The Politics of Heroin - Complete

[slow_dazzle]

Split into small files for easy navigation. Navigate upwards through the site for more stuff on the subject of narcotics.

originally published in 1972 - important as context for what is happening now

Other books of the same sort that are worth reading include Powderburns

[robert d reed]

Unfortunately, that's only the first edition, from 1972.

McCoy later updated it in 1989, with a massive supplement on the politics of heroin in South-West Asia- Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the role of US (also French, UK, Saudi) covert ops in facilitating drug profiteering there, during the Soviet-Afghan War of the late 1970s and 1980s- which in turn feeds into BCCI, the subject of such books as Truett & Gurwin's False Profits, and Beatty & Gwynne's Outlaw Bank.

And oh yeah, I read Cele Castillo's book when it first came out. I have at least two autographed copies, in fact. Castillo doesn't cover the same beat as Al McCoy, he was DEA in Latin America, observing the coke trade. He filled in some important missing pieces for me, when I was trying to figure out if, well, if all this government conspiracy stuff was real...

Fun fact: This is one that I got out of an old 1980s issue of High Times magazine, from their underrated and overlooked monthly news bulletin section. In a story on some Central American coke smuggling bust snafu, the story mentioned Cele Castillo's name (pre-whistleblower role, Castillo was simply portrayed as a DEA agent doing his assigned duty.)

Then the article brought up the fact that Castillo was one of only 3 agents assigned to the entirety of Central America by the DEA.

Mid-1980s, right? 3 agents.

[anothershamus]

Here is an article about Narco Dollars. Ties right in to the Massive production of heroin in Afghanistan right now. Also the mortgage crisis.

http://solari.com/articles/scoop_narco_dummies.htm

[slow_dazzle]

the fact that 3 agents were expected to cover such a big area...speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Thanks people.