The CIA’s Drug Habit
Adam Greaser
HST 708, Organized Crime
History of the CIA
• Forerunner to the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services
collected and analyzed information during World War II
• Following the war, OSS was dissolved with its functions
transferring to the State and War Departments
• President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947,
establishing the Central Intelligence Agency
• The CIA was tasked with coordinating intelligence activities
and evaluating national security risks
• According to a Congressional Staff study, CIA officers break
international law “more than 100 times a day”
CIA’s Shady Activities
• Foreign coup involvement (Iran, 1953)
• Assassination failures (Fidel Castro)
• Assassination successes (Ngo Dinh Diem in S. Vietnam)
• Watergate involvement / cover up
• Surveillance on US citizens (Operation CHAOS)
• Experimentation on US citizens (MKULTRA)
• Arms smuggling (Iran-Contra Affair)
• Torture/clandestine imprisonment
• Aid to resistance fighters (al-Qaeda, Pakistan’s bomb)
• Lying to Congress
Southeast Asia
• Operation Paper (1950): approval to assist the Kuomintang
Chinese Nationalist Army
• KMT already involved in opium production
• By 1956, KMT was out of China, opium production virtually
eliminated
• Due to CIA support to KMT and Thai opium smugglers, SE Asia
transforms into major source
• This support institutionalized CIA’s habit of using these off-the-
books, drug supported armies (Indochina, Afghanistan Pt. 1,
Central America, Afghanistan, Pt. 2)
• “If opium could be useful in achieving victory, the pattern is
clear. We would use opium.” - Scott
Civil Air Transport / Air America
• Airline owned by CIA for easy transport
• Not regulated by any other branch/organization
• In 1950s, CAT would fly in arms for KMT, fly out drugs
for other SE Asian markets
• First flew into Burma in 1950; by 1960, opium
production had quadrupled
• During Vietnam War, heroin and opium transported out
of Laos, Thailand
• Opium production in Laos fell from 300 tons in 1975 to
30 tons following CIA withdrawal in 1984
Afghanistan, Pt. 1
• Following withdrawal from SE Asia, CIA begins
involvement in Afghanistan
• From 1979 to 1980, Afghan opium goes from 0% to
60% of total US consumption
• From 1980 to 1991, Afghan opium production grew 5x;
CIA involved with prolific smuggler Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar
• CIA offers protection to Hekmatyar and other producers
in exchange for resistance against Soviet invaders
• Growing Heroin addiction in Pakistan (estimated 5
million addicts)
Mexico
• Concurrent with activity in Afghanistan, CIA helps
create Mexican Federal Security Directorate
• DFS license protects drug smugglers, considered a
“license to traffic drugs”
• CIA helps protect Miguel Felix Gallardo, responsible for
bringing 4 tons of cocaine into US a month; estimated
1/3 of cocaine in US produced by Gallardo
• “Hierarchy of untouchability” as smugglers protected
by DFS, DFS protected by CIA, CIA unaccountable
Afghanistan, Pt. 2
• In 2000 to 2001, Taliban eliminates opium
production in held areas; Northern Alliance
responsible for 185 tons
• Due to US support to drug producers, opium
production reached 8,200 tons in 2007 (93%
of world market)
• Drug control became largely subordinated to
larger strategic goals in conflicts
CIA’s Drug Problem
• “Golden Triangle”, “Golden Crescent” produce
91% of opium (96.6% including Colombia and
Mexico)
• Nixon’s drug bust, Operation Eagle nabs 150
drug smugglers; 70% were former CIA assets
affiliated with Bay of Pigs invasion
• In 30 years of DEA investigations, an agent
reports that nearly all targets were CIA
affiliated in some way
Sources
• American War Machine – Peter Dale Scott
• Drugs, Oil and War – Peter Dale Scott
• Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies and the CIA in
Central America – Peter Dale Scott, Jonathan
Marsha;;
• Rogue State – William Blum
• Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press –
Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair
• CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room
