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+---
+category: "U.S. Government"
+tags:
+  - Organization
+  - Government
+  - United_States
+  - Contra_War
+  - 1980s
+summary: U.S. federal law enforcement agency responsible for border protection and customs enforcement that investigated Contra-connected cocaine trafficking through informants including Joseph Kelso.
+---
+U.S. Customs and Border Protection (U.S. Customs) is a federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting the borders of the [[United States]].[^1]
+
+### Contra War Role
+
+[[Joseph Kelso]], a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and U.S. Customs informant, gathered testimony from six witnesses willing to testify that [[DEA]] agents in [[Costa Rica]] were skimming cocaine from seizures, making counterfeit money, and protecting cocaine labs on Contra bases. When Kelso's investigation was exposed, [[Robert Owen]], serving as a conduit for [[Oliver North]], had Kelso arrested. Evidence tapes from Kelso's investigation were turned over to North via Owen, who threw them away when the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] broke.[^2]
+
+### Flowchart Analysis
+
+The U.S. Customs Service analyzed a flowchart seized from [[Ronald Lister]]'s home during a 1986 raid, which appeared to diagram an illegal weapons diversion scheme matching the methods used to funnel arms to the [[Contras]].[[^3]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it"
+[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 17: "We're going to blow your fucking head off"
+[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it"