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Dagoberto Nuñez was a Cuban Bay of Pigs veteran and CIA operative who worked with Oliver North in Costa Rica and was suspected of drug trafficking. |
Dagoberto Nuñez was a Cuban Bay of Pigs veteran and Central Intelligence Agency operative who worked with Oliver North in Costa Rica and was suspected of drug trafficking. Nuñez's connections to both the intelligence community and the narcotics trade placed him at the intersection of the Contra war and the drug economy.1
CIA and NSC Connections
Nuñez obtained a contract with H&M Corp. to cover an intelligence-gathering operation aimed at Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. According to a 1986 memo from CIA operative Robert Owen to North, Nuñez was preparing to sign an agreement for shrimping rights off the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. "Nuñez is doing this so he can help us. He will cooperate and do anything we ask," Owen told North.2 Webb's text names Dagoberto Nunez, a Bay of Pigs veteran, as a Costa Rica based associate of North and the CIA who obtained a contract with H&M Corp. for an intelligence-gathering operation against Daniel Ortega, and who with Felipe Vidal was part of the Costa Rican maritime operations.3 The CIA Inspector General's report describes a clandestine relationship with the National Security Council in the section on Moises Nunez, a Cuban who owned Frigorificos de Puntarenas; the report uses only the name Moises.4 Both men are described as Cuban Bay of Pigs veterans who appear in Rob Owen's memoranda to North on shrimp boats and shrimping ventures in Costa Rica. Whether Dagoberto Nunez and Moises Nunez are one person is not stated in the Inspector General's report, the Senate report or Webb's text.
Drug Trafficking Connections
John Hull, a CIA-connected rancher in Costa Rica, hid at the apartment of Nuñez after legal troubles. Nuñez was one of several Cuban Bay of Pigs veterans the CIA deployed to Central America for Contra operations, bringing with them established connections to the drug trade. His case illustrated how the CIA protected operatives involved in narcotics trafficking by suppressing investigations.5
Footnotes
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Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 15. ↩︎
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Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 15, Ch. 14. ↩︎
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Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998, passages on H&M Corp., Owen's memoranda to North, and the Costa Rican maritime operations with Felipe Vidal. ↩︎
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CIA Office of Inspector General, Report of Investigation (unclassified January 29, 1998), paras. 480 to 496, section headed "Moises Nunez," https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-06974497 ; U.S. Senate, S. Prt. 100-165 (December 1988), text at note 140, https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras ↩︎
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Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27. ↩︎