Tran­scripts from Gary Webb’s orig­i­nal San Jose Mer­cury News series.

August 22, 1996
Sal­vador air force linked to cocaine flights, Nicaraguan con­tras, drug dealer’s sup­plier
by Gary Webb
San Jose Mer­cury News

One thing is cer­tain: There is con­sid­er­able evi­dence that El Salvador’s air force was deeply involved with cocaine flights, the con­tras and drug dealer Oscar Danilo Blandón Reyes’ cocaine sup­plier, Nor­win Meneses.

Mene­ses said one of his old­est friends is a for­mer con­tra pilot named Mar­cos Aguado, a Nicaraguan who works for the Sal­vado­ran air-force high command.

Aguado was iden­ti­fied in 1987 con­gres­sional tes­ti­mony as a CIA agent who helped the con­tras get weapons, air­planes and money from a major Colom­bian drug traf­ficker named George Morales. Aguado admit­ted his role in that deal in a video­taped depo­si­tion taken by a U.S. Sen­ate sub­com­mit­tee that year.

His name also turned up in a depo­si­tion taken by the con­gres­sional Iran-contra com­mit­tees that same year. Robert Owen, a courier for Lt. Col. Oliver North, tes­ti­fied he knew Aguado as a con­tra pilot and said there was “con­cern” about his being involved with drug trafficking.

While fly­ing for the con­tras, Aguado was sta­tioned at Ilopango Air Base near El Salvador’s capital.

In 1985, the DEA agent assigned to El Sal­vador — Celerino Castillo III — began pick­ing up reports that cocaine was being flown to the United States out of hangars 4 and 5 at Ilopango as part of a contra-related covert oper­a­tion. Castillo said he soon con­firmed what his infor­mants were telling him.

Start­ing in Jan­u­ary 1986, Castillo began doc­u­ment­ing the cocaine flights — list­ing pilot names, tail num­bers, dates and flight plans — and sent them to DEA headquarters.

The only response he got, Castillo wrote in his 1994 mem­oirs, was an inter­nal DEA inves­ti­ga­tion of him. He took a dis­abil­ity retire­ment from the agency in 1991.

“Basi­cally, the bot­tom line is it was a covert oper­a­tion and they (DEA offi­cials) were cov­er­ing it up,” Castillo said in an inter­view. “You can’t get any sim­pler than that. It was a cover-up.”