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How the CIA Gave Birth to the Modern Drug Trade in the Americas

By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 21.02.2025

Anonymous officials informed major US outlets this week about the CIA’s ‘benevolent’ new role: flying MQ-9 Reaper drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels. What’s wrong with this picture?

The carefully placed reports, released within 24 hours of one another, come in the wake of the State Department’s designation of eight major Latin American drug traffickers as “global terrorist organizations.”

Unfortunately for the CIA, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of its activities knows that the agency has been more of an ally, rather than an enemy, to the drug pushers bringing violence and death to American communities.

  • In 1985, the Iran-Contra scandal exposed the Reagan administration’s facilitation of secret arms sales to Iran to fund rebels in Nicaragua, with the CIA implicated in Contra cocaine trafficking into the US.
  • In 1996, investigative reporter Gary Webb independently corroborated and elaborated on allegations that the crack epidemic rocking America’s inner cities was linked to traffickers enjoying protection from the CIA.
  • Webb’s reporting was probed by the federal government and major US media, but any info on the CIA’s involvement was swept under the rug. Webb was found dead in his home in 2004, shot twice in the head. His death was ruled a suicide.

Iran-Contra was just a small part of the CIA’s global drug smuggling empire:

  • Lawyer, banker, OSS and CIA officer Paul Helliwell has been called the “pioneer of CIA drug dealing.”
  • In 1962, Helliwell created the Castle Bank & Trust offshore in the Bahamas to support CIA ops against Castro’s Cuba and other anti-US forces across Latin America. Before that, he ran Overseas Supply, a CIA front company smuggling Burmese opium to finance a dirty war against China.
  • The Bahamian scandal blew up in 1973 during a tax evasion probe by the IRS, with Richard Nixon attempting to clip the CIA’s wings by creating the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Some believe the move, combined with Nixon’s obsession with the JFK murder, helped precipitate Watergate and the president’s 1974 resignation in disgrace.
  • Renowned US drug and arms smuggler Barry Seal ran drugs for the Medellin Cartel and, according to US authorities, was recruited as a double agent. But investigative journalist Alexander Cockburn and others have alleged that Seal was a CIA agent as far back as the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam War implicated for working with the Contras.
  • In 2017, Juan Pablo Escobar, son of the infamous founder of the Medellin Cartel, confirmed that his dad “worked for the CIA,” and alleged that drugs were being trafficked, by Seal and others, directly to a US military base in Florida.
  • Independent reporter Manuel Hernandez Borbolla has documented the formation of large Mexican cartels under the protection from the Federal Security Directorate, which the journalist described as “practically employees of the CIA, along with some former Mexican presidents.”
  • So intricate were the links, Hernandez Borbolla recalled, that infamous CIA agent Felix Ismael Rodriguez was present while members of the Guadalajara Cartel tortured and murdered DEA agent Kiki Camarena in 1985 after he uncovered drug and arms smuggling ops linked to the Contras.
  • The CIA was allegedly also involved in the 1984 murder of Mexican journalist Manuel Buendia, who was investigating the agency’s drug operations, and corrupt officials’ involvement.
  • In 2012, Chilean journalist Patricio Mery uncovered a CIA plot to smuggle cocaine from Bolivia to Chile, Europe and the US to raise funds for ops to destabilize Ecuadorian President Correa’s government.

The CIA hasn’t been the only US three-letter agency implicated in drug smuggling and cooperation with cartels, either.

  • In 2010, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (commonly referred to as the ATF) was accused of “purposely allow[ing] licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican cartel leaders and arrest them,” with no arrests ever made. The case, popularly dubbed the ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ scandal, was dubbed a potential ‘Watergate’ moment for the Obama administration by Forbes.
  • A few years later, El Universal published court documents revealing that from 2000-2012, the DEA collaborated with the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, looking the other way as it smuggled drugs into the US in exchange for info on rival cartels.

February 22, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment

Scott Horton’s Greatest Waco Hits

By Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute | April 19, 2023

Thirty years ago, Waco radicalized a teenage grocery clerk in Austin, Texas. Scott Horton was horrified both by the televised carnage of the FBI assault and by the mindless support for the feds he heard voiced by suburban housewives. Unlike the national media, Scott understood what it meant when the feds used toxic gas on American citizens and sent in tanks to collapse their home on top of them. After the fiery conflagration, Scott was vaccinated for life from being a starry-eyed idealist.

Since 1999, Scott has done superb interviews with the top experts on Waco, keeping a story alive that officialdom sought to bury. Those conversations have helped legions of Americans understand how the federal assault occurred and why the precedents it created continue to endanger our rights and liberties. Here’s a round-up of some of Scott’s greatest Waco hits:

April 19, 1999 David Thibodeau

In one of the only surviving recordings from Scott’s first radio show, Say It Ain’t So, on Free Radio Austin 97.1 FM, here is his long-lost first interview, with surviving Branch Davidian David Thibodeau from 1999. Thibodeau talks of his experience during the FBI final assault.

April 19, 2003 Dick J. Reavis   

On the tenth anniversary of the final FBI assault, Scott interviewed Dick J. Reavis, a reporter for the San Antonio Express News about his book The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation. Reavis was far more skeptical of the federal story line than most of the reporters for the national papers. His gracefully-written book humanized the Davidians, in sharp contrast to their demonization in much of the media. (Scott conducted this interview using his Philip Dru pseudonym,  a legacy of his time in the Witness Protection Program.)

April 18, 2007 Mike McNulty

Scott interviewed Mike McNulty, producer of Waco: The Rules of Engagement, Waco: A New Revelation and The FLIR Project, which asserted that the U.S. Army Delta Force was sent by Bill Clinton to Waco. McNulty debunked some early conspiracy theories on Waco, paving the way for more credible criticism. McNulty also fed great information to journalists, hounding them to dig deeper. Mike was a dogged researcher who would never quit. In 1999, he discovered the used pyrotechnic rounds the FBI fired in the final 1993 assault in a Texas Rangers evidence storehouse. That discovery exposed the FBI coverup, causing a national uproar and helping Janet Reno get the tainted legacy she deserved.

April 20, 2010 David T. Hardy

David T. Hardy, author of This Is Not an Assault: Penetrating the Web of Official Lies Regarding the Waco Incident, discusses how ATF ‘undercover’ agents — just nine days before the assault began — were granted access to the Branch Davidian compound and test-fired weapons with David Koresh. Hardy’s Freedom of Information Act requests shattered the ATF story line about not being able to easily nab Koresh before their violent assault. Hardy, a former federal lawyer, established himself as one of the most credible critics of federal outrages at Waco and other debacles.

April 19, 2012 Carol Moore

Scott interviewed Carol Moore, the feisty author of The Davidian Massacre – the first fact-filled, critical book to come out on the federal assault at Waco (published by the Gun Owners of America). Carol and Scott discussed evidence that several Delta Force members were “pulling triggers” at Waco; Independent counsel John Danforth’s investigation and coverup; the FLIR cameras that captured FBI automatic weapons being fired to prevent the Davidians from surrendering; and how the current NDAA makes future Waco-type massacres and coverups even easier for the government.

February 4, 2013 Will Grigg

In a wide-ranging interview, Will Grigg, author of Liberty in Eclipse, discussed how Waco became the template for law enforcement operations. Grigg joined the Libertarian Institute at its founding in 2016. His courage and devotion to fighting and exposing oppression created a legacy that survives his untimely death in 2017. His writings on Waco and plenty of other atrocities can be found in No Quarter: The Ravings of William Norman Grigg, published by the Libertarian Institute.

January 12, 2018 Dan Gifford   4/26/21 Dan Gifford:

Scott had multiple interviews with Dan Gifford, the Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated producer of Waco: The Rules of Engagement and a former investigative reporter for CNN. Dan reveals the role that gun control and religion played in the standoff negotiations and raid and the subsequent destruction and corruption of evidence in the aftermath. Gifford describes the setting of the final day of the standoff as well as the setting of the fire—and then the cover ups that followed. In this 2021 interview, Gifford shares his decades of experience looking into this topic, including all the times the government tried to shut him up. 

February 26, 2018 David Thibodeau returns

Scott interviews surviving Branch Davidian David Thibodeau on the 25 year anniversary of the Waco Massacre to discuss Thibodeau’s book, “A Place Called Waco.” Thibodeau gives his personal history of how he joined the Branch Davidians, and explains how David Koresh attracted people from all over the world with his biblical teachings. Thibodeau describes the day of the raid and how the crucial pieces of evidence that corroborate the Davidians’ stories were “lost.” Scott then prompts Thibodeau: “Tell me about the fire.” Thibodeau concludes with what he’s learned from his experience, reflections, and review of the evidence that’s been uncovered in the years since the tragedy.

September 24, 2021 Barbara Grant

Scott interviews Barbara Grant about her new documentary which gives an expert’s perspective on the infrared footage captured on the final day of the Waco siege. The footage shows flashes that appeared to be gunfire; the Government dismissed them as solar reflections. Grant, who has studied and worked with infrared technology, decided to use her expertise to reveal the truth.

Scott and I have had plenty of rowdy interviews on Waco and the continuing coverup of federal outrages. We thrashed the topic on May 18, 2010, December 19, 2012, August 28, 2014 (discussing Attorney General Eric Holder’s role in the Waco Coverup), April 17, 2015, March 26, 2021, and on March 10, 2023.  (Here are links to my Waco articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Playboy, USA Today, Washington Times, Libertarian Institute, New Republic, American Conservative, and American Spectator.)

Politicians and their media lapdogs may have moved on from Waco but Scott Horton will never forget. Luckily for America, Scott Horton remains hot on the Waco trail. He is interviewing key Waco critics for a new project that should be out soon.

April 19, 2023 Posted by | Audio program, Civil Liberties, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Invading Mexico in the Name of the Drug War Is a Really Bad Idea

By Weimin Chen – Mises Wire – 04/10/2023

Following the violent attack on Americans in the Mexican border city of Matamoros in early March, South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham stated that he was prepared to get tough and introduce legislation to set the stage for US military intervention in Mexico. The move would be a significant escalation in the long-running war on drugs that has been raging under the auspices of the United States for many decades to the dismay of many Latin American countries.

Graham continues to ignore the disastrous results of the use of force in US foreign policy as he eyes adding Mexico to his growing bucket list of interventionist missions. If previous interventions serve as examples, a US military intervention in Mexico would be just another excuse to expand national security interests and mire the country in another costly conflict.

Matamoros Attack

Graham’s comments on using military force in Mexico were sparked when four Americans were kidnapped in Matamoros on the Mexican side of the border with Texas. The area is known for having a heavy drug cartel presence due to its proximity to the US-Mexico border. The four Americans have been identified as Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Eric James Williams.

McGee’s mother told reporters that her daughter was traveling to undergo a cosmetic surgical procedure with the other three. They were fired on in downtown Matamoros and loaded into a pickup truck. A local woman, Areli Pablo Servando, was also killed by a stray bullet in the attack. Brown and Woodard were eventually found dead, while Williams and McGee survived.

Later, a letter of apology along with five men found with their hands tied were turned over to authorities of the Tamaulipas state law enforcement purportedly by the Scorpion faction of the Gulf Cartel. The organization extended its apology to the families of the victims and to the people of Matamoros in general for the poor decision-making and discipline of its affiliated associates.

This public relations move indicated that the cartel was alarmed by the outcry following the attack and wanted to frame it as an unusual incident outside of the ordinary rules under which it operates. Chances are that the cartel wanted to do anything they could to avoid direct US military confrontation.

Policymakers against the Cartels

Graham told Fox News that he would introduce legislation “to make certain Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations under US law and set the stage to use military force if necessary to protect America from being poisoned by things coming out of Mexico.” This highlights the concern surrounding the trafficking of fentanyl into the US from Mexico and the deadly toll it has been having on the population, and there is a growing sentiment, especially among Republican leaders, for more to be done about it.

Former attorney general Bill Barr concurred with the notion of US military action against cartels and recommended declaring the groups as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Texas representative Dan Crenshaw and Florida representative Michael Waltz have expressed their desires to authorize the president to use military force against “those responsible for trafficking fentanyl or a fentanyl-related substance into the United States or carrying out other related activities that cause regional destabilization in the Western Hemisphere.” Seventeen Republicans have cosponsored that resolution.

Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on Twitter that the US “should strategically strike and take out the Mexican Cartels, not the Mexican government or their people, but the Mexican Cartels which control them all.” This common assurance that America’s execution of military plans will simply target the right people and nobody else has been used in virtually every instance of the US using force in foreign conflicts. It shows either the hubris of US foreign policy or its indifference to the lives of its innocent victims abroad.

Roots of Violence

These calls for military intervention would serve as another layer of policies and actions already implemented by the US that have had disastrous consequences. After all, the violence in Mexico is an extension of the war on drugs started by American policy. In just the last decade, the US Drug Enforcement Administration has been found laundering millions of dollars in cash and delivering drugs for Mexican traffickers, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was found to have illegally proliferated nearly two thousand firearms with the intention of tracking criminal elements. These firearms were subsequently lost and used in cartel violence on both sides of the border.

Meanwhile, US-trained Mexican troops and federal police officers have committed widespread human rights violations. If these are the policies that have already been implemented, sending the military would be adding fuel to the fire.

Graham followed up with his statements on military force and clarified that he did not mean sending the US Army to invade Mexico but to destroy drug labs. This is reminiscent of the beginning of the US missions in the war on terror in Afghanistan, when special forces under the Joint Special Operations Command were implemented in secret raids that were highly controversial in their lack of accountability in causing collateral damage and civilian casualties. Without any clear definition of success and with the dubious effectiveness of using military force, this kind of endeavor would be susceptible to mission creep and expansions of the scope and spending, just as it did in the many interventions of the war on terror.

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has already responded to the remarks by Republican lawmakers, saying that any US military intervention in his country would represent an unacceptable infringement of Mexican sovereignty. If the US military’s track record provides any indication, the direct use of force in Mexico would likely cause more pain and suffering in a country with a population already plagued by violence.

April 11, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , | 3 Comments

Everything you ever wanted to know about the OKC bombing in under 5 minutes

OKC – A Conspiracy Theory

Corbett Report | April 19, 2015

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=14347

See also:

April 20, 2015 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

How Did ATF Lose 420 Million Cigarettes?

By Noel Brinkerhoff | AllGov | September 27, 2013

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is in trouble again, this time for losing more than 400 million cigarettes.

ATF agents failed to properly account for 2.1 million cartons containing 420 million cigarettes as part of the agency’s undercover operations, according to the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (IG). The missing cartons had a retail value of $127 million.

The IG’s office also reported that ATF paid an informant more than $4.9 million without requiring him to account for his expenses.

“We found a significant lack of oversight and controls to ensure that cash, cigarettes, equipment and other assets used…were accurately tracked, properly safeguarded and protected from misuse,” IG Michael E. Horowitz said in his report (pdf).

The mistakes were discovered after the inspector general’s office reviewed 20 undercover operations targeting cigarette smugglers that generated $162 million in income for ATF over a five-year period.

Like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, ATF is allowed under the law to use proceeds generated from certain investigations to make up for gaps in the agency’s budget.

When asked about the millions of missing cigarettes, ATF spokeswoman Ginger Colbrun told The Washington Post that the inspector general’s numbers were wrong. Colbrun insisted only 447,218 cartons were unaccounted for, not 2.1 million, after ATF conducted its own internal probe of the matter.

ATF has been under fire during the past few years for having lost more than 2,000 guns that it used as part of a Mexican drug cartel sting operation called “Fast and Furious.”

To Learn More:

ATF Lost Track of 2.1 Million Cartons of Cigarettes in Sting Operations, Report Finds (by Sari Horwitz, Washington Post)

ATF ‘Lost 420m Cigarettes’ in Churning Investigations (BBC News)

Audit of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Use of Income-Generating, Undercover Operations (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division) (pdf)

Is This the Most Bungled ATF Sting Operation Ever? (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

ATF Program Let Hundreds of Guns go to Drug Cartels (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Largest Seizure of Illegal Cigarettes in History (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

September 27, 2013 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | , , , , , | Leave a comment