Using CIA-owned airlines like Air America to transport opium from remote mountainous regions to refineries.
McCoy argues that CIA complicity was rarely a matter of agents directly selling drugs. Instead, it was a "coincidental complicity" where the Agency allied with local warlords, political leaders, and criminal syndicates who used the drug trade to finance their own activities. In exchange for their anti-communist loyalty, the CIA provided these allies with: The politics of heroin : CIA complicity in the ...
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade is a seminal work by historian that explores the intersection of U.S. foreign policy, covert operations, and the global narcotics trade. First published in 1972 as The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia , the book was the first to provide meticulous documentation of how the CIA and other U.S. government entities facilitated drug trafficking to achieve Cold War geopolitical goals. Core Argument: Strategic Complicity Using CIA-owned airlines like Air America to transport
Covert funds were sometimes funneled to paramilitary groups deeply embedded in opium production. Key Geographical Focus Areas In exchange for their anti-communist loyalty, the CIA