by robert d reed » Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:52 pm
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.
formerly robertdreed...