Category: Drug Trafficking

• The Golden Triangle Drug Run

  This theory claimed that the CIA, through its proprietary airline Air America and allied covert structures in Laos, helped move opium or heroin out of the Golden Triangle and that one especially dark version of the story involved narcotics being shipped in the coffins of dead American servicemen. The documentary background is mixed but substantial. Air America was a real CIA-linked airline operating in Southeast Asia, and allegations by Alfred McCoy and others tied the airline and U.S.-backed local allies to the opium trade in Laos. At the same time, the most theatrical “coffins of dead soldiers” version belongs more to later narcotics folklore and popular culture than to the strongest documentary record on Air America itself.