---
category: "Country"
tags:
  - geography
  - south-america
  - contra-war
summary: Bolivia was a primary source country for the cocaine that flowed through the Contra-connected trafficking networks, with the politically connected Suarez family supplying the Blandón-Meneses drug ring.
---
Bolivia was a primary source country for the [[Cocaine]] that flowed through the [[Contras|Contra]]-connected trafficking networks, with the politically connected Suarez family supplying the [[Danilo Blandon|Blandón]]-[[Norwin Meneses|Meneses]] drug ring. A 1990 [[DEA]] report stated that the ring was "a criminal organization that operates internationally from [[Colombia]] and Bolivia, through the [[Bahamas]], [[Costa Rica]], or [[Nicaragua]] to the [[United States]]." The Bolivian cocaine was coming into [[Miami]] before being distributed to the West Coast.[^1]

### The Suarez Connection

The Blandón-Meneses ring sourced its cocaine from the Suarez family in Bolivia and the Ochoa family in Colombia, founders of the [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín Cartel]]. [[Roger Sandino]] was busted in April 1986 as part of the biggest cocaine case on the Atlantic Coast, when DEA agents in Norfolk, Virginia, charged him and fourteen others, including the son-in-law of Bolivian cocaine kingpin Roberto Suarez-Gomez, with conspiracy to import 700 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $158 million. The DEA brought the cocaine into the United States from Bolivia to use as bait in a reverse sting.[^2]

### Blandón's Bolivian Deal

Blandón was once stopped at Tegucigalpa airport carrying $100,000 in drug proceeds to be used in a Bolivian drug deal while escorted by armed Contras. The incident illustrated the direct connection between Contra operations and the South American cocaine supply chain.[^3]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 6.
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 21.
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 3.