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.
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 (FDN), a
Contra 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 Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...
(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 typical 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 ...
. Following his imprisonment, Blandón worked for the DEA as a confidential informant. He worked for the DEA to take down drug kingpin
Rick Ross
William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...
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.
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 United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
—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
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{{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