22 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
22 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
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"
|