In a striking revelation this week, anonymous sources informed major U.S. outlets that the CIA has been operating MQ-9 Reaper drones over Mexico to monitor drug cartels. This move, billed as part of a broader effort to combat the illicit drug trade, seems oddly detached from the agency’s murky history in facilitating drug trafficking. While U.S. officials continue to paint the CIA as a force against the cartels, anyone familiar with its past would be hard-pressed to see the agency as a true adversary to the global drug trade. Instead, it has often been an active player.
The Iran-Contra scandal of 1985 brought to light the CIA’s complicity in the illegal smuggling of cocaine into the U.S. as part of a covert operation to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua. While the arms-for-drugs operations were exposed, the full scope of the CIA’s entanglements with drug cartels and the death toll that followed was far more extensive.
Journalist Gary Webb’s groundbreaking investigation in 1996 exposed the CIA’s role in the crack cocaine epidemic that devastated U.S. inner cities in the 1980s. Webb’s report, which pointed to drug traffickers receiving protection from the CIA, was met with hostility from both the U.S. government and the mainstream press. Tragically, Webb died under suspicious circumstances in 2004, his death ruled a suicide despite the eerie implications of two gunshot wounds to his head. Many believe Webb’s reporting went too far in revealing the deep connections between the CIA and criminal drug networks.
But Webb’s investigation was just one piece of the puzzle in the broader history of CIA operations and drug trafficking. Paul Helliwell, a former CIA officer, was perhaps the most notorious figure in the CIA’s history of drug smuggling. In 1962, Helliwell founded the Castle Bank & Trust in the Bahamas, a financial institution that would later serve as a key tool for laundering money tied to CIA-backed operations throughout Latin America. Before that, Helliwell was involved in smuggling Burmese opium, which helped fund U.S.-backed wars against communist forces in China.
Even in the 1970s, as the IRS began investigating Helliwell’s financial dealings, the CIA was embroiled in the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) by President Richard Nixon. While officially aimed at combating drug trade, the creation of the DEA may have been partially driven by Nixon’s desire to curb the CIA’s influence and prevent another scandal like Iran-Contra from emerging.
The CIA’s partnership with major drug cartels didn’t end with the Iran-Contra affair. The agency has long been accused of collaborating with cartel figures in exchange for intelligence on rival groups. Perhaps the most infamous figure linked to these operations was Barry Seal, a notorious smuggler who worked for the Medellín Cartel. Seal was allegedly recruited by the CIA during his time in the Bay of Pigs invasion and later became a double agent for the U.S. While he continued to work with cartels, some speculate that Seal was playing both sides for the CIA’s benefit.
In a chilling admission, Juan Pablo Escobar, the son of the infamous Medellín Cartel leader Pablo Escobar, confirmed in 2017 that his father had worked with the CIA, and drugs trafficked by Seal and others were being sent directly to a U.S. military base in Florida. This revelation adds another layer to the complicated relationship between the U.S. government and the drug trade.
The CIA’s ties to Latin American cartels run even deeper. Journalist Manuel Hernandez Borbolla’s investigations have uncovered how powerful Mexican cartels, including the Guadalajara Cartel, were shielded by Mexico’s Federal Security Directorate, which he claims was practically an extension of the CIA. Hernandez Borbolla also recounted how Felix Ismael Rodriguez, a well-known CIA agent, was present during the torture and murder of DEA agent Kiki Camarena in 1985, who had uncovered the agency’s links to drug and arms smuggling operations.
These patterns of complicity continued in later years. In 2012, journalist Patricio Mery uncovered a CIA plot to smuggle cocaine from Bolivia to Europe and the U.S. The operation allegedly served to fund efforts to destabilize the Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa, highlighting the ongoing use of the drug trade as a financial tool for geopolitical manipulation.
The CIA has not been the only U.S. agency implicated in such operations. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was embroiled in the 2010 “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal. This program allegedly allowed licensed gun dealers to sell weapons to straw purchasers with the goal of tracing them to cartel leaders. However, no arrests were made, and the operation spiraled out of control.
Furthermore, a 2015 report from El Universal revealed that the DEA, tasked with combating drug trafficking, had turned a blind eye to the operations of the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, between 2000 and 2012. In exchange for ignoring their operations, the DEA reportedly received intelligence about rival cartels, further demonstrating the tangled web of cooperation between U.S. agencies and Mexican drug cartels.
Today, as the CIA is once again positioning itself as a counter to the drug trade with the use of drones over Mexico, many are left questioning the agency’s true role in combating cartels. Given the history of collaboration, it is hard to ignore the implications of these new operations. Rather than being a force against the drug trade, the CIA’s involvement with cartels has often been a crucial element in the expansion of the drug trade itself. The agency’s complex legacy in the Americas leaves much to be questioned about its current actions and their true motivations.
