Of all the figures implicated in Gary Webb’s infamous 1996 “Dark Alliance” article, Oscar Danilo Blandón remains one of the most enigmatic. Two decades after Webb’s article decried Blandón as a key component in the cocaine chain that linked the crack problem in the United States with Nicaragua’s Contra forces, not only has Blandón managed to avoid prison, but at one point, he even had a place on the DEA’s payroll. While there were never many answers associated with Blandón, plenty of questions linger. Out of Nicaragua… Blandón was born in Nicaragua in 1952. While in school, he earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s Degree in Marketing. In 1979, when the Sandinista National Liberation Front (known as the Sandinistas) overthrew Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Debayle, Blandón fled Nicaragua and immigrated to the United States. Longing to return to his home nation, Blandón vowed to do everything in his power to provide support to the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (NDF), a Counterrevolutionary (Contra) force that waged war on the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. …and into Cocaine Desperate to provide monetary support to the Contra forces, Blandón turned to cocaine as a method of raising funds. His name began appearing in Drug Enforcement Agency documents as early as 1981, where he was identified as a drug trafficker. Blandón began dealing cocaine in South-Central Los Angeles in 1982, stating that he sold the drugs to raise funds to support the Contra forces in Nicaragua….