Murder in Miami is a production of Iheartram. In this week's bonus episode, Leslie Bickerton lays out a case for the complicated connections between the drug trade and the balance of world power and unrest.
I'm recognizing more and more, Lauren, is this connection, this web of connection, and it's intimately connected from what happened forty two years ago, which involved directly not only the drug smuggling and the CIA and the subcontractors, but also Central America and South America, which also has a connection at the same time with Afghanistan, so tracing it back even with Vietnam. It's an ongoing scenario in one sense, a greater insight into the Cold War that it has
never ended, it continues to this day. And so part of this has to do with these alliances from the
Iran contract. Just that alone has been documented that the CIA's direct involvement with an alliance with drug lords and with ruthless dictators such as Samosa right from Nicaragua, which we had been talking about, but the secret funding these covert warfare, which then also the alliance with the Colombian cartels, also the drug lords of Afghanistan, and the existence from the Vietnam War is the heroin trade, right, the poppy trade, the heroin trade, the catapulted to all of this from
Vietnam and Laos and the covert funding that was happening back then. But that ties in both of the Columbian cartels and to the heroin cartels that the CIA was involved in with Afghanistan in fighting Russia. Of this is documented starting back in nineteen seventy nine the National Security Advisor to Carter. And again I say this as a disclaim. I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat because I know that somebody can say, well, you're this side of
that side. No, I'm telling you all of it. So back in nineteen seventy nine, it was about getting back at Russia. Revenge for the Russians involvement in the Vietnam War was a motivating factor. And there's a quote from Brazinski, who was the National Advisor quote, destabilizing Central Asia would then bring Russia into Afghanistan. So then with that, how do you fund any kind of a covert war? Right? Well,
you need arms. So how do you get arms, Well, you have to pay for illegal arms shipments in the way that you do that to the drug trade is beyond a business. This is a commodity, just like oil is. The war on druggs. And what has transpired is that initially the first money came out of the Iran Contra, the contras in Nicaragua. Five hundred million dollars was brought into Afghanistan to start funding the so called Northern Alliance, which has different elements to it. And I really want
to make this clear. It's really important because we always hear about Musha Haddeen.
A quick aside, Musha Hadeen refers to members of various gorilla groups operating in Afghanistan during the Afghan War, which took place in nineteen seventy eight to nineteen ninety two that opposed the invading Soviet forces and eventually toppled the Afghan Communist government. Rival factions thereafter fell out amongst themselves, precipitating the rise of the Taliban and their countering faction, an Alliance.
But what they don't tell you is that the funding came through go arm's length and this is how they get around. Our country gets around no accountability or no
transparency and really complete impunity. Is that you fund, so directly funding you fund through another country, and we were funding even back then through Pakistan and Pakistan's military intelligence who were also Islamic fundamentalists, and that money was going to one of the most two of the most ruthless drug lords in Afghanistan, the Hakani network and then Googluden Heckmeyer. That goes back to nineteen seventy nine. How all of this got started in this whole Cold War that's been ongoing.
And this brings us then to funding elements such as these terrorist groups, the Taliban and the Kaida became exponentially with all the billions of dollars that are government in a CIA and the Department Offense, all the White House had a direct involvement in funding some of the worst people in the world and these terrorist groups that have now become so powerful because they've got the arms. And this has been in the works for over twenty years.
And this is something that I know that the American public doesn't know about because it hasn't been told to any of us. And as a result of this, this is the blowback. Okay, what goes around comes around. It's an anguish because Afghanistan was used as a pawn.
And Leslie links today's current crisis in Afghanistan to another region covered in the podcast.
Back in Nicaraguan, Central America. Thea Saudis were involved with illegal funding these wars in Central America and destabilizing countries and full knowledge of Saudi's funding our war against Russia in Afghanistan and destabilizing that entire area. Arabs were also fighting back then in Afghanistan and what transpired out of that is the horrific events that happen in our country called nine to eleven. Those Arabs, the extreme groups never
went away. They never went away. They're there, They've always been there. And the United Nations just came out with a report November twenty twenty two resolution United Nations quote, according to the latest statistics, the Taliban hosts more than ten thousand foreign fighters including Arabs, Cheans, ISIS and al Qaeda,
which is increasing day by day. And based on the United Nations reporting to twenty twenty one, the income from drugs in the hands of the Taliban reach more than two billion dollars and they say it's ninety seven percent of the people in Afghanis Center now below the poverty rate, and that doesn't even account for all the disappearances and the genocide we've been told. I mean, I was raised this way too, right, you know, we're the good guys, right,
we're saving the world from evil. In what has transpired such a long period of time as sort of this deadly combination of power and ego and greed and political ambitions and economic ambitions on such a global scale, with complete impunity and catastrophic results that are still ongoing.
And that's something that brings Leslie back forty two years.
The shadow wars, the subcontrast. So like people like Lamar caught up in all of this. This has become such a huge business. And you think of a black is it Blackwater? And the in dyne core. And now there's now this legal loophole that's been created called one two seven E. Please look it up.
Among other things, United States Code one seven E permits the Secretary of Defense to spend up to one hundred million dollars per fiscal year in support of special operations to combat terrorism.
What our country has been doing, besides covert activities, is funding, arming, and training mercenaries. All of I call it mercenaries.
Which to Leslie presents the possibility of those efforts backfiring, just as they did during her lone Star era.
It's really the tip of the iceberg. There's so many elements with just the stories about drugs and guns and foreign places right exotic islands, and spies, corrupt officials, this whole web of deception and lies. But there's a lot more to it, and it affects all of us. So what has happened so many years ago, it's been ongoing to the point where we really are on the brink beyond what we can even imagine. Murder in Miami is
giving us a glimpse. But if you listen to it much more carefully and follow through with Joseph Trento and what Happy was saying about the drugs, et cetera, I really think that this is it could be a wake up call for all of us. There is this dark side to human nature, unfortunately and to mankind. And then the question becomes like a David and Goliath. It's all connected at nine to eleven, the war and drugs, the war and terrorist the Cold War. What do we do
about this? Telling the truth, getting trying to get the truth out there? The American public has the right to know. We have the right to know, and no matter how comfortable it is and how much it hurts. We talked about collateral damage, that there is this element out there, even within our own government that's not easy for me to say this, that we are Iris collateral damage from Mars collateral damage, Afghanistana's collateral damage, Nicaragraa, and just Americans
as a whole, we're collateral damage. There's boback for all of this, and awareness and education. The more that we can be aware of it, and the more we can educate ourselves about it, I think it's really important because what kind of a legacy do we want to leave in this world.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get the stories that matter to you.