# Oscar Blandón

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Oscar Blandón," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/oscar-blandon/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The senior Contra leader whom Gary Webb's reporting identified as running the cocaine operation that moved product from Nicaragua to Los Angeles, and one of two men named in the Dark Alliance series.*

- **Role:** Senior [Contra](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/contra-rebels) leader
- **Function per Webb's reporting:** In charge of the cocaine operation
- **Named in:** [Dark Alliance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dark-alliance), the San Jose Mercury News series
- **The other man named:** A major drug importer based in Los Angeles

**Oscar Blandón** is one of the two men named in [Gary Webb](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gary-webb-kill-the-messenger)'s [Dark Alliance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dark-alliance) series.

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) identifies him in his account of what the seven articles actually alleged: *"there were two people in particular one was named Oscar Blandon Oscar Blandon was a senior Contra leader who was in charge of this cocaine operation the other was a major drug importer based in Los Angeles."*[1]

The route Blandón's operation served is the one Kiriakou traces from the mid-1980s: cocaine arriving in the United States *"ostensibly from Colombia but really making its way through Nicaragua"*, ending in Los Angeles, where *"it was turned into crack cocaine"* — a drug nobody had heard of before 1984, and which then *"took off like wildfire."*[2][3]

## See also

- [Dark Alliance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dark-alliance)
- [Contra rebels](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/contra-rebels)
- [Kill the Messenger (Gary Webb)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gary-webb-kill-the-messenger)

## Sources

1. The Gary Webb Story: CIA, Cocaine, and a Media Assassination (2025-03-12), at 06:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjcwiMRDy9k&t=381s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-12-john-kiriakou-the-gary-webb-story-cia-cocaine-and-a-media-a/
2. The Gary Webb Story: CIA, Cocaine, and a Media Assassination (2025-03-12), at 04:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjcwiMRDy9k&t=255s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-12-john-kiriakou-the-gary-webb-story-cia-cocaine-and-a-media-a/
3. The Gary Webb Story: CIA, Cocaine, and a Media Assassination (2025-03-12), at 04:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjcwiMRDy9k&t=285s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-12-john-kiriakou-the-gary-webb-story-cia-cocaine-and-a-media-a/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/oscar-blandon/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt