SMF (SAD MOTHERFUCKER)

Drug profit

In several areas where the U.S. has carried out secret wars, the illegal drug smuggling from those areas has flourished: In Afghanistan during the 1980s poppy cultivation and opium production soared, while the cocaine transshipment through Central America during that same time period also flourished. In 1960s Indochina, a major by product of all the covert wars was a major infusion of heroin into the U.S.

According to some, illegal drug activity flourished because covert operations and clandestine wars create gray areas where other illegal activity flourishes. Covert wars involve front companies or other "cut outs," companies that exist on paper only for the transfer and laundering of dollars and shipping of weapons. These operations lend themselves to drug trafficking. Others would argue that the national security imperative of covert activity leads officials to look the other way when allies, like Panamanian General Noriega, engage in this kind of activity.