Original subtitles

>> NARRATOR: They destroy

families...

ruin lives...

and they threaten the very

fabric of our society.

>> JASON HOWERTON: The cartels

are operating in every major

U.S. city.

>> CELERINO CASTILLO: There's so

much money, you can buy just

about anybody on both sides of

the border.

>> NARRATOR: But just who or

what is the real enemy in the

war against drugs?

>> REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA:

There are three elements to the

drug trade:

drugs, cash and weapons.

>> NARRATOR: Is it the user?

The dealer?

Or is it...

our own government?

>> WEBSTER TARPLEY: The massive

reality is that the C.I.A. runs

drugs.

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret strategies?

Secret missions?

Secret conspiracies?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

December 14, 2010.

Peck Canyon, Arizona.

11 miles north of the

U.S.-Mexican border.

While on a routine patrol,

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and

Firearms agent Brian Terry

encounters a group of

heavily-armed Mexican drug

runners.

(gun cocks)

>> ISSA: Brian Terry went out

to intercept what should have

been loosely or non-armed, uh,

individuals crossing into the

United States, and found them

with brand-new assault rifles

able to gun him down.

(automatic gunfire)

>> HOWERTON: After th

was ov and the dust had

settled, he was killed.

And near the scene, they found a

weapon from Fast and Furious.

>> NARRATOR: Operation Fast and

Furious.

A top secret government program

that fed thousands of deadly

assault weapons across the U.S.

border into Mexico, in an

attempt to trace those weapons

to Mexico's drug cartels.

>> HOWERTON: The problems arised

when they couldn't track the

weapons.

No RFID chips were implanted,

uh, and they didn't see them

again until they started turning

up... next to dead bodies.

>> MICHAEL LEVINE: They know

that everybody who's getting

these guns are drug trafficking

organizations.

So somebody dies and then you're

going to go and catch the people

responsible?

That's not a flawed operation,

that's premeditated homicide.

>> NARRATOR: After the death of

Brian Terry, an investigation

was launched by the

Congressional Oversight

Committee, under Chairman

Congressman Darrell Issa.

>> ISSA: Once Fast and Furious

was discovered, what we got was

direct stonewalling by the

attorney general.

The president asserted executive

privilege to block our looking

into and getting the facts.

Certain documents exist, and

we've asked for those documents,

and we've been denied them.

The unanswered question about

Fast and Furious is, "How could

you be so stupid?"

And if you couldn't be that

stupid, then what are you

hiding?

>> NARRATOR: Was Operation Fast

and Furious really an attempt by

the U.S. government to bust

Mexico's deadly drug cartels?

Or did it have another, more

secret agenda?

Perhaps one that dates all the

way back to the beginning of

America's war on drugs.

(rock music playing)

1971.

It is a time of political

activism, sexual freedom and

social change.

It is also a time when those

seeking to expand their

consciousness do so with

mind-altering drugs.

For some, experimentation

becomes addiction, and even

death.

And to fight what is believed to

be a growing scourge, President

Richard Nixon declares a war on

illegal drugs.

>> PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON:

Public enemy number one in the

United States is drug abuse.

>> NARRATOR: Seven presidents

and more than four decades

later, the United States

government has spent an

estimated $1 trillion to fight

what is now the longest running

war in American history.

>> ROBERT C. BONNER: The goal of

U.S. drug policy is and has been

to contain, reduce

substantially, the number of

people that are using, abusing

and addicted to pernicious drugs

that have truly harmful effects,

not only on the individual but

on society in general.

>> MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Since

Richard Nixon proclaimed the war

on drugs in 1971, we've had

president after president that

have committed to the same goal

of eliminating the scourge of

drugs from American life, and

we've had very little progress.

>> NARRATOR: According to a

recent study by the U.S.

Department of Health, there are

an estimated 22 million

Americans, or nine percent of

the population, that use illegal

drugs, the largest number per

capita of any country in the

world.

And to meet the demand, drug

traffickers employ highly

sophisticated methods, both

above ground and below--

even underwater--

all in an effort to smuggle

their product across the U.S.

border and into the waiting

hands of American drug users.

In 2012, the illegal and

cash-based drug economy in

America was estimated at $100

billion.

>> ISSA: We're clearly not

winning the war on drugs.

I don't think anyone on either

side should think so.

The question, like some wars,

is, "What's the cost of losi

it?"

>> NARRATOR: For over a decade,

Mexico's drug cartels have ruled

with impunity, using violence

and terror to carry out their

illegal activities.

>> BONNER: There have been

dozens of mayors in Mexico that

have been murdered by the

cartels.

Your choices are silver or lead:

either to take bribes or you

will be killed.

The United States has been, and

rightly so, assisting the

Mexican government in its

efforts to defeat and eliminate

these powerful drug cartels.

>> ISSA: To understand what's

going on in Mexico, you really

have to look at the period of

time under President Vicente

Fox, when the drugs were

beginning to flow, and flow

freely.

President Calderón came in and

started trying to attack it.

>> CHUCK BOWDEN: When Calderón's

administration ended, at least

130,000 Mexicans had been

murdered...

(indistinct radio chatter)

...in a population of 112

million.

>> HOWERTON: The wars in Iraq

and Afghanistan, the number of

soldiers who have died pales in

comparison, and-and that's an

actual war that we declared.

>> NARRATOR: Juárez, Mexico, is

ground zero in the

Mexican-American drug war.

In an area called The Plaza,

Mexico's cartels battle for

control of this key gateway

into the U.S.

And many are now armed with

weapons from Operation Fast and

Furious.

>> HOWERTON: Mexico's ambassador

to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhán,

said that Mexico was completely

"left in the dark" as Operation

Fast and Furious was going on.

>> BOWDEN: There's over 900

gangs.

Drugs flow through the city into

the U.S.

It is the largest source of

income.

It's created a death machine,

and the most violent place on

the surface of the earth.

>> NARRATOR: Was Operation Fast

and Furious merely a

well-intended government program

that went wrong?

Or was there another, more

secret plan at work?

February, 2010.

At the federal courthouse in

Chicago, Illinois, Jesus

Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the

alleged logistics coordinator

for the powerful Mexican Sinaloa

cartel, is charged with drug

trafficking.

But according to a brief filed

by his attorneys, Zambada-Niebla

claims he was actually working

for the U.S. Drug Enforcement

Agency.

And that's just one of several

secrets he is ready to reveal.

>> HOWERTON: Now, working with

an informant is not uncommon.

Where the controversy creeps up

is that Zambada-Niebla is saying

that Fast and Furious is not

about tracking guns, it was

about supplying them, uh, to the

Sinaloa cartel in exchange for

information, uh, as a part of a

divide-and-conquer strategy.

It's the old saying, "The enemy

of my enemy is my friend."

So, you give us the information,

we'll give you guns and we'll

let you smuggle your drugs into

the United States as long as you

keep helping us take down these

other cartels.

>> NARRATOR: Could

Zambada-Niebla's shocking

allegations be true?

Did the United States government

really strike an unholy bargain

with the deadly Sinaloa drug

cartel?

If so, why?

>> HOWERTON: If this was true,

they would be able to let the

Sinaloa cartel do their dirty

work.

The federal government gets

these other cartels taken down.

Meanwhile, the Sinaloa cartel,

they have the money and the

guns, and they're expanding

their power.

>> NARRATOR: Is the war on drugs

so impossible to win that deals

must be made with criminals in

order to fight it?

Or is there another, even more

secret agenda behind America's

drug wars?

Coming up...: On the ground, on

the ground!

On the ground!

>> NARRATOR: Heroin...

cocaine...

marijuana.

In the eyes of the U.S.

government, all addictive drugs

are created equal, and, if left

unregulated, they threaten to

destroy the very fabric of

American society.

>> BONNER: These drugs have, uh,

some very adverse, uh, public

health and safety effects.

It's really about what kind of

country we want to be.

What kind of an America do we

want to have and be able to pass

on to our posterity.

>> PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN:

Without your efforts, these

drugs would have been on the

marketplace, providing profits

for organized crime, fueling a

drug culture that has done so

much damage to so many lives in

our society.

>> POLIS: The war on drugs

seems to be based on sound

bites.

Uh, drugs are bad, obviously

everybody agrees on that, and

because they're bad, we're gonna

fight them.

What does fighting mean?

It means you have a bunch people

with guns and helicopters going

in, and raids.

>> OFFICER: We have a search

warrant, demand an entry!

>> POLIS: Might make for good

substance abuse, and it doesn't

deal with any of the issues

that, uh, America has with

regard to drug abuse.

>> NARRATOR: But is the

foundation of America's war on

drugs really built on protecting

its citizens?

Or is it an attempt by the U.S.

government to exploit America's

appetite for indulgence in an

effort trther other, more

secret agendas?

At the dawn of the 20th century,

a group of moral crusaders

called the Anti-Saloon League

believed that America was under

attack by a deadly substance:

alcohol.

>> MARTIN A. LEE: Alcohol

prohibition, when that was

imposed, that was a time of

great social change in the

United States.

The suffrage movement had

really crested and reached a

peak.

Alcohol is a dangerous drug, and

it was associated with a lot

of violence, and a lot of that

violence was directed toward

women.

>> NARRATOR: There were also

those who opposed the

consumption of liquor for other,

less moral reasons.

>> LEE: At that time in American

society, immigration was a

hot-button issue.

The concern was about Italian

and Irish immigrants.

And they were big drinkers.

So the laws, uh, against

alcohol were in part directed

against those immigrant groups.

>> NARRATOR: On January 16,

1919, the 18th Amendment to the

Constitution was ratified.

The manufacture, sale or

transportation of intoxicating

liquors was now outlawed by the

But despite the watchful eye of

Big Brother, liquor, like most

forbidden fruits, proved too

hard to resist.

>> BONNER: If you have something

that some people in society

want, and you do make it

illegal, that there will be some

kind of a black market.

>> LEE: You saw the gangland

slayings in Chicago and other

cities in an effort to control

the alcohol trade.

So, you had a great deal of

bloodshed and violence, not

because of alcohol in and of

itself, but because it was made

illegal.

>> NARRATOR: In 1933,

Prohibition was repealed.

But is there a lesson to be

learned from Prohibition that

can be applied to America's war

on drugs?

>> BOWDEN: What we learned from

Prohibition was very simple:

that the government cannot stop

people from personal habits.

Prohibition created gangsters,

alcoholics, and solved nothing.

The drug war is doing the same

thing.

It's a fiasco.

They're twins from hell.

>> NARRATOR: Ironically, while

alcohol had been outlawed during

Prohibition, one intoxicating

substance went unregulated:

marijuana.

That is, until Harry J.

Anslinger, the first

commissioner of the U.S.

Treasury Department's Federal

Bureau of Narcotics, decided to

make marijuana public enemy

number one in 1930.

>> LEE: Anslinger was trying to

make marijuana illegal because

he was concerned that his entire

department would be eliminated

during the depression.

Hence Reefer Madness.

>> MAN: May!

>> MAY: What do you want?

>> MAN: Bring me some reefers.

>> LEE: He got behind this

reefer madness campaign in an

effort to convince the public

that there was this terrible

evil, this evil weed loose in

the land that no one ever heard

about, really.

>> MAN: I know what you want.

You want to kill me.

>> MAN 2: You're crazy.

(woman screaming)

>> LEE: Anslinger would leak

stories about horrific murders

allegedly committed by people

who had smoked marijuana.

Then he would go and quote the

stories when testifying before

Congress, and he'd go, "See?

See how evil marijuana is?

They reported in such-and-such

paper."

>> NARRATOR: Harry Anslinger

convinced Congress and the

American people that marijuana

was a deadly danger to society.

As far as he was concerned, it

was a gateway to other drugs.

In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act

outlawed the drug at the federal

level, where it has remained for

nearly a century.

June 20, 2012, Washington, D.C.

Appearing before a House

Judiciary Committee, Drug

Enforcement Agency chief

Michele Leonhart is asked about

marijuana's classification as a

Schedule I drug alongside heroin

and methamphetamine.

>> POLIS: Is heroin, uh, worse,

uh, for someone's health than

marijuana?

>> MICHELE LEONHART: Heroin

causes an addiction...

>> POLIS: Okay.

>> LEONHART: So it's very hard

to kick.

>> POLIS: So does that mean that

the health impact of heroin is

worse than marijuana, is that

what you're telling me?

>> LEONHART: All illegal drugs

are... in Schedule I, are

addictive.

>> POLIS: I-I thought she would

acknowledge relatively quickly

that, you know, okay, well,

marijuana's not as harmful as

heroin.

I wasn't even able to get her to

acknowledge that-- the basic

scientific fact.

>> BONNER: What it means to be

on Schedule I is that there is

no proven scientific medical

purpose for the drug.

And in the case of marijuana,

while a lot of people seem to

believe marijuana is good

medicine, the fact is there

actually isn't scientific

evidence, at least, I've seen on

it, that demonstrates that it is

a safe and effective medicine

for any purpose.

>> LEE: The federal government's

official position is that

marijuana is a dangerous dg

with no medical value.

That is tantamount to saying the

moon is made of green cheese.

There have been scientific

papers in peer-reviewed

scientific journals that, uh,

address marijuana's medicinal

utility.

>> NARRATOR: Could the Drug

Enforcement Agency's targeting

of marijuana as a harmful

narcotic be based on a

legitimate concern for public

health and safety?

Or is there another, perhaps

secret reason for outlawing the

substance?

(shouting)

>> OFFICER: Police!

I have a search warrant, demand

entry! Go.

>> LEE: Marijuana prohibition is

really at the heart of the war

on drugs.

When you consider the numbers of

people who are arrested each

year, totaling over now three

quarters of a million for the

last few years, if you remove

that from the equation, you'd

have a drug problem that seemed

awful small in the United

States.

>> NARRATOR: In November 2012,

new battle lines were drawn in

America's war on drugs, as

residents of both Colorado and

Washington state voted to

legalize marijuana for adult

recreational use.

>> MAN: Well, it definitely

smells like freedom.

>> BONNER: The Controlled

Substances Act says that it's

illegal under federal law to

commercially cultivate and sell

marijuana.

So there's a conflict.

The federal government's

responsibility is to enforce

federal law, and that's what the

Department of Justice should do.

>> POLIS: The estimates are

that, uh, marijuana provides

about half of the revenues for

the Mexican drug cartels.

Legalizing and regulating

marijuana could generate tax

revenues for cities and states

and you would save money and

save lives, uh, by ending the

failed drug war with regard to

marijuana.

>> NARRATOR: Could legalization

and taxation really be the

answer?

Could America's war against

drugs be so easily won?

>> OFFICER: Police, I have a

search warrant!

Demand entry!

>> NARRATOR: And if so, why

then is the U.S. government so

willing to invest billions of

taxpayer dollars in a war to

protect citizens from

themselves?

dio chatter)

>> NARRATOR: The United States'

zero tolerance policy towards

illicit drug use has helped turn

a country with five percent of

the world's population into one

that holds 25% of the world's

prisoners.

But within these numbers lays

another even more shocking

statistic.

African-Americans, a minority

group that accounts for just 15%

of the U.S. population, comprise

nearly 40% of America's

proners.

But why?

Could it be that

African-Americans are really

more inclined toward drug

abuse?

>> BOYCE WATKINS:

African-American males

are more likely to be stopped,

they're more likely to be

searched, they're more likely to

be arrested, they're more

likely to be incarcerated.

When that black kid gets

arrested, in many cases, his

mother doesn't have $2,000 or

$3,000 to pay an attorney.

So, uh, what happens in many

cases is that they are

literally told, "If you don't go

ahead and plead guilty, we're

gonna give you some

unbelievable amount of time in

prison."

>> BONNER: I don't believe

that, uh, Congress or, for that

matter, any other state has

enacted any drug law, nor do I

believe that any drug law in my

experience has ever been

enforced, uh, for racial

reasons.

I think it borders on the

ridiculous.

>> NARRATOR: But if

African-Americans aren't merely

the targets of racial bias,

then what could explain the

chilling statistics related to

drug abuse within their

communities?

January, 1970.

The United States enters the

second decade of the Vietnam

War.

In the heart of a region known

as the Golden Triangle-- an area

responsible for the majority of

the world's opium production--

the C.I.A. recruited local

tribesman to help the U.S. war

effort against North Vietnam.

Under the leadership of General

Vang Pao, they became known as

the Secret Army.

The good news was that Pao was

bitterly anti-communist.

The bad news was that he and his

fellow freedom fighters were

notorious drug dealers.

>> LEVINE: All our allies in

Vietnam made-made their

livelihood by selling heroin

around the world, right in the

brains and veins of our G.I.s,

to our kids, to my brother, and

they were protected because that

was how they supported

themselves.

Congress wouldn't pay for them.

>> NARRATOR: It has even been

alleged that the C.I.A.'s own

covertly owned airline, Air

America, was actively engaged in

the transport of opium and

heroin on behalf of Vang Pao.

>> ROBERT STEELE: Vietnam was a

new era for C.I.A.

They learned how easy it was to

move drugs using not only Air

America in the local area but

military transport.

>> TARPLEY: The massive reality

of-of the Vietnam era is that

the C.I.A. runs drugs.

This has to do with the fact

that the budgets of-of the

C.I.A. are limited and the

ambition of these aggressors

that are in these agencies,

these ambitions are unlimited.

>> NARRATOR: Could such wild

charges be true?

Is it possible that rogue forces

within the C.I.A. and the

American military knowingly

engaged in drug trafficking?

Or could such an audacious

conspiracy theory be one of the

unintended consequences of

America's covert drug war?

Harlem, New York.

In the 1920s, a cultural

renaissance takes this uptown

New York City neighborhood by

storm.

African-American stars like

Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington

and Count Basie help usher in

the New Negro Movement.

They perform in front of

sold-out audiences, both black

and white, at iconic venues

such as the Cotton Club, the

Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo.

But by the 1970s, the once

vibrant community was infected

by a deadly epidemic of poverty

and crime.

Heroin was the drug of choice.

And an ambitious businessman

named Frank Lucas was the new

kingpin of Harlem.

>> WATKINS: Frank Lucas was one

of the more notorious figures

in-in the drug trade in Harlem.

He was able to get, uh, high

quality heroin at a very cheap

price, which allowed him to

really monopolize the drug trade

in Harlem in a way that a black

man had never done before.

>> RUSSELL SIMMONS: The heroin

epidemic destroyed our

community.

Everyone, you know, who was old

enough to shoot heroin did

almost.

People were using drugs as

recreational, and then one day

you realize how-how terrible

they were.

People were overdosing and the

fun was over.

There are communities in places

where-- even though your parents

and your older brother uses

drugs and you saw them lose

their life to it-- you would

still do it, which was proof

that you had very little hope.

>> NARRATOR: But one question

that remained unanswered was how

and why heroin was so

particularly widespread in

Harlem.

>> WATKINS: Frank Lucas was

able to make a connection that

allowed him to have heroin

transported allegedly in coffins

of dead U.S. soldiers.

>> LEVINE: As an undercover

agent, I worked in Southeast

Asia, in fact, during the

Vietnam War.

And I'm given a case that

involved the smuggling of heroin

in the dead bodies of our

K.I.A.s in Vietnam.

And the informant was a G.I.,

and he tells me that the same

people that had been protected

were the source of heroin being

smuggled in the bodies of our

G.I.s.

And I just refused to

acknowledge it.

I think-- I thought it's just

not real, and I shoved it

somewhere in my subconscious.

>> NARRATOR: Was Frank Lucas's

heroin pipeline connected to

drug-running by the C.I.A.'s

Secret Army in Southeast Asia?

And if so, who knew about it?

Was this the price America would

pay in its fight against global

communism?

Or could this all simply be a

coincidence?

Coming up...iami International

Airport, Florida, 1990.

U.S. Customs agents discover

more than a ton of pure cocaine

hidden inside an airplane owned

by the Venezuelan National

Guard.

When officials question the

aircraft's commanding officer,

General Ramon Guillen Davila, he

makes a shocking claim.

>> LEVINE: The first thing he

says is, "I'm working for

Central Intelligence."

And that turns out to be

absolutely true.

>> NARRATOR: According to later

testimony, the drugs were sent

to the U.S. as part of a covert

C.I.A. scheme to infiltrate

Colombian drug gangs operating

in Miami.

Sound crazy?

Not as crazy as what happened to

the ton of cocaine.

Three years after the incident,

the C.I.A. publicly revealed

that the seized drugs ended up

being sold on the streets of

America.

>> LEVINE: Woolsey, the head

of the-- of C.I.A. went around

the country saying, "Oh, it was

a joint intelligence operation

that went awry."

>> NARRATOR: But how could

impounded drugs end up on the

streets of America?

Or perhaps more importantly,

why?

October 5, 1986.

Southern Nicaragua.

In the midst of a bloody civil

war between the pro-Marxist

Sandinista government and a

group of guerilla freedom

fighters called the Contras, an

American C-123 aircraft is shot

down and crashes into the

rainforest.

(automatic gunfire)

The only survivor is a former

Air America pilot, Eugene

Hasenfus.

>> CASTILLO: Eugene Hasenfus was

a contract pilot for the C.I.A.

He was airdropping, um, uh,

supplies for the Contras, and

the day he was shot down, um, he

stated he was a part of a U.S.

government operation.

I mean, he spilled the beans

right off the bat.

>> JACK BLUM: The Boland

Amendment prohibited the use of

government money to assist in

any attempt to overthrow the

government of Nicaragua, which

was duly elected.

Here was Hasenfus, who was

supposedly flying supplies to

the Contras, and this of course

meant that there had to be some

sort of investigation.

>> NARRATOR: As the media began

to investigate the Hasenfus

incident, it soon became aware

of another political intrigue.

November 13, 1986.

President Ronald Reagan went on

national television and

acknowledged that the U.S. had

brokered an arms deal with

Iranian military forces in an

effort to free American

hostages.

>> RONALD REAGAN: First, let me

say I take full responsibility

for my own actions and for those

of my administration.

As angry as I may be about

activities undertaken without my

knowledge, I am still

accountable for those

activities.

>> NARRATOR: 12 days later,

U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese

disclosed yet another shocking

secret: that profits from the

covert sale of arms to Iran had

been diverted to aid the Contras

in Nicaragua.

>> ED MEESE: Certain monies

were taken and made available

to the forces in Central America

which are opposing the

Sandinista government there.

>> BLUM: For President Reagan,

it became essential to find a

way to fund an attempt to

overthrow the government.

They were determined to get

around the congressional

restriction.

>> NARRATOR: The White House

identified National Security

Council Deputy Director

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North

as the mastermind behind the

operation.

And on July 7, 1987, the officer

was summoned to testify before

a joint congressional committee

on live television.

>> MAN: ...that in the testimony

you're about to give will be the

truth, the whole truth and

nothing but the truth, so help

you God?

>> OLIVER NORTH: I do.

>> CASTILLO: He admits before

Congress that he lied to the

American people, he lied to

the committee.

>> NORTH: By their very nature,

covert operatis or special

activities are a lie.

>> TARPLEY: It's clear that a

decision was made to push

forward Oliver North as the

person who would take the fall.

(man speaking indistinctly)

>> NARRATOR: But was Oliver

North's testimony before

Congress the whole truth and

nothing but the truth?

Or was it, as conspiracy

theorists believe, part of an

elaborate cover-up--

one that was connected to the

tragic plane crash in the

Nicaraguan rainforest?

>> LEE: That plane that was

shot down had been owned by a

major drug trafficker named

Barry Seal.

He sold the plane to the U.S.

government, and U.S. officials

feared that if the focus

remained on that plane, it could

result in a major scandal if the

drug connection to the Contra

war became fully known by the

American public.

>> TARPLEY: The reality of the

Iran-Contra affair is that

aircraft loaded with weapons

took off from airports in the

southern United States and flew

into Central America, where the

guns were unloaded and the

planes were then loaded with

illegal narcotics, and these

were then flown back to the

United States.

>> CASTILLO: I myself helped to

refuel those planes that

were-were loaded with cocaine

going into the U.S., knowing the

fact that they were gonna be

seized when they landed in the

U.S.

And every time I asked, "Well,

what happened to the plane that

we just refueled?" they said,

"Well, they changed the flight

plan in the middle of the... of

the flight."

And this happened four or five,

six times, and I said, "No,

there's something wrong with

this picture."

>> NARRATOR: Could the

conspiracy theorists be correct?

Is this the real secret of the

Iran-Contra affair?

That it wasn't just arms for

hostages but drugs for arms as

well?

>> CASTILLO: In January of 1986,

George H.W. Bush came to

Guatemala, and, uh, I said, "We

do have some intelligence that

the Contras are heavily

involved in drug trafficking out

of Ilopango Airport."

And he smiled at me and didn't

say a word, just shook my hand

and walked away from me.

>> NARRATOR: During the secret

Contra operation in the 1980s, a

cocaine crack epidemic was

spreading across Los Angeles,

California, an epidemic that

conspiracy theorists claim was

directly connected to Contra

drug trafficking.

>> BLUM: Lots of people in the

drug trade worked with impunity,

and that happened because the

signal was, "Don't really go

after them because if you do, it

will expose, uh, what other

things we're doing covertly to

assist in the overthrow of the

Sandinista government."

>> WATKINS: Well, the Contra

connection says that the drug

war has almost no moral high

ground whatsoever, that the

United States has literally made

itself into clowns in the global

community by pretending to have

a war on drugs when really that

was never the case.

>> NARRATOR: Was Iran-Contra

really the continuation of a

top secret drug trafficking

operation that started during

the Vietnam War?

If so, who or what is behind it?

And why?

Coming up...

>> NARRATOR: Since Operation

Fast and Furious was first

exposed in 2011, one question

remains: why?

Why did the U.S. Department of

Justicthorize a covert

operation to send thousands of

military-style assault weapons

across the Mexican border and

keep it secret from Mexico?

>> ISSA: There are three

elements to the drug trade:

drugs, cash and weapons.

Without any of them, the system

shuts down.

>> HOWERTON: The only industry

that is more profitable than

the drug industry is the arms

industry.

The two trades are-are so

embedded within each other that

they're-they're almost one and

the same.

>> CASTILLO: 90% of the weapons

that are bought in the gun shows

and the gun stores in the United

States go to Mexico.

If you buy an AR-15 for $1,500,

uh, you can actually sell it in

Mexico four or five times the

value.

A Barrett .50 cal, brand-new in

a box, it's $10,000.

People in Mexico will pay you

$50,000 for that, uh, ten-round

magazine sniper rifle.

So the margin is huge.

>> NARRATOR: Is that the

connection?

Have rogue forces within the

U.S. government simply decided

to get fresh supplies of covert

cash by now selling weapons

instead of drugs?

Or, as conspiracy theorists

claim, is there a secret link

between the drug trade and the

arms industry?

>> WATKINS: There are some

people who would suffer

tremendous economic pain from

the end of the war on drugs.

You can start with law

enforcement officials who make

money based on the number of

arrests and seizures.

And you can go to the-the legal

system, where you've got all

these people being processed by

the courts.

You can go to the prison

industrial complex.

You've got corporations that

build prisons and jails, and

they want those things to be

occupied.

>> SIMMONS: The war on drugs is

doing nothing but, you know,

feeding fat cats who own

prisons.

And we know that; everybody

knows that.

>> NARRATOR: Wild allegations?

Too far-fetched to be taken

seriously?

Perhaps.

That is, until one considers the

enormous amount of money

involved.

In December 2012, HSBC,

Europe's largest bank, was fined

a record $1.9 billion for

repeatedly failing to report

suspected drug laundering

transactions.

>> BLUM: HSBC, a global bank,

is said to have laundered $4

billion for the Mexican cartels.

We know that the major banks--

just from recent disclosures--

are handling billions of dollars

in illicit drug money.

>> HOWERTON: The Senate found

that $7 billion from 2007 to

2009 was allowed to filter in to

the United States, uh, from

supposed, uh, drug money.

And we don't really know where

it ended up, uh, who it went to,

who's being funded here in the

United States worth $7 billion.

>> CASTILLO: There's so much

money that you can actually

buy the power.

>> NARRATOR: With the United

States mired in trillions of

dollars of debt, could there be,

as conspiracy theorists claim, a

river of dirty money keeping

the fragile U.S. economy afloat?

Is America's illegal drug trade

another institution that's too

big to fail?

>> TARPLEY: The fact is the

C.I.A. runs the drugs, Wall

Street launders the money.

These institutions are too

powerful to be challenged, and

therefore we have the

continuation of the drug plague.

>> LEVINE: There's plenty of

evidence that individuals are

making a lot of money on drug

trafficking because they're

beyond policing.

No one's watching them.

>> HOWERTON: The cartels are

operating in-in every major U.S.

city.

You can't do that if you don't

have some kind of in, uh, to the

United States.

You just can't do it.

>> NARRATOR: Has the United

States' nearly insatiable

appetite for illegal drugs

really allowed it to be invaded

by a foreign enemy--

an enemy so insidious and so

effective that it has taken root

in America's cities,

neighborhoods and homes?

>> BOWDEN: The war on drugs is

over.

It was won by the people that

sell drugs.

It's killed God knows how many

people.

It's created the largest prison

population on the planet.

And every drug's more

available, cheaper and better.

>> CASTILLO: Everything that

happens in the drug war is

connected.

We created a monster that we

can't... we can't turn back.

>> NARRATOR: More than 40 years

since President Nixon declared

America's war on drugs, the

battle rages on, with seemingly

no end in sight.

Can it ever be won?

>> MAN: ...police, we have a

search warrant!

We demand entry!

>> NARRATOR: Or is the real

secret that it was always and

deliberately intended to be

lost?

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