THE SECRET

CIA

DRUG WAR`s IN

WORLD

By

Søren Nielsen

2019

The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. 

Books and investigations on the subject that have received general notice include works by historian Alfred McCoy; professor and diplomat Peter Dale Scott; and journalists Gary Webb, Michael C. Ruppert and Alexander Cockburn, as well as by writer Larry Collins. 

These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by "the United States House of Representatives", "Senate", "Department of Justice", and "the CIA's Office of the Inspector General". The subject remains controversial.

The very beginnings of what is now known as the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, started in 1942. This was done, of course in response to the US involvement in WWII under the name of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).  The role of the OSS was to collect and analyze information required by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for their war efforts and to conduct special operations that are not assigned to other agencies.

After the war, the OSS was mostly dismantled and transferred to the State and War Departments.

 Next came the Cold War and under the National Security Act of 1947, the CIA was born.  At first, its limits were similar to the OSS, but in 1949 the Central Intelligence Agency Act was passed, which allowed the Agency to be excluded from the budget limitations of other agencies.

Notably, CIA funds could be handed to other agencies, then handed back to the CIA to ensure the secrecy of the Agency’s budget.

THE VIETNAM WAR

This leads us to the Vietnam War and the CIA’s secret war in Laos.  While officially neutral, Laos was a major staging area for the North Vietnamese.  The Ho Chi Minh trail, which was a paved highway running parallel to Vietnam, was used to move troops into and out of the country.

Golden Triangle

During the Korean War, the first allegations of CIA drug trafficking surfaced after 1949, stemming from a deal whereby arms were supplied to "Chiang Kai-shek's" defeated generals in exchange for intelligence.

Later in the same region, while the CIA was sponsoring a "Secret War" in Laos from 1961 to 1975, it was openly accused of trafficking heroin in the area then known as "the Golden Triangle".

To fight its "Secret War" against "the Pathet Lao communist movement of Laos", the CIA used the Miao/Meo (Hmong) population. 

Because of the war, the Hmong depended upon opium poppy cultivation for hard currency. The Plain of Jars had been captured by "Pathet Lao" fighters in 1964, which resulted in the Royal Lao Air Force being unable to land its C-47 transport aircraft on the Plain of Jars for opium transport.

The Royal Laotian Air Force had almost no light planes that could land on the dirt runways near the mountaintop poppy fields. Having no way to transport their opium, the Hmong were faced with economic ruin. 

The CIA front "Air America" was, therefore, the only airline available in northern Laos. According to several unproven sources, "Air America" began flying opium from mountain villages north and east of "the Plain of Jars" to CIA asset "Hmong General Vang Pao's headquarters at Long Tieng"

The North Vietnamese also sponsored a communist rebellion to put pressure on the Laotian government. The CIA, in an effort to counter this without direct military involvement, began arming and training around 30,000 hill people.  The way the Laotian army was kept supplied was by a CIA owned company called "Air America".

Air America operated in Southeast Asia from 1950 until 1976. Its official purpose was to bring weapons and supplies to the CIA surrogate.

General Vang  Pao commanded the military region 2 in northern Laos.

The CIA would bring in weapons and supplies and would export opium to sell in the United States to continue to finance their efforts. 

According to "Fred Platt", a former pilot in Laos:, 

"When a farmer raised a crop of opium, what he got for his year’s worth of work was the equivalent of 35 to 40 US dollars." 

He followed with: 

"that amount of opium, was it refined to its morphine base, then into morphine, then into heroin and appeared on the streets of New York, that 35 dollar crop of opium could be worth $50,000, $60,000 or sometimes reaching upward to a hundred thousand dollars in 1969."  

After the Vietnam conflict wound to a close, the CIA shifted its sights elsewhere.

THE CIA BACKED CONTRA REBELS

In 1986, it was discovered by the United States Senate Committee that the CIA backed Contra rebels, were smuggling cocaine into the United States. Most reports claim that this was done by CIA owned planes that again were bringing weapons and supplies and taking out drugs that were sold on the streets.

A reporter by the name of "Gary Webb" exposed this in a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News.

These articles investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras shipping crack cocaine to Los Angeles and funneling part of the profits back to the Contras.

The articles made light that the CIA was aware of this and not only allowed but helped this to happen. "Gary Webb" also wrote the series "Dark Alliance": "the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion" which went into further detail about these events.

In 2004, "Gary Webb" was reported as having committed suicide by not one, but two gunshots to the head.

In 1989, "Manuel Noriega" was overthrown in Panama by "Operation Just Cause". 

"Noriega" was a CIA asset and he was trained in "intelligence and counterintelligence at the School of the Americas in Fort Gullick", Panama in 1967. 

He also received a course in "psychological operations at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina" and remained on the CIA payroll until 1988. 

When the DEA tried to indict "Noriega" in 1971, for drug trafficking, the CIA prevented them from doing so. Noriega had been providing assistance to "Contra" group in "Nicaragua" at the request of the US who in turn overlooked his drug dealing activities, which they had known about since the 60’s. 

The decision to finally remove "Noriega" from power was the result of the shooting down of the CIA pilot 

"Eugene Hasenfus". 

Documents aboard the plane revealed many details involving the connection between the CIA and "Noriega" and how the CIA knew of his activities and allowed them to continue.

THE CIA AND THE MUJAHIDEEN.

In the 1980’s the CIA supported "Mujahideen" rebels in Afganistan via "Operation Cyclone". The rebels were also involved heavily in drug smuggling.

The main CIA client was "Gulbuddin Hekmatyar", a leading drug lord, and heroin refiner.

The CIA supplied truck and mules to carry arms in and on the way out used them to carry opium to the refiners. The output from this operation was said to amount to around half of the heroin supply in the United States.

For a time the "DEA" referred to "Afganistan" as the new Columbia of the drug world.

THE WAR ON TERROR.

In 2000 "The Taliban" ordered opium production to cease, dropping the opium coming from "Afganistan" to almost zero. 

After the events of 9/11, the United States invaded "Afganistan" and once again it has become the heroin capital of the world.

It is rather clear that the CIA has been facilitating the production of many illicit drugs and allowed the shipping of them back into the United States. 

The excuses seem to range from the need to gain intelligence in areas of the world to the need to support someone who is helping the people we want. The cost is the health and lives of American citizens.

Mena, Arkansas

Several theories exist regarding "Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport", its alleged connection to the CIA, and even the involvement of figures such as "Oliver North" and former "presidents George H. W. Bush" and "Bill Clinton".


The CIA's self-investigation, overseen by the CIA's inspector general, concluded that the CIA had no involvement in or knowledge of any illegal activities that may have occurred in Mena. The report said that the agency had conducted a training exercise at the airport in partnership with another Federal agency and that companies located at the airport had performed "routine aviation-related services on equipment owned by the CIA"

In October 2013, two former federal agents and an ex-CIA contractor told an American television network that CIA operatives were involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA covert agent "Enrique Camarena", because he was a threat to the agency's drug operations in Mexico. 

According to the three men, the CIA was collaborating with drug traffickers moving "cocaine" and "marijuana" to the United States, and using its share of the profits to finance "Nicaraguan Contra rebels" attempting to overthrow "Nicaragua's Sandinista government". 

A CIA spokesman responded, calling it "ridiculous" to suggest that the Agency had anything to do with the murder of a US federal agent or the escape of his alleged killer.

THE CIA AND AFGANISTAN TODAY
The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates that $100 billion worth of illegal drugs were sold in the U.S. in 2013.

And $50 billion of the $100 billion is from CIA, for drugs The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of involvement in illegal drugs trafficking.