Oscar Danilo Blandón Reyes (born July 29, 1951
) is a Nicaraguan born drug trafficker who is best known as one of the main subjects of the 1996 newspaper series "Dark Alliance" by reporter
Gary Webb
Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist.
He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative ...
.
Blandón was originally a director of agricultural markets in Nicaragua during the government of
Anastasio Somoza. When the Somoza regime was overthrown in 1979, Blandón fled to the United States, and then raised money for the
Nicaraguan Democratic Force
The Nicaraguan Democratic Force (', or FDN) was one of the earliest Contra groups, formed on August 11, 1981 in Guatemala City. It was formed to oppose Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government following the 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somo ...
(FDN), a
Contra
Contra may refer to:
Places
* Contra, Virginia
* Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California
* Contra Costa County, California
* Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...
group. As part of his fundraising activities Blandón began selling cocaine. Eventually Blandón became a major cocaine trafficker in the Los Angeles area.
In May 1992, Blandón was arrested in San Diego on the federal charge of "conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute."
In prison awaiting trial, Blandón began cooperating with the
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...
(DEA) in a number of drug cases. In a plea agreement, Blandón agreed to continue cooperating with the government in exchange for a substantial sentence reduction. Eventually Blandón was sentenced to 48 months.
In order to facilitate Blandón's work as an informant, the government further requested a reduction in Blandón's sentence to
time served
In criminal law, time served is an informal term that describes the duration of pretrial detention (remand), the time period between when a defendant is arrested and when they are convicted. Time served does not include time served on bail bu ...
. Following his imprisonment, Blandón worked for the DEA as a confidential informant. He worked for the DEA to take down drug kingpin
Rick Ross in a sting operation, for which Ross was convicted in 1997.
In the 2014 film ''
Kill the Messenger'', Blandón was portrayed by actor
Yul Vazquez
Yul Vazquez (born March 18, 1965) is a Cuban-American actor and musician. He has appeared in '' Runaway Bride'' (1999), ''Bad Boys II'' (2003), ''War of the Worlds'' (2005), '' American Gangster'' (2007), ''The A-Team'' (2010), '' Captain Philli ...
.
References
Further reading
USDOJ/OIG Special Report THE CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE CONTROVERSY: A REVIEW OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS (December, 1997) United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
—The Executive Summary has a section about Oscar Danilo Blandon and Chapter II is about Oscar Danilo Blandon
**
Appendix E: TIMELINE OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS RELATED TO DANILO BLANDON
External links
*
* ()
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blandon, Oscar Danilo
1951 births
Drug Enforcement Administration informants
Living people
Nicaraguan drug traffickers
Nicaraguan expatriates in the United States
Nicaraguan people imprisoned abroad
Nicaraguan politicians
People from Managua