Good Example Of Research Paper On CIA Drug Trafficking

As it is known, drug trafficking and terrorism are the things, closely interrelated. Traffickers, who have rich experience of illegal ‘laundering’ of money, provide access to the financial sources for all major terrorist groups. In addition, terrorism and drug trafficking are closely linked to the illegal arms shipments.
The rapid growth of drug production and transit of weapons in countries, where for decades it is conducted the civil wars, support the conclusion that the internal armed conflict is a powerful stimulus for the activities of drug and weapon mafias. This applies to Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo), Afghanistan (the war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance), Myanmar (armed conflict in the North of the country) and in the other hemisphere – to Latin America (Colombia, with its many years of guerrilla movement and Peru – with the struggle against the government of the movement ‘Sendero Luminoso’ and other organizations) (Marcy).
Some sources claim that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States took part in the several operations on drug trafficking. Some reports of the Congress show that the CIA worked with groups that it knew. They were involved in the drug trade, thus, provided by drug mafia groups with the useful information and material support in exchange for allowing their criminal activity, preventing their arrests, indictment and imprisonment by the US law enforcement agencies (McCoy).
The Central Intelligence Agency has supported various Afghan commanders, for example, the leader of the Mujahideen Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He led the fight against the Afghan government and the forces of the Soviet Union, who were his supporters. The agency itself was not engaged in the transportation of heroin, but provided the transport for this to its ‘friends,’ weapons and political patronage (Marcy).
The origins of the ties of separatist-terrorist organizations with drug and weapon mafias of Western countries date back to 1946. It was then that the United States brokered by the CIA supported the Corsican mafia in its struggle against the communist trade unions, and at the same time – ‘too left’ of the French government. In Marseille it immediately appeared the first major heroin laboratories. The successful experiment brought the serious dividends to the intermediaries. The proven technology has been put on stream (McCoy).
Here is a brief history of the drug trade under the roof of the CIA, which accelerate the formation of drug civilization.
In 1946, the US military intelligence freed the leader of mafia and drug dealers Luciano and sent him to Italy (he ‘provided services to the Army and Navy,’ but the naval intelligence stubbornly refused to disclose which ones). During 1946-1952 years, the number of addicts in the United States tripled, thanks largely to the efforts of Luciano. Six years later, their number doubled to more than half a million. In 1947, CIA supported the Corsican mafia in its struggle against the communist trade unions. As a result, in Marseille it was created the major heroin laboratories (Marcy).
Secret CIA’s operation in Laos during the Vietnam War remains the largest in history. The ‘Golden Triangle’ - Laos, northern Thailand and Burma supplied 70 percent of the world's opium. The air company ‘Air America’ exported opium from Laos to finance the war. In Marseille (France) and Sicily (Italy) Corsican and Italian mafia in laboratories turned it into heroin for the syndicate, founded by Luciano.
In 1950 years, CIA support China's national army in the fight against the communist Chinese government. The struggle against the Communists was funded by including the drug trafficking, which was transported by planes with American pilots (Scott).
The end of 1950 - the beginning of the 1970s is characterized by the fact that in northern Laos under the auspices of the CIA it was built a laboratory for the production of heroin. The finished product was still transported by the American pilots. The acquired money were spent on ‘the fight against international communism.’ The 1973-1980 years are characterized by the scandal associated with the Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney. This ‘pocket bank,’ registered in the Cayman Islands, was fully controlled by CIA officers (one of the consultants of the bank was the former CIA Director William Colby). With the help of this bank CIA laundered money, derived from drug trafficking and weapons in Indochina (Marcy).
In 1980’s, CIA funded the Nicaraguan contras in the already established way: ‘Weapons in exchange for drugs.’ This time it came to a formal investigation, which ended without the results. The end of the 1980’s – CIA supported the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union. Transports of weapons returned with heroin. According to independent experts, at that time Afghanistan produces up to 50 percent of consumption in the US heroin. President Bush did not ordered the destruction of opium poppy crops in Afghanistan.
On August 23, 1987, the police officers killed two teenagers, accidentally discovered the drug base. According to some data, this base was ‘fronting’ by the CIA. Moreover, it was an assumption that Bush Sr., the CIA and the American Mafia has long jointly earned. In the ‘International Herald Tribune’ in December, 1994 published an article ‘Communication of CIA with drug trafficking is as old as it is itself.’ CIA, said the article, paid the bootleg of more than 2 thousand pounds of cocaine from Venezuela to the United States, despite the protests of the Office for the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Until recently, none of the representatives of the Office, working abroad, had no right to initiate an investigation of a suspected drug dealer or try to collect the necessary information without the permission of the head of the local branch of the CIA (McCoy).
In the midst of the war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua cocaine began to arrive in large numbers to the United States. A representative of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, who was in Costa Rica, has taken steps to identify the sources from which the drugs were sent to the United States. CIA station chief in Nicaragua prohibited this representative to conduct an investigation. The CIA was involved in the brutal murder of an agent of the Office on Drugs Francis Mullane in Mexico (Scott and Marshall).
CIA connection with international drug trafficking can be traced from the time of the Korean War of 1950-1953. To obtain the intelligence data about the enemy armed forces in Korea, the CIA used the aid of the entrenched in Burma remnants of the defeated in 1949 by the armed forces of Chiang Kai-shek. In exchange for the service the CIA provided the mode of the ‘most favored nation’ for the flow of drugs from the ‘Golden Triangle,’ including in the United States. And if the CIA never forgot about the drug trade, it never tried to stop it. However, the CIA has treated the Eisenhower’s administration in order to prevent the agency, who fought against the drug trafficking, trying to place the tracking station in the ‘Golden Triangle’ in order ‘to study the problem of sending drug planes (Scott).
However, nowhere the CIA was so closely linked to the drug trade, as in Pakistan during the Afghan war. The CIA has directed nearly the half of its funds to support the troops of Islamic fundamentalist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, which were heavily armed and effectively fought in the Afghan war (Marcy). However, many of his commanders were also major heroin traffickers. The trucks were carrying weapons to militants in Afghanistan from Pakistan, and came back full of heroin through the Hyderabad pass.
The conflict and its consequences have generated another ‘Golden Triangle’ – ‘Golden Crescent,’ which covers the territory of Pakistan, Afghanistan and partly the former Soviet Union. Many of those, involved in the drug trade, are the people who were once armed, trained and financed by the CIA (Marcy). The article from the ‘International Herald Tribune’ indicates that the CIA has been actively involved in solving problems related to the international drug trafficking. However, the position occupied by that US intelligence agencies are not always in the interest of the fight against the drug trafficking (Scott).
The expression ‘where the power of the CIA is, there is a thriving drug trade’ refers to Iraq. Here, drugs have become a panacea from any dissatisfaction and desire to get rid of the United States. The main objective of the Americans was to put the local population on the needle and capturing radio, TV and newspapers to carry out the necessary propaganda. These actions form obedience rather, than rising up and protests.
According to the London newspaper ‘The Independent,’ Baghdad, where up to March, 2003 it has never been drugs with a lethal level of addiction, is now overcrowded with them. Drugs, including heroin and cocaine, are sold on the streets. Drug and arms trafficking is covered by the CIA, which, thus, obtains money for its operations worldwide (Marcy). The volumes of drug trafficking increased during and after the wars - World War II, the Vietnam War, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and the War in Iraq (Scott).
Often the agents of combatting with drug trafficking were ordered not to investigate the organized by the US drug trading. Therefore, it is not surprising that the US government manages to sell drugs with impunity for so long. It is also known the facts that the sale of drugs and money laundering were carried out even under the guise of the ‘agencies to combat drug trafficking.’
Although it is almost impossible to find the accurate information about the drug trade, however, according to the UN, Afghanistan became the largest producer of drugs (opium) in the world. So, gradually, under the guise of protecting of ‘democratic values’ and ‘human rights’ the US rulers implanted in Islamic countries the ‘value’ of drug civilization, ‘values’ of permanent and short-term ‘kaif.’
Therefore, the CIA plays a leading role in the US intelligence community. It carries out the most specific tasks - recruitment of agency, covert operations and others. Several years ago, the number of CIA employees exceeded 20 thousand people. CIA budget was then $ 4 billion - one-eighth of the entire budget of the intelligence community. But that's not all. A significant part of the budget of this department traditionally takes the refuge in the so-called black budget of the Ministry of Defense (Scott).
As strange as it sounds, but the involving in the drug trade of CIA was necessary to protect the American interests, according to the US governmental policy, as it is seen. The fight against the international communism demanded more resources and, one day, it was decided to translate the process to ‘self-financing’ - to earn the necessary money for the military operations by the drug trade, especially, because the majority of wards anti-communists had been already involved in secret occupying of this business. It only remained to clean up the matter in hand (Marcy).

Works Cited

Marcy, William L. The politics of cocaine how U.S. foreign policy has created a thriving drug industry in Central and South America. Chicago, Ill: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010. Print.
McCoy, Alfred W. The politics of heroin : CIA complicity in the global drug trade : Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, Colombia. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books Distributed by Independent Publishers Group, 2003. Print.
Scott, Peter D. Drugs, oil, and war : the United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003. Print.
Scott, Peter D., and Jonathan Marshall. Cocaine politics drugs, armies, and the CIA in Central America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Print.