Rancher Returns From Costa Rica After Jumping Bail in Contra Case

John Hull, the wealthy American expatriate alleged to have facilitated a guns-for-drugs operation at his Costa Rican ranch, has arrived in the United States after jumping bail on charges stemming from his involvement in Oliver L. North’s Contra supply network.

Hull’s lawyer, Thomas Spencer, said Hull, 69, surfaced in Miami and was en route to his home in Evansville, Ind., to seek medical attention for a heart ailment. Hull fled probable rearrest in Costa Rica last week. Senate investigators also want him to testify on his activities in Costa Rica, where he has maintained extensive land holdings since 1968.

“Hull was a significant player in the Contra war,” said Jonathan Winer, a counsel to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who heads a subcommittee examining the Contra supply network. Subcommittee investigators have been trying to serve Hull with a subpoena for at least a year.

Hull was indicted and arrested in January in Costa Rica on charges stemming from drug trafficking allegations and on a charge of violating Costa Rica’s neutrality act, which bars use of the nation’s territory for hostile acts against other nations. Although the drug charges were dropped by a judge in San Jose, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Hull’s release from jail on $37,500 bail was revoked this week and he has been declared a fugitive from justice.

Hull has admitted that he owned land that has served as a secret Contra airstrip, that he had flown planes for the Contras and helped supply them and that he aided the mercenaries after Congress passed the 1984 Boland Amendment, which prohibited U.S. government support for military operations against Nicaragua.

An admitted member of North’s supply operation to the Contras, he has consistently denied any illegal drug activity.