Operation Snowcap
The largest counter-narcotics operation ever launched in Latin America.
Operation Snowcap (1987–1995), launched in the spring of 1987, was a counter-narcotics operation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), BORTAC (U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit) and military/police forces in nine Latin American countries. At an annual cost to the DEA of $80 million, and involving approximately 140 agents at its onset, Snowcap was the largest counter-narcotics operation that had been launched in Latin America. The U.S. Department of Defense leased 6 UH-1 Huey helicopters, and provided flight training to Bolivian air force pilots and Special Forces training for UMOPAR and DEA agents.
- Target
- Cocaine laboratories and coca cultivation
- Primary Factions
- DEA, BORTAC, military/police forces in nine Latin American countries
- Timeline
- 1987–1995
- Key Location
- Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and six other Latin American countries
- Strategy Type
- Counter-narcotics operation
- Status
- Historical Operation
Verified Timeline
Lore & Background
Operation Snowcap followed Operation Blast Furnace, a four-month operation that started in July 1986, which deployed 160 Army personnel and six Blackhawk helicopters to assist Bolivia in operations against cocaine laboratories in the Beni and Santa Cruz regions. In late 1987, Clandestine Laboratory and Chemical Program Czar Gene R. Haislip and Douglas A. Snyder convinced high-level DEA officials that change was needed in the Snowcap program. They successfully lobbied for Frank E. White, Chief of DEA Special Training, to become the new head of Snowcap because of his breadth of military experience and no-nonsense law enforcement perspective. In a 1988 memo, White charged that agents were not being given adequate support, warning that without immediate changes, 'DEA agents are going to agonize along through an excruciating death on an isolated jungle floor.' DEA brass supported his request for more U.S. Military special forces assistance, with additional deployments of Navy SEALS & Special Boat Teams and Coast Guard special operation elements.
In Their Own Story
On May 20, 1989, tragedy struck when a US or Peruvian-owned Cessna 208 Caravan that had left Tingo María, in the Peruvian Amazonian highlands, on a DEA coca eradication mission crashed into Mount Huacranacro, 100 km east of Huaral. The nine occupants, six Americans and three Peruvians, were killed. The plane may have suffered an engine failure. By the end of 1990, Colombian National Police participating in Operation Snowcap had seized 53 metric tons of cocaine, arrested about 7,000 suspected traffickers, destroyed over 300 processing facilities, and seized over 700,000 gallons of precursor chemicals. According to the SAC who was in charge of Operation Snowcap, Tony Laza, the DEA's 'success with Medellín and Cali essentially set the Mexicans up in business, at a time when they were already cash-rich thanks to the budding methamphetamine trade in Southern California.' On 27 August 1994, a DEA CASA 212 Aviocar crashed into a mountain north of Puerto Pizana, in the Amazonian jungle department of San Martín, Peru, killing all five occupants: DEA Special Agents Frank S. Wallace, Jay W. Seale, Juan C. Vars, Meredith Thompson, and Frank Fernandez Jr.
Reader's Guide
Operation Snowcap recruited several special operations units across U.S. federal agencies and military forces to conduct 'Black operations.' Leadership was selected by high-level U.S. military personnel in the late 1980s. Senior lieutenants and captains attending advanced courses were given classified briefings, attempting to recruit them from the Army to participate in operations in Bolivia and Peru. After Operation Just Cause, U.S. Army added an additional element of soldiers from an Airborne Unit in Panama to assist. A small group of soldiers were sent to areas in Colombia and Peru to recon and help target drug facilities, acting in supporting roles as security for agents when engaging in their narcotic stings. This unit provided support until mid-1990 when it was deemed that their engagement was overtaxing the unit's other mission in the region. Late 1995-1996 during counter drug operations in Colombia, a support element of special boat teams came under attack in the Antioquia Valley region by members of Colombian insurgents believed to be part of Colombia's counter revolutionary movement (FARC). The boat team members held off a force of roughly 150 rebels for three days and nights, repeatedly surrounded and cut off from escape, until they counter-attacked and linked up with Navy SEAL support and Colombian special forces.
Did You Know?
- Operation Snowcap cost the DEA $80 million annually and involved approximately 140 agents at its onset.
- On May 20, 1989, a Cessna 208 Caravan on a DEA coca eradication mission crashed into Mount Huacranacro, killing all nine occupants (six Americans and three Peruvians).
- By the end of 1990, Colombian National Police had seized 53 metric tons of cocaine and arrested about 7,000 suspected traffickers under Snowcap.
- The crash of a DEA CASA 212 Aviocar on August 27, 1994, killed five DEA Special Agents and contributed to the operation's end in 1995.
- Late 1995-1996, a special boat team held off roughly 150 FARC insurgents for three days and nights in the Antioquia Valley region of Colombia.
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