]], the Medellín cartel's transportation boss, confirmed under oath that the cartel had given the Contras $10 million, just as Milian had testified. Lehder said he arranged the donation himself.[^1]
+
+[[Adolfo Calero]] denied the Contras received such a sum, but as Webb noted, Calero had also denied for many years that the Contras received CIA money or assistance from [[Oliver North]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 12: "This guy talks to God"