It has been alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in drug smuggling in three significant periods.
Vietnam Era : Western Vietnam and Eastern Cambodia had some opium fields. It was widely alleged among various veterans that the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in smuggling this opium to heroin producers in the United States at considerable profit. In the book The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, Alfred W. McCoy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides evidence of the use of opium by agents of the U.S. Government to fund covert operations in Vietnam. McCoy discusses the use of opium to fund covert operations done by the CIA in Vietnam and provides prolific testimony from interviews with many of the principles involved.[2] According to Dr. McCoy, the agency intimidated his sources and tried to keep the book from being published.
Soviet Afghanistan : It was alleged by the Soviets on multiple occasions[citation needed] that American CIA agents were helping smuggle opium out of Afghanistan, either into the West, in order to raise money for the Afghan resistance or into the Soviet Union in order to weaken it through drug addiction.
Iran Contra Affair : Released on April 13, 1989, the Kerry Committee report concluded that members of the U.S. State Department "who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking...and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."
