Operation Snowcap (1987–1994) was a counter-narcotics operation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and military/police forces in nine Latin American countries. At an annual cost to the DEA of $8 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. Operation Snowcap actively recruited U.S. Army Infantry Officers attending the Army Infantry Officer's Advanced Course in the late 1980s. Senior Lieutenants and Captains attending the course were given classified briefings attempting to recruit them from the Army to participate for operations in Bolivia and Peru.
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. Snowcap was successful in temporarily reducing the amount of Colombian cocaine entering the United States, however, it ended up handing control of narco-trafficking from the powerful Medellín and Cali cartels over to the smaller Mexican cartels. 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."