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America's War on Drugs (2017) Season 1 Episode 1 - Acid, Spies & Secret Experiments
#America'sWaronDrugs
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00:00:00June 17th 1971 Richard Nixon declares war on a new enemy it's more dangerous
00:00:17than the mob more of a threat than communism they call it the war on drugs
00:00:24America's public enemy number one is drug abuse anytime you've got that massive
00:00:31amount of drugs flowing into one area you're gonna have war there was the CIA
00:00:40introduced LSD to the United States the agency was elbow-deep with drug
00:00:47traffickers nobody knows Pablo Escobar was just a customer when
00:00:54you're making that kind of money and living outside the law it's exciting
00:00:58as hell this is crack really is this your spokesperson any questions
00:01:06and people want their government to get tough and to go on the offensive
00:01:14it's time to stop the drugs from pouring into our country it's a war without
00:01:28you know I do think that most Americans would be utterly shocked if they knew
00:01:47the depth of involvement that the central intelligence agency has had in the
00:01:53international drug trade
00:02:01eleven years before the war on drugs is declared the story begins here at
00:02:07Miami's Fountain Blue Hotel it's a favorite spot for one of the era's most
00:02:13notorious gangsters Santo Traficante jr born into the powerful Sicilian mob he's
00:02:20well known by the FBI as one of the world's biggest heroin traffickers
00:02:24Santo Traficante jr at one point had two or three of the most popular casinos in
00:02:31Havana he was running heroin out of there these guys were powerful they were able
00:02:36to get people killed but Traficante is not here on vacation he's here to meet with
00:02:43two CIA operatives what's interesting about the CIA and the Cold War and the war on
00:02:48drugs is that the CIA had so many shared interests with drug dealers and their
00:02:54modes of operation they're meeting in this hotel to plan the assassination of
00:02:59america's newest cold war enemy
00:03:03gentlemen hey good to meet you hey how you doing good
00:03:07oh I'm dead gentlemen oh I'm dead
00:03:10just two years earlier Havana was the Caribbean's sin city Santo Traficante ran a vast criminal
00:03:26network with no fear of arrest gambling guns and girls but by far the most lucrative product is heroin
00:03:35smuggled from the Middle East through Marseille France via Havana and onto the United States they
00:03:43called the route the French connection the thing about Traficante and like so many of these wise guys
00:03:48these mafia guys they would always claim they weren't in the narcotics business they could say oh yeah I
00:03:54killed 15 guys but I never dealt heroin which was just like oh okay the fact of the matter is that
00:04:00they've been involved in the heroin trafficking from the beginning
00:04:02Traficante made Havana the center of his drug trafficking empire
00:04:08by paying off Cuba's president
00:04:10Jorgencio Batista the corrupt dictator also happened to be on the CIA's payroll
00:04:16that all came to an end with Fidel Castro's revolution
00:04:25members of the old regime including those involved with the mob are rounded up
00:04:36it was bad enough that we had the Soviet Union that was this threat but it was far away
00:04:54suddenly it's right at our doorstep suddenly that threat is something that we can actually see
00:05:00and that created a tremendous amount of anxiety in Washington
00:05:05Eisenhower's vice president Richard Nixon signs off on a covert CIA mission
00:05:10take out Fidel Castro
00:05:15trafficante tells the agency men it can't be done like a normal mob hit
00:05:37the CIA is from its very beginning collaborating with mafiosas who are involved in the drug trade
00:05:50because these mafiosas will serve the larger agenda of fighting communism
00:05:56okay so why are you it's got to be quiet an accident this guy too flashy it's got to be boring
00:06:03we're good don't worry let's just all sit down
00:06:04maybe drink something people get sick all the time the water there ain't so good
00:06:12I hear at the agency then and even to this day morality sometimes has to take a back seat
00:06:19to whatever the final end is this clandestine document the Doolittle Report is the key to
00:06:26understanding the last half century of the CIA's involvement in the drug trade issued in 1954
00:06:32that lays out the core mission for the agency the Doolittle Report essentially said we might have
00:06:38to bend the rules a little bit or we might even have to break the rules in order to combat this
00:06:44very real threat called communism the CIA undertakes extortion kidnapping torture even murder
00:06:54plotting assassinations and coups in Iran Indonesia the Congo Guatemala and now Cuba where the mafia
00:07:03are natural partners it doesn't matter the mafia is also America's largest supply
00:07:08of illegal narcotics the CIA enters into a devil's bargain when you're at war you will do anything
00:07:16in the short term that it takes to win that war the CIA delivers the ingredients to carry out Castro's
00:07:26assassination look at that a suitcase with one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash and poison
00:07:36Travacani agrees to do this knowing that once you've worked through the CIA they have two choices that
00:07:44can either kill you or they can protect you it's a business decision that has to do with the mafia's
00:07:49crime empire and its prospects for the future
00:07:52the plot to poison Castro coincides with the planned invasion of Cuba the newly elected President Kennedy
00:08:03reluctantly signs off on the operation that will be led by a paramilitary force of Cuban exiles trained
00:08:09by the CIA known as operation 40
00:08:12operation 40 we're going to go in apart from the brigade and they were going to knock off all the
00:08:20political leaders of Castro's regime a small group of operation 40 commandos is headed to Cuban soil
00:08:33their goal make contact with anti-Castro locals and then seize control of the government
00:08:40one of the leaders is this man Felix Rodriguez the son of wealthy Cuban landowners his uncle is minister of
00:08:48public works under Batista when his friends are executed in the revolution he is one of the
00:08:54first to volunteer when the CIA begins forming their plan to take out Fidel Castro for Felix Rodriguez and
00:09:01the other operation 40 guys this was beyond just the mission of the agency this was something that they were
00:09:07personally passionate about Rodriguez has been undercover for six weeks when he receives word
00:09:18the invasion is on
00:09:28the CIA trained troops land at the bay of pigs
00:09:32the Castro is on to both the poison plot and the invasion plan
00:09:48it's a bloodbath
00:09:52over 100 CIA trained soldiers are killed 1200 are captured
00:10:02but Felix Rodriguez and the other leaders of operation 40 escape to Miami
00:10:17and it's here in south florida where many operation 40 veterans will find a lucrative new trade
00:10:23this army of cubans that have been trained by the CIA found themselves seriously underemployed and they
00:10:33looked around and there was a great way to make money and they had the skills for it it was smuggling drugs
00:10:38the bay of pigs may have been one of history's greatest blunders but the men behind it will play
00:10:44oversized roles when the cold war and the war on drugs collide in the years to come you start having this boom of
00:10:50drugs and lawlessness in Miami which is the very first experience of blowback from this whole cuban fiasco
00:10:58by the end of the 60s an estimated 20 percent of america's heroin and 60 percent of the cocaine
00:11:05are connected to anti-castro operatives
00:11:07the seeds of the war on drugs have been planted
00:11:23Sandoz Laboratories, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical factories.
00:11:40Two American spies have just arrived.
00:11:43The mission cornered the market on the world's supply of a powerful new psychoactive drug.
00:11:48The CIA saw itself as being in a kind of Cold War, psychological warfare, arms race with the Soviet Union.
00:11:57I would like you to sign for this, sir.
00:12:00What's the answer to controlling people and brainwashing them or getting them to confess? It's drugs.
00:12:05The CIA has just authorized the purchase of 10 kilograms of pure LSD-25,
00:12:11enough to dose more than half the population of the United States.
00:12:14Sandoz even supplies the CIA with the receipt and shipping information.
00:12:20The CIA was scared stiff that the KGB was going to get all this LSD and come over and start dosing people.
00:12:26So we bought every drop of LSD in existence at that point.
00:12:30They gave it to George White and let George start dosing people.
00:12:33George Hunter White, a larger-than-life undercover federal narcotics agent.
00:12:55He's known for bussing international drug rings at home and abroad.
00:13:01But unbeknownst to his supervisors, White also works for the CIA.
00:13:06His job, to conduct experiments for an operation called Midnight Climax.
00:13:13White pays prostitutes to lure their clients to the agency's safe house.
00:13:18George had a CIA safe house stocked with booze.
00:13:24George would sit behind this one-way mirror, drinking martinis, sitting on a portable toilet.
00:13:30He had to take a leak. He didn't want to get up and leave.
00:13:38Hookers would bring these suckers back to the apartment.
00:13:41And doze them with pure LSD-25.
00:13:53This is where I have my effect.
00:13:56In the mind.
00:13:57This is lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as acid.
00:14:02The powerful drug was first synthesized in 1938 in Switzerland.
00:14:07With a dose of mere micrograms, the mind becomes confused.
00:14:11Perception is distorted.
00:14:13Personal identity is called into question.
00:14:15The results can be euphoric bliss or deadly panic.
00:14:28White observes the effects of the acid-laced cocktails on the unsuspecting men.
00:14:33White was very much into S&M.
00:14:35He would visit prostitutes himself, and they would strap him to a bed and whip his butt.
00:14:41Oh, my God.
00:14:42Oh, my God.
00:14:43Oh, my God.
00:14:43Oh, my God.
00:14:43Recognizing the bizarre behavior brought on by the drug, he gives LSD the codename Stormy.
00:14:49Oh, my God.
00:14:49Oh, my God.
00:14:49Oh, my God.
00:14:50White takes meticulous notes and files his reports to his CIA handlers.
00:14:56So that was how LSD was introduced to this country.
00:15:01Operation Midnight Climax is part of a larger top-secret CIA program called MKUltra.
00:15:07The goal, learn how to control and even reprogram people's minds.
00:15:11The CIA believes LSD might hold the key.
00:15:15Over the next 10 years, the agency doses a cross-section of the American public.
00:15:20Everyone from unwitting housewives to soldiers to even criminals like gangster Whitey Bulger is tested.
00:15:27The Allen Memorial Hospital.
00:15:45A psychiatric patient is being prepped for treatment.
00:15:52But this is no ordinary mental hospital.
00:15:55The doctor is now looking for a cure.
00:16:00The patient has no idea what they are about to endure.
00:16:03Just go down there.
00:16:11Dr. Ewan Cameron, the former president of the American Psychiatric Association.
00:16:17During the Nuremberg trials, he evaluates Nazi war criminals.
00:16:21But Cameron has another side to him.
00:16:23He's fascinated by the idea that the identity can be erased and the mind reprogrammed.
00:16:30While George White's tests become inseparable from his own sexual obsessions,
00:16:34Cameron's approach is clinical and deadly serious.
00:16:39Cameron was working for the CIA.
00:16:42They were looking into brainwashing.
00:16:45They were looking into mind control.
00:16:46They were looking into how they could create what they called Manchurian candidates.
00:16:54Even his own nurses don't know he is working on a top-secret CIA program.
00:16:59He was doing a lot of different testing with LSD.
00:17:10They were trying to figure out if they could get people to go out and do things that they would ordinarily not do, like assassination.
00:17:19Once the subject is dosed with a sufficient amount of LSD, Cameron begins to try and reprogram the patient's mind.
00:17:30He shocks them with high voltages and forces them to listen to repetitive audio loops for days at a time.
00:17:49The drug began to take hold very rapidly.
00:18:05Things became very frightening.
00:18:07And I became more and more despondent.
00:18:09And that I thought I can't live like this any longer.
00:18:13But not every subject in the MKUltra program finds the drug's effects so terrifying.
00:18:28The CIA's quest to create mind-controlled zombies is about to have an unintended consequence that will change America.
00:18:34You know, what the CIA really dreamed of was sort of like a drug you could give to someone, get them to commit all sorts of unspeakable acts, and they wake up the next day and they don't remember what they've done.
00:18:53Another CIA LSD experiment is underway.
00:18:58Volunteers have been paid $75 to participate in a research study.
00:19:02One of the volunteers, Ken Kesey, a young writer, wrestler, and graduate student at nearby Stanford University.
00:19:11He'll go on to write the bestseller, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
00:19:19A nurse turns on a recording device and asks Kesey what the drug is doing to his brain.
00:19:24What is this, would you say, an uncomfortable or uncomfortable experience?
00:19:28I think it's a good experience.
00:19:32A nurse remains.
00:19:37It's quarter to one.
00:19:39And I'm high out of my mind.
00:19:44Wild color images.
00:19:47It's this big colored frog of a man outside standing at the door.
00:19:53Like, some guys room when the guys are all teetering out of the bed there.
00:19:57The case of MKUltra has to be one of the craziest cases of blowback in CIA history,
00:20:25because here they took this drug, LSD, and thought that they were going to be able to use it to control people's minds.
00:20:32And the unbelievable irony is that LSD is a drug that does exactly the opposite.
00:20:38It frees your mind and causes people to question authority.
00:20:43Within months, Kesey will be hired as a nurse's aide and given access to the hospital supply of LSD.
00:20:50Perhaps the CIA never meant to turn on Ken Kesey.
00:20:53But they did.
00:20:56Soon, he is turning his friends onto acid.
00:20:58Then, the entire West Coast.
00:21:01Then, an entire generation.
00:21:04It created the counterculture, as we know it, of the 60s.
00:21:08All that was a kind of blowback or backfire of the CIA's attempt to control people.
00:21:14It turned out to be just the opposite.
00:21:17It was the CIA that introduced LSD to the United States.
00:21:21While LSD takes hold in the United States,
00:21:41in Southeast Asia, a covert CIA war will fuel a new drug epidemic.
00:21:46Heroin.
00:21:57The President of the United States is dead.
00:22:01President Kennedy has been assassinated.
00:22:04It's official now.
00:22:05The President is dead.
00:22:06The United States is shaken to its core.
00:22:10JFK is shot down in the streets of Dallas.
00:22:14And Lyndon Johnson takes over as Commander-in-Chief.
00:22:18The war against communism in Vietnam becomes President Johnson's most pressing issue.
00:22:26What the American public doesn't know is just across the border from Vietnam, in Laos,
00:22:31more seeds are being planted for the war on drugs.
00:22:34Everybody at the time was focused on Vietnam, but in nearby Laos, there was one of the hugest paramilitary covert operations going on.
00:22:44And President Johnson, in fact, was under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep it secret.
00:22:50Local forces are waging a secret war against communist guerrillas in the remote Laotian highlands.
00:23:04And they're being trained by a legendary CIA operative.
00:23:09Tony Poe.
00:23:10A World War II fighter pilot, he earns two purple hearts in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
00:23:17After the war, he becomes one of America's most prolific spies.
00:23:22Now he's the CIA's man in Laos.
00:23:25A lot of people think of someone like James Bond as the kind of spy prototype, you know, suave and wearing a tuxedo.
00:23:32In a place like Laos, that's not the kind of spy we were sending over there.
00:23:36Tony Poe breaks CIA rules and leads a regiment to battle himself.
00:23:47If you take a situation like Laos was at the time, that kind of craziness, and you insert someone like Tony Poe, that's basically like adding gas to a fire.
00:24:03After the battles, he'd send these guys out.
00:24:07To chop the ears off of these dead enemy.
00:24:12And then they would pack the ears up and send them back to the CIA headquarters like trophies.
00:24:19Another thing that they would do was chop the heads off their victims, and then they would fly over with helicopters and drop the heads like bombs on the villages.
00:24:27Tony Poe's ally against communists is a powerful local warlord.
00:24:44Vang Pao, a resistance fighter in World War II.
00:24:51He now commands a ragtag army of Hmong Hill people against communists infiltrating their tribal land.
00:24:57Guys like Vang Pao and a guy like Tony Poe got in business together because they had a common enemy, which was communism.
00:25:05But what Poe doesn't realize is that Vang Pao is not just fighting communism, he's also lining his own pockets.
00:25:18Northern Laos is in the heart of the Golden Triangle, an area which includes Burma and Thailand, known as one of the most fertile opium growing regions in the world.
00:25:28Here the Hmong have used opium for centuries as medicine, but on the international drug market, the real value of the poppy's sap is that it can be refined into heroin.
00:25:41When the CIA is focused on a mission on a particular end, they're not going to sit down and pontificate about what are the long-term global consequences of our actions going to be.
00:25:58Tony Poe has ordered a CIA plane to drop off weapons and ammunition for the Hmong warriors and to pick up injured soldiers, women, children, and cargo.
00:26:17The plane is owned by Air America.
00:26:19One of the most important aspects of fighting communism in Laos involved a company called Air America, which was actually a front for the CIA.
00:26:33The CIA plane lands back at this secret base in the Longchen Valley in Laos.
00:26:39Unmarked on any map, it's fast becoming one of the busiest airports in the world.
00:26:44But this plane isn't just carrying the wounded and frail.
00:26:53Vang Pau has begun using Air America to transport his raw opium from the hills to the cities.
00:27:00The Hmong people see Americans coming and going with planes and having the resources to be able to help them transport something that's been in their culture for decades.
00:27:09The CIA built Air America to move people and weapons and money below the radar.
00:27:24Well, that's identical to what drug traffickers have to do.
00:27:28It's almost inevitable that the CIA and drug traffickers are continually crossing through the same worlds,
00:27:36continually using the same methods on a rather intimate basis.
00:27:42The CIA turns a blind eye to Vang Pau's growing heroin operation.
00:27:48But Tony Poe didn't come to Laos to enrich a local drug lord.
00:27:52Tony Poe hated Vang Pau because he knew he was selling drugs.
00:28:06Tony Poe was actually the model for Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.
00:28:11At one point, I was sitting talking with him and he was running his hand over his bald head like Marlon Brando did in the movie.
00:28:17And I said to him, did you get that from Brando or did Brando get that from you?
00:28:20In 1965, the CIA pulls Tony Poe out of Long Chen.
00:28:28There are probably a lot more Tony Poe's that we don't know about.
00:28:31People who went in believing in the higher cause and then found that there was a lot of activity that they either had to sanction or turn a blind eye to.
00:28:41When your moral compass starts to stray so far back and forth, you can start to lose it as Tony Poe did.
00:28:50With Tony Poe reassigned, the CIA will send in a new team to help run their secret war in Laos.
00:28:58Vang Pau is now unleashed to continue his drug dealing and that region becomes the epicenter of global heroin production.
00:29:08What is going to be the theme of your meeting?
00:29:19Are you going to tell what's bad about LSD?
00:29:24Not necessarily.
00:29:26Will LSD be in evidence at the graduation ceremony, Ken?
00:29:30Um, why don't you guys come?
00:29:35Yeah.
00:29:43Five years since Ken Kesey was first introduced to LSD through the CIA's MKUltra mind control program,
00:29:50he's now a psychedelic convert committed to spreading the LSD gospel across America.
00:29:57He throws parties known as acid tests where LSD-laced Kool-Aid is served,
00:30:03and party-goers are invited to achieve a communal high.
00:30:07Meanwhile, across the country, there's a smaller but growing hippie scene,
00:30:17and a group of them have turned this country estate into a commune and are about to drop acid.
00:30:26Leading them on their acid trip is Timothy Leary.
00:30:29A popular lecturer at Harvard, Leary's fascinated by the effect of psychedelic drugs on the brain.
00:30:37LSD was legal then, and he was giving it to graduate students to open their minds,
00:30:42and like Timothy Leary said, question authority.
00:30:47And that's when he became an outlaw.
00:30:48Our aim is to transform American society.
00:30:51America today is an insane asylum.
00:30:53We're going to try to bring about a religious renaissance and a spiritual revolution.
00:30:58When he urged people to take LSD, the effect that it had on people was so powerful
00:31:04that they'd almost treat him like a guru of sorts.
00:31:09Millbrook is a bastion of old New England.
00:31:13I had all these hippies coming in there,
00:31:15and Ken Kesey showed up there in his bus with all his merry pranksters,
00:31:19and that scared the hell out of this old, blue-blooded, wasp aristocracy that lives in Millbrook, New York.
00:31:29Leary's acid crusade has made him a target.
00:31:37A local prosecutor is on a crusade of his own.
00:31:41G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent,
00:31:44turned assistant district attorney in Dutchess County, New York.
00:31:47Gordon Liddy was an obscure, anti-drug, right-wing prosecutor in Dutchess County, New York,
00:31:58until he took on Timothy Leary and the LSD movement.
00:32:03No one was as determined to take Leary down as G. Gordon Liddy.
00:32:08He just went after Leary with a vengeance.
00:32:10G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent,
00:32:14was surprised.
00:32:15G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent,
00:32:16local prosecutor, G. Gordon Liddy,
00:32:24is on a mission to shut down the growing hippie counterculture.
00:32:27Jesus Christ.
00:32:30He's leading an armed raid on Timothy Leary's commune.
00:32:34Go, go, go.
00:32:35Keep your eyes open.
00:32:37Watch out for trucks.
00:32:38Inside, the officers find hippies tripping on LSD,
00:32:42watching a loop of a waterfall.
00:32:43Are you on drugs?
00:32:46Are you on drugs?
00:32:48Where's Leary?
00:32:49Leary was into disrupting the normal culture of America with LSD.
00:32:56Get up to the air!
00:32:57Get up to the wall!
00:32:58That scared the hell out of this old, blue-blooded,
00:33:03wasp aristocracy that lives in a place like Millbrook, New York.
00:33:08Liddy's men find a stash of LSD and some marijuana.
00:33:15But Liddy can only arrest Leary for marijuana possession because LSD is still legal.
00:33:21The marijuana charges against Timothy Leary are dropped when it's revealed G. Gordon Liddy failed to read him his rights.
00:33:33But Liddy doesn't give up.
00:33:35He continues a relentless campaign against Leary,
00:33:38tracking his moves over the course of the next year.
00:33:41Worn down by Liddy's crusade,
00:33:46in 1967, Leary leaves Millbrook in the East Coast and heads west,
00:33:51where the LSD-fueled counterculture is in full swing.
00:33:56Despite the fact it was the CIA that first introduced LSD to America,
00:34:02the drug is now in the hands of a group that's increasingly seen as a threat.
00:34:06Young people, they were fighting for racial justice, inequality.
00:34:11They were fighting against the Vietnam War.
00:34:15They were seriously opposing the government.
00:34:18And the drugs were at the forefront.
00:34:21There was this propaganda that the hippies,
00:34:24Timothy Leary, and LSD were all part of a communist conspiracy.
00:34:28LSD begins to be distributed by an underground organization
00:34:43called the Brotherhood of Eternal Love.
00:34:46The Brotherhood of Eternal Love was actually an organization of hippie mafia drug dealers
00:34:52dealing specifically in black Afghani hash and then later LSD.
00:34:58To keep the cell of LSD flowing,
00:35:02the Brotherhood will need a brand ambassador
00:35:04who encompasses everything the organization stands for.
00:35:08Turn on, tune in, drop out.
00:35:14Timothy Leary's attention-grabbing antics
00:35:17make him the perfect public face for the movement.
00:35:21It was really kind of a political, social movement.
00:35:24But in order to keep that movement going, you need money.
00:35:28Fortunately for the Brotherhood,
00:35:31Leary has brought with him a rich and connected friend.
00:35:34William Mellon Hitchcock.
00:35:37Playboy millionaire, owner of the Millbrook estate where Leary was arrested.
00:35:42Billy Hitchcock was the scion of one of the most famous old wasp families.
00:35:47His father was the model for Tom Buchanan
00:35:50in Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby.
00:35:52So for the son, Billy Hitchcock to now team up with Timothy Leary was a big scandal.
00:36:00Hitchcock begins to help bankroll the Brotherhood's mass production of acid.
00:36:05It was never about the money, but it was always about the money.
00:36:08As an entire generation looks for ways to expand their consciousness,
00:36:15the Brotherhood of Eternal Love moves in to fill the void.
00:36:18LSD has escaped from the lab.
00:36:20You've got Leary espousing, turn on, tune in, and drop out.
00:36:24Huge cultural changes that were taking place in the country.
00:36:27The Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic.
00:36:47A haven amidst the chaos of San Francisco's streets.
00:36:50This man has just taken acid for the first time, and he's having a bad trip.
00:37:01The doctor treating him keeps detailed notes,
00:37:04but who he's working for is a secret no one in San Francisco knows.
00:37:09Colonel James Ketchum.
00:37:11A psychiatrist in the Pentagon's top-secret psychochemical warfare program.
00:37:15He's obsessed with finding the key to manipulating the mind of the enemy.
00:37:21And like the CIA's MKUltra program,
00:37:24he's willing to do whatever it takes to find the answers he's looking for.
00:37:35Here at the Edgewood Arsenal,
00:37:37Ketchum first puts his LSD research to the test.
00:37:40After ingesting LSD,
00:37:45volunteers are instructed to perform basic military tasks.
00:37:48The confused volunteer needed help
00:37:50as he attempted to traverse part of an obstacle course.
00:37:53Influenced by an obvious lack of purpose,
00:37:56the drugged volunteer made no effort to traverse the trail of tires.
00:38:00And in obvious confusion, wandered aimlessly through the woods.
00:38:06Other trials move into more dangerous territory.
00:38:09Pushing the soldiers to the limits of sanity.
00:38:22How do you feel right now?
00:38:24Just can't figure it out.
00:38:25All right.
00:38:26It's hard to figure out.
00:38:27It's hard to figure out.
00:38:29I don't see it.
00:38:29I don't believe it.
00:38:30I feel it.
00:38:31Reaper, Reaper, Reaper!
00:38:33Many of these soldiers have been offered a powerful incentive
00:38:38to take part in the program.
00:38:42Time away from combat duty in Vietnam.
00:38:44Just over the border in Laos,
00:38:58the CIA's Air America airline
00:39:00is increasingly becoming part of the international drug trade.
00:39:03When those planes were returning to American bases,
00:39:09they were often used to bring back some of the bounty of Laos.
00:39:14And that bounty was heroin.
00:39:16In the remote highlands of Laos,
00:39:38communist forces are increasingly threatening
00:39:42to overtake the territory controlled by CIA ally Vang Pao.
00:39:48The situation in Laos really called for extraordinary means
00:39:52conducted by extraordinary men.
00:39:55The CIA has sent in a veteran spy
00:39:58to run the Laos operation.
00:40:01Ted Shackley, known as the Blonde Ghost.
00:40:07Former head of the CIA's top secret Miami station,
00:40:10where the CIA ran failed missions to kill Fidel Castro,
00:40:14which included poisoned milkshakes and exploding cigars.
00:40:18Now he's here fighting another secret war.
00:40:22The CIA itself was under a tremendous amount of pressure
00:40:25to accomplish this mission to fight communism.
00:40:28To help finance this war,
00:40:37Vang Pao has been using Air America to traffic heroin.
00:40:41But with the war raging,
00:40:42Shackley and the CIA don't just turn a blind eye
00:40:45to the drug trafficking.
00:40:49The U.S. provides Vang Pao two transport planes.
00:40:55Now he's able to fly his opium directly to his refineries.
00:40:58One right on the American airbase.
00:41:05The CIA, at the same time it was fighting,
00:41:08in its mind, a very successful anti-communist war,
00:41:12was also standing up an army of drug smugglers.
00:41:18Vang Pao is fast on his way
00:41:20to becoming the biggest heroin trafficker in the world.
00:41:22And he's got a growing customer base just over the border in Vietnam.
00:41:27One side effect of this covert war in Laos
00:41:30is that there's a lot of heroin in the theater of war
00:41:33and many American troops get addicted.
00:41:36One of my fellow soldiers
00:41:49was found dead after a firefight.
00:41:53We thought he had been shot,
00:42:02and actually he had the needle stuck in his arm.
00:42:09Heroin, a highly addictive opioid.
00:42:12Extracted from the poppy plant and synthesized from morphine.
00:42:15Once ingested, morphine molecules rush opioid receptors in the brain stem
00:42:19that controls the body's survival functions.
00:42:23It can lead to intoxicating highs
00:42:25or shut down the respiratory system and lead to death.
00:42:28The rule was, you don't get high while on patrol,
00:42:36but you can't control depression.
00:42:39We were wet during the monsoon season, 24-7.
00:42:44The miserable life we lived, we were home safe.
00:42:48As the war progresses,
00:42:51two GIs are overdosing every day.
00:42:54A nightclub in Saigon,
00:43:14a refuge from the horrors of combat.
00:43:17Sitting at the back of the club
00:43:24is a man well-known to the CIA.
00:43:28Mobster Santo Traficante Jr.
00:43:31Traficante had assured protection back in 1960.
00:43:35He was involved in these plots to kill Castro.
00:43:38Once you've worked through the CIA,
00:43:40you're what they called in that business a million-dollar man.
00:43:44Traficante is meeting with a Corsican gangster,
00:43:46a middleman for another CIA-connected drug trafficker,
00:43:50Vang Pau.
00:43:52They're discussing a deal
00:43:54that'll bring tons of heroin into the United States.
00:43:59With the booming heroin trade,
00:44:02which was because of the influx of American troops,
00:44:06Traficante had to go out there
00:44:08and make sure that his family got its fair share.
00:44:10The deal allows Traficante to ramp up his operation.
00:44:16As soon as couriers are trafficking Vang Pau's heroin
00:44:19from refineries in Hong Kong,
00:44:21via South America and the Caribbean,
00:44:24onto the United States.
00:44:26In one shipment alone,
00:44:28they smuggle in as much as 20%
00:44:30of all the heroin consumed that year.
00:44:33The history of the CIA
00:44:34is really the history of unintended consequences
00:44:38and blowback.
00:44:39With CIA secret wars being fought in places like Laos,
00:44:43they became instrumental
00:44:44in flooding America with drugs.
00:44:47By 1970,
00:44:59New York City alone
00:45:00will have over 200,000 heroin addicts.
00:45:03A lot of people came back
00:45:05who had served in Vietnam
00:45:06addicted to drugs.
00:45:08It doesn't help that the economy
00:45:09is also declining,
00:45:12depressing situation
00:45:13for a young person
00:45:14who's just spent a year,
00:45:15maybe two years,
00:45:16in a terrible and confusing war.
00:45:21With the demand for heroin rising,
00:45:24a new breed of homegrown dealers emerges.
00:45:29One of these dealers has just arrived
00:45:31to check on his operation.
00:45:35These women are part of a production line
00:45:37that runs 24 hours a day.
00:45:40They're made to work in the nude
00:45:42so they can't steal the product.
00:45:45Pure, uncut heroin
00:45:49that's sold by this man.
00:45:51I say we gonna make some money today or what?
00:45:53Frank Matthews.
00:45:56Born in rural North Carolina.
00:45:58His first arrest comes at 14
00:46:00when he's busted
00:46:00for leading a gang of chicken thieves.
00:46:03He moves to Brooklyn
00:46:04where he opens a barbershop
00:46:06as a front for selling heroin.
00:46:08The heroin business
00:46:09has always been controlled
00:46:11by organized crime.
00:46:12And then along comes
00:46:13there's a guy named Frank Matthews.
00:46:22Wait a moment.
00:46:25Got all day.
00:46:27At any given time,
00:46:29hundreds of pounds of heroin
00:46:30are being diluted and packaged.
00:46:33We actually had two places in Brooklyn,
00:46:35the Ponderosa
00:46:35and the O.K. Corral.
00:46:37The thing that fascinates me is
00:46:39how could you operate
00:46:40two drug mills like this
00:46:42busting in 40 women every day
00:46:43and not anybody getting suspicious?
00:46:47With a nearly unlimited supply of heroin
00:46:49coming in from Southeast Asia,
00:46:51Matthews begins building an empire
00:46:53that stretches the length
00:46:54of the eastern seaboard
00:46:56west of St. Louis.
00:46:58They call him Black Caesar.
00:46:59That's what I'm talking about.
00:47:02Frank Matthews became
00:47:04one of the biggest heroin distributors
00:47:05in the world.
00:47:08But with the thousands of addicts
00:47:10that come with every new deal,
00:47:14Matthews will find himself
00:47:15in the crosshairs
00:47:16of a very powerful enemy,
00:47:19the newly elected president,
00:47:21Richard Milhouse Nixon.
00:47:23When Nixon came into the White House,
00:47:26it was essentially to clean up
00:47:27this chaos and anarchy
00:47:29in the streets
00:47:30and to impose law and order.
00:47:33There was this legitimate fear
00:47:34that heroin was going to take over
00:47:37and destroy the United States.
00:47:45The grand opening
00:47:46of an exclusive resort,
00:47:49Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
00:47:51The crowd celebrating New Year's Eve
00:47:53is a star-studded collection
00:47:55of Hollywood actors,
00:47:56politicians,
00:47:57and wealthy investors.
00:47:59People look back in the 60s
00:48:01and they're always great.
00:48:02The music was great,
00:48:03rock and roll,
00:48:04but then it started to change.
00:48:0568 was like a turning point.
00:48:07Martin Luther King was assassinated.
00:48:09Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.
00:48:11It was the end of the hippie era
00:48:13of the 60s
00:48:14where it was all about
00:48:16peace, love, and brotherhood.
00:48:17Things were starting to turn dark.
00:48:21It's been a good year
00:48:24for at least one of the party-goers,
00:48:26the president-elect Richard Nixon.
00:48:29Richard Milhouse Nixon
00:48:30is no stranger to the White House.
00:48:33He served two terms
00:48:34as vice president under Eisenhower,
00:48:36where he signed off
00:48:37on the secret plan
00:48:38to assassinate Fidel Castro.
00:48:41He narrowly lost to Kennedy in 1960.
00:48:43By the time he runs for president again,
00:48:46crime rates are skyrocketing,
00:48:48and he appeals to what he calls
00:48:50the silent majority.
00:48:52These besieged, middle-class suburbanites
00:48:55who fear what at that time
00:48:58seems to be a society
00:48:59going through really profound
00:49:01and negative changes.
00:49:02At Paradise Island,
00:49:06it all seems a world away.
00:49:09But Nixon has no idea
00:49:11he's celebrating alongside
00:49:12one of his counterculture enemies.
00:49:15William Hitchcock
00:49:17is the millionaire playboy
00:49:18and sometimes financier
00:49:19of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love.
00:49:22He's also invested the equivalent
00:49:24of 35 million in today's dollars
00:49:26in Paradise Island.
00:49:28But Hitchcock is not the only one
00:49:31at this party
00:49:32moving large sums of cash
00:49:33to the Bahamas.
00:49:35You could take as much money
00:49:36as you wanted in cash
00:49:37and deposit it in banks
00:49:38down there in the Bahamas
00:49:39and launder it.
00:49:40Next thing you know,
00:49:41wired back into a bank account
00:49:42in the United States
00:49:43and nobody would ever know
00:49:44that it came as a result
00:49:45of illegal activity.
00:49:48The Bahamas is full of banks
00:49:49that launder dirty money,
00:49:51but none will become as infamous
00:49:53as the Castle Bank in Trust.
00:49:55Founded by a former CIA spy,
00:49:59its clients include celebrities
00:50:01like John Fogarty,
00:50:02Tony Curtis,
00:50:04and Hugh Hefner.
00:50:06But Castle serves another purpose.
00:50:11Money that was coming
00:50:12from the drug business
00:50:14was deposited in these banks
00:50:16and then used to finance
00:50:18covert CIA operations.
00:50:21Drug trafficking is really
00:50:23all about laundering money.
00:50:25And it turns out that
00:50:27so is being a CIA officer
00:50:29because everything the CIA does
00:50:31has to be secret.
00:50:33And in order to be secret,
00:50:34you have to launder your money.
00:50:37Even the president-elect
00:50:39banks a castle.
00:50:43While Hitchcock is celebrating
00:50:45in the Bahamas,
00:50:47back in California,
00:50:49another of his investments
00:50:50is working around the clock.
00:50:52In this makeshift lab,
00:51:00the Brotherhood of Eternal Love
00:51:02is producing a potent new brand
00:51:03of LSD
00:51:04that they hope will stamp out
00:51:06all competition.
00:51:08It'll become the most famous acid
00:51:10ever produced.
00:51:11They call it Orange Sunshine.
00:51:13Orange Sunshine,
00:51:15after Sendo's LSD-25,
00:51:17was the purest LSD
00:51:19manufactured in the world.
00:51:21Steve Jobs dropped acid.
00:51:26The Grateful Dead,
00:51:27it infiltrated music,
00:51:30business.
00:51:32Orange Sunshine
00:51:32was all over the country.
00:51:38In the coming months,
00:51:40Hitchcock's lab
00:51:40will produce 10 million hits,
00:51:42enough to dose the entire population
00:51:45of New York City
00:51:46and L.A.
00:51:51I figured out
00:51:52where we could load
00:51:54the water supply
00:51:54with a 55-gallon drum
00:51:56of acid.
00:52:00Timothy Lurie stopped us.
00:52:02Timothy said,
00:52:04thou shalt not alter
00:52:05thy brother's consciousness
00:52:07without his permission.
00:52:10Wow.
00:52:10That's Timothy Lurie.
00:52:14Timothy Lurie wasn't promoting
00:52:15go give everybody acid.
00:52:17We were.
00:52:18Everyone should take LSD.
00:52:21But soon,
00:52:22the luck of Orange Sunshine's
00:52:24most famous advocate
00:52:25will run out.
00:52:26A cop on the night shift
00:52:36makes a routine traffic stop.
00:52:42The driver is LSD evangelist
00:52:44Timothy Lurie.
00:52:45The police searched the car
00:52:47and in the ashtray
00:52:49was a joint and a roach.
00:52:52And they busted Timothy
00:52:54for a minute amount of pot.
00:52:59Shortly after his arrest,
00:53:01he makes a surprise announcement.
00:53:04I'm going to run
00:53:06for the governorship
00:53:07of the state of California.
00:53:08I think that we need a new party.
00:53:11And by party,
00:53:12I mean party.
00:53:13Lurie's platform
00:53:16included,
00:53:17among other things,
00:53:18banning football,
00:53:19banning all money,
00:53:21creating a barter system
00:53:22that would kind of
00:53:23take over capitalism.
00:53:25The song,
00:53:26Come Together,
00:53:26which was written by John Lennon,
00:53:28was actually a campaign song
00:53:29for Timothy Lurie.
00:53:31Let the kids get high.
00:53:33As a matter of fact,
00:53:34President Nixon,
00:53:35why don't we all
00:53:35turn on together?
00:53:38His Republican opponent,
00:53:39Ronald Reagan.
00:53:41There is nothing smart.
00:53:43There's nothing grown up
00:53:44or sophisticated
00:53:45in taking an LSD trip at all.
00:53:48They're just being
00:53:48complete fools.
00:53:58When anti-war protesters
00:54:01descended on Washington
00:54:02and protested
00:54:03Nixon's policies,
00:54:05Nixon probably could smell
00:54:07the marijuana smoke
00:54:09wafting
00:54:09in through the windows
00:54:11of the White House.
00:54:12And so Nixon associated
00:54:14marijuana
00:54:15with his political opponents.
00:54:20But in the Nixon administration,
00:54:22Where are we talking about?
00:54:22Leary's old nemesis,
00:54:23G. Gordon Liddy,
00:54:24has been brought in
00:54:25by the Treasury Department
00:54:26to hatch a plan
00:54:27to clamp down on drugs.
00:54:30And then try and cover
00:54:31that section of the border.
00:54:33Okay?
00:54:33Sounds good.
00:54:34G. Gordon Liddy was
00:54:38the law and order figure
00:54:40in the White House.
00:54:41And when Nixon
00:54:41was elected
00:54:42into the White House,
00:54:44Nixon saw
00:54:44and Liddy saw
00:54:45that drugs were
00:54:46this powerful
00:54:47hot-button issue.
00:54:53Liddy launches
00:54:54Operation Intercept,
00:54:56shutting down
00:54:57the entire 2,000-mile border
00:54:58with Mexico.
00:55:01Cutting off the source
00:55:02of most of America's marijuana.
00:55:07For over 20 days,
00:55:08all vehicles crossing
00:55:09the border
00:55:10are searched.
00:55:14It's the largest operation
00:55:15of its kind
00:55:16in history.
00:55:22The interesting thing
00:55:23about the very beginning
00:55:24of the war on drugs,
00:55:26many of these acts
00:55:27were completely symbolic
00:55:29that actually had
00:55:30no impact whatsoever
00:55:32on the drug trade
00:55:33in the U.S.
00:55:35A few marijuana smugglers
00:55:37may have been apprehended.
00:55:39The most successful
00:55:40trackers in America
00:55:41are not waiting in line
00:55:42at the Mexican border.
00:55:49A small plane
00:55:50is losing altitude,
00:55:51fast.
00:55:53The pilot is a veteran
00:55:54of America's
00:55:55secret Cold War
00:55:56operations.
00:55:57And this plane
00:55:58is loaded
00:55:59with heroin
00:55:59and cocaine.
00:56:01Let's make it a little bit!
00:56:07In 1970,
00:56:08there was a plane crash
00:56:09in California.
00:56:10Juan Rostoy
00:56:11was flying this plane.
00:56:12Turns out that this guy
00:56:13was a veteran
00:56:14of the Bay of Pigs
00:56:15operation
00:56:15and a CIA operative.
00:56:19Yeah, would you
00:56:19send me a skyway
00:56:20for a disaster?
00:56:21Do you know that's okay?
00:56:23I'm coming here.
00:56:27Rehstoy survives,
00:56:32but the crash
00:56:33catches the attention
00:56:34of federal agents
00:56:35working on Operation Eagle,
00:56:37a national investigation
00:56:38of narcotic smuggling.
00:56:39Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for being here.
00:56:48The attorney general will have a statement, and I introduce to you now the attorney general
00:56:51of the United States.
00:56:54We have called all of you this morning to tell you about Operation Eagle, which is the
00:57:00code name for the biggest operation of its kind in history.
00:57:04At 10 a.m. last night, special agents of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs made
00:57:12simultaneous raids in Miami, New York, and Chicago, and seven other cities.
00:57:22We are very pleased to report that the raids have already resulted in the arrest of 123 defendants.
00:57:34What attorney general John Mitchell neglects to mention is as many as 70 percent of those
00:57:42arrested are Cubans who fought for the CIA against Fidel Castro.
00:57:47The agency's secret war against communism has given rise to an entire generation of drug
00:57:53traffickers.
00:57:54Cuban exiles trained by the CIA for the Bay of Pigs had all these skills in radios, flying
00:58:00airplanes, boats, and apply these skills to smuggling drugs.
00:58:15The crackdown on drugs begins to attract unlikely allies.
00:58:19Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, has seen better days.
00:58:25Elvis has developed a prescription drug habit that includes uppers, downers, and needles.
00:58:30Doctors are on call to provide an endless supply of drugs.
00:58:36At the time, Elvis Presley was essentially a stone junkie.
00:58:41He also was obsessed with firearms.
00:58:44He actually wanted to obtain a drug agent badge from Nixon so he could safely travel the world
00:58:52with his drugs and firearms.
00:58:59Elvis wrote this rambling letter requesting a visit with Nixon.
00:59:04The letter works, and Nixon agrees to meet.
00:59:25Being seen with a rock and roll legend makes for a public relations coup for the president.
00:59:31But it's also part of a larger strategy.
00:59:34If you look at the wider framed photos, there's Elvis Presley, there's President Nixon,
00:59:41and there's this young man wearing glasses.
00:59:44And he was this White House, high-end political fixer.
00:59:48And his name was Eagle Bud Crow.
00:59:51Eagle Bud Crow.
00:59:53As Nixon's deputy of domestic affairs, he'll help hire G. Gordon Liddy,
00:59:57and they will spearhead policies that will lead to the declaration of the war on drugs.
01:00:02And that's why Bud Crow brought in Elvis Presley.
01:00:05He was the drug guy.
01:00:09Elvis gets his badge.
01:00:11But there's no record of the king ever performing any drug bust.
01:00:20Meanwhile, at a state prison in California,
01:00:23one of Nixon's political enemies is beginning a sentence for a small amount of marijuana.
01:00:27Timothy Leary's run for governor has been cut short.
01:00:33But the underground hippie organization, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love,
01:00:37doesn't want their LSD guru to die behind bars.
01:00:41Timothy was one of us.
01:00:42So Timothy being in prison, we weren't going to let him down.
01:00:46The Brotherhood was extremely well-financed.
01:00:50So the Brotherhood hires the weathermen to break Leary out of prison.
01:00:56Launched by radical students in 1968,
01:00:59the Weather Underground has turned into a violent revolutionary organization,
01:01:04carrying out bombings across the United States.
01:01:08For a rumored $20,000 fee,
01:01:11the Weather Underground breaks Timothy Leary out of prison.
01:01:14After they break him out of prison, he ends up in Algeria.
01:01:19While he's in Algeria, he hooks up with Eldridge Cleaver
01:01:22and a lot of the Black Panthers who were also on the lam.
01:01:30It's an audacious move,
01:01:31but the Brotherhood doesn't lay low for the rest of 1970.
01:01:35One of their associates will attempt
01:01:37one of the most brazen drug distribution stunts of all time.
01:01:44Laguna Beach, California.
01:01:4725,000 young people have gathered for an outdoor rock concert
01:01:51to celebrate the counterculture.
01:01:54The idea initially was just to have a Woodstock-type rock concert,
01:01:57but some of the local artists decided
01:01:59that it would be better to give it kind of a spiritual connotation
01:02:01to try to avoid any unnecessary law enforcement scrutiny,
01:02:05but it became completely out of control.
01:02:09One of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love's associates
01:02:12has hired a private plane,
01:02:14and it's flying towards the festival.
01:02:20The plane flew over the Christmas happening.
01:02:24It dropped thousands of Christmas cards,
01:02:27and in the middle was a tab of orange sunshine.
01:02:33It's just a legendary moment
01:02:35in the countercultural history of the United States.
01:02:37An actual acid drop from the sky
01:02:40on a huge crowd of young Americans.
01:02:42Over the past decade,
01:03:04secret government drug tests
01:03:07and covert CIA operations
01:03:09have unleashed a wave of drugs into the United States.
01:03:16It's fueled the counterculture
01:03:18and increasingly anarchy in the streets.
01:03:21The economy's starting to falter.
01:03:23There's riots in the major cities of the United States.
01:03:26So all these things are coming to a boiling point.
01:03:30The Nixon administration is looking at this and going,
01:03:32my God, what are we going to do?
01:03:34We can put the controls back on our society
01:03:37that seems to be out of control.
01:03:39We're going to declare a war on drugs.
01:03:41June 17th, 1971.
01:04:04President Richard Nixon is about to make
01:04:06one of the most important speeches
01:04:07in presidential history.
01:04:11You want to join me here?
01:04:16Won't you be seated, please, ladies and gentlemen?
01:04:17Come on, Dr. Jaffe.
01:04:19Ehrlich?
01:04:20Yes, sir.
01:04:20Fine.
01:04:21Fine.
01:04:23Standing next to the president,
01:04:2531-year-old drug policy guru Bud Krogh.
01:04:28Standing to his left, his boss,
01:04:31Nixon's chief counsel, John Ehrlichman.
01:04:36Ladies and gentlemen,
01:04:36I would like to summarize for you
01:04:38the meeting that I have just had
01:04:40with the bipartisan leaders,
01:04:41which began at 8 o'clock
01:04:42and was completed two hours later.
01:04:46America's public enemy number one
01:04:48in the United States
01:04:49is drug abuse.
01:04:52In order to fight and defeat this enemy,
01:04:54it is necessary to wage
01:04:56a new all-out offensive.
01:04:58This will be a worldwide offensive.
01:05:01Fundamentally, it is essential
01:05:03for the American people
01:05:04to be alerted to this danger,
01:05:06to recognize that it is a danger
01:05:08that will not pass
01:05:09with the passing of the war in Vietnam,
01:05:12which has brought to our attention
01:05:14the fact that a number of young Americans
01:05:16have become addicts as they serve abroad.
01:05:19This offensive deals with the problem there,
01:05:22but will then go on to deal with the problem
01:05:24throughout America.
01:05:25President Nixon never actually uses the word,
01:05:30but for everyone listening,
01:05:31it's clear Richard Nixon
01:05:33is declaring a war on drugs.
01:05:37The briefing team will now
01:05:38be ready to answer any questions
01:05:40on the technical details of the program.
01:05:45Nixon proclaiming this war on drugs
01:05:48is this epic moment.
01:05:49Nixon standing up
01:05:51as the law and order president.
01:05:52Nixon has launched one of the most expensive
01:05:58and politically complicated initiatives
01:06:00ever attempted.
01:06:02But behind the scenes,
01:06:04there's another agenda at work.
01:06:06The eyes of the inner circle
01:06:08of the Nixon administration,
01:06:10the war on drugs brought together
01:06:12the peace movement,
01:06:13the hippies,
01:06:14the counterculture,
01:06:15African Americans,
01:06:16all of this stuff can be captured
01:06:19and addressed by force
01:06:21with law enforcement
01:06:23under the rubric of the war on drugs.
01:06:26And the trick is to create a system
01:06:29that deals with this without appearing to.
01:06:33The announcement this morning
01:06:35is the culmination of a project
01:06:38that began about a year ago.
01:06:40It'll be decades before
01:06:42one of Nixon's top advisors
01:06:44will allegedly admit to a magazine writer
01:06:46this deception
01:06:47behind the origin
01:06:48of the war on drugs.
01:06:51The Nixon campaign had two enemies,
01:06:54the anti-war left
01:06:55and black people.
01:06:56We knew we couldn't make it legal
01:06:57to be either against the war
01:06:59or black,
01:07:00but by getting the public
01:07:01to associate the hippies
01:07:02with marijuana
01:07:03and the blacks with heroin
01:07:04and then criminalizing both heavily,
01:07:07we could disrupt those communities.
01:07:09We could arrest their leaders,
01:07:11raid their homes,
01:07:12break up their meetings,
01:07:13and vilify them night after night
01:07:15on the evening news.
01:07:17Did we know we were lying
01:07:18about the drugs?
01:07:20Of course we did.
01:07:22We got a problem with the blacks.
01:07:24We got a problem with the hippies.
01:07:26What are we going to do?
01:07:27We're going to declare a war on drugs.
01:07:29And we criminalize these elements
01:07:31and we broadcast it
01:07:32all over the nightly news.
01:07:34We can put the controls
01:07:35back on our society
01:07:37that seems to be out of control.
01:07:39Right, right, okay, fine.
01:07:47Nixon soon finds himself
01:07:48increasingly frustrated
01:07:50by the war on drugs'
01:07:51lack of progress
01:07:52and grills his inner circle
01:07:53for answers.
01:07:54Are we properly organized?
01:07:56In terms of our being
01:07:58properly organized right now,
01:07:59quite honestly, we're not.
01:08:00We have 350,000 police officers
01:08:03in the United States.
01:08:04Their resources are not being utilized.
01:08:05How many of them are involved?
01:08:11I mean, isn't there quite a bit
01:08:13of corruption in many
01:08:14of the police departments
01:08:15in major cities?
01:08:16We read a lot about this.
01:08:17When we talk about respect for law,
01:08:19you've got to have law
01:08:20that is served in respect.
01:08:22Inner cities are increasingly
01:08:24in the grip of a heroin epidemic.
01:08:27Drug-related deaths
01:08:28are up to 1,000 a year
01:08:29in New York City alone.
01:08:32Junkies steal to finance
01:08:34their addictions,
01:08:34and police corruption
01:08:35is rampant.
01:08:38NYPD narcotics detective
01:08:39Frank Serpico
01:08:40tells the mayor's commission
01:08:42that cops are paying off
01:08:43their superiors
01:08:43for a transfer
01:08:44to the narcotics division.
01:08:50I saw what was going on.
01:08:53Being transferred
01:08:54to the Gold Coast,
01:08:56as it was called,
01:08:57where there was big money.
01:08:59Of course,
01:08:59narcotics was where
01:09:00the money was.
01:09:01Cops would notify drug dealers
01:09:06whenever some other cops
01:09:08were going to raid their place.
01:09:13There was no limit.
01:09:15There was no morality.
01:09:18Cops are also putting drugs
01:09:20on the street.
01:09:22In one of the strangest coincidences
01:09:23in the war on drugs,
01:09:25fact will collide with fiction.
01:09:26A movie called
01:09:28The French Connection
01:09:29is a favorite
01:09:30for an Academy Award.
01:09:31It tells the story
01:09:32of an NYPD 1962 bust
01:09:34of the famous
01:09:35French Connection
01:09:36heroin smuggling network
01:09:37run by gangsters
01:09:39like Santo Trafficante.
01:09:41So this great movie
01:09:43comes out,
01:09:43The French Connection.
01:09:47Gene Hackman
01:09:48plays the narcotics cop
01:09:49who made the big
01:09:52French Connection bust.
01:09:56For 10 years,
01:09:57the confiscated heroin
01:09:59is thought to be held
01:10:00in a secure
01:10:00Manhattan police lockup.
01:10:03So they had all this heroin
01:10:05that they busted
01:10:05and it was in the property
01:10:07vault in NYPD custody.
01:10:11Open them up.
01:10:12But when they ultimately
01:10:14went down there
01:10:14to get it,
01:10:15we've got a problem.
01:10:21They found it was gone.
01:10:23Large amounts of heroin
01:10:24from the famous
01:10:25French Connection bust
01:10:26had been stolen
01:10:27from the police evidence room
01:10:28and replaced with flour.
01:10:32$70 million worth of heroin
01:10:34goes from NYPD
01:10:36into the streets
01:10:37of New York City.
01:10:39And they couldn't figure out
01:10:40well, what happened?
01:10:40Of course we know what happened.
01:10:41The cops stole it.
01:10:43And amazingly,
01:10:43as people are sitting there
01:10:44watching the movie,
01:10:45French Connection,
01:10:46that heroin was on the streets
01:10:48of New York
01:10:48being sold to dealers
01:10:50and drug addicts.
01:10:52The French Connection
01:10:53heroin robbery
01:10:54remains the single largest theft
01:10:56in American history.
01:10:58And it was done
01:10:59by the police themselves.
01:11:01The French heroin was big.
01:11:03It corrupted New York City.
01:11:05It corrupted the New York cops.
01:11:06It corrupted everybody.
01:11:11While drugs are corrupting
01:11:12the nation's police,
01:11:13the White House itself
01:11:15will soon be engulfed
01:11:16in its own criminal conspiracy.
01:11:21Abort.
01:11:22I repeat, abort.
01:11:24Get out of there.
01:11:26Hello?
01:11:28Hello?
01:11:28Good evening.
01:11:36We have a mystery story
01:11:37out of Washington.
01:11:38Five people have been arrested
01:11:40and charged with breaking
01:11:40into the headquarters
01:11:41of the Democratic National Committee
01:11:42in the middle of the night.
01:11:45One year to the day
01:11:47after President Nixon
01:11:48declares a war on drugs,
01:11:50his law and order presidency
01:11:51is about to unravel.
01:11:53One of Nixon's top lieutenants,
01:11:58G. Gordon Liddy,
01:11:59is arrested for trying
01:12:00to break into
01:12:01the Democratic National Committee's headquarters.
01:12:06When his five burglars
01:12:07are interrogated,
01:12:09it's revealed they're part
01:12:10of a secret White House team
01:12:11that includes an ex-CIA officer
01:12:14and four former
01:12:16anti-Castro operatives.
01:12:19As Congress begins hearings
01:12:21investigating just how high
01:12:23the plot goes...
01:12:24Mr. Lickman,
01:12:24are you telling me
01:12:25that the break-in
01:12:25to Dr. Fielding's office
01:12:26was to satisfy
01:12:27the President
01:12:27of the United States?
01:12:30Across the country,
01:12:32another kind of conspiracy
01:12:34is brewing.
01:12:37A casino in Vegas.
01:12:39The East Coast's
01:12:41biggest heroin dealer
01:12:42is enjoying a run
01:12:43on the roulette table.
01:12:45Frank Matthews
01:12:45was ahead of his time
01:12:46because he was
01:12:47the Al Capone
01:12:48of African-American drug dealing.
01:12:54But Frank Matthews
01:12:55is not in town
01:12:56just to gamble.
01:13:00The drug trade is changing
01:13:02and he wants to find a way
01:13:03to stop the growing violence.
01:13:07Just recently,
01:13:08one of Matthews' top dealers
01:13:10was gunned down
01:13:11in a popular nightclub.
01:13:15Y'all doing?
01:13:17Y'all good?
01:13:19So he's called a summit
01:13:20of the country's
01:13:21top black drug lords.
01:13:23A lot of people
01:13:24in law enforcement
01:13:24will tell you that
01:13:25when the mob
01:13:26was in control
01:13:27of the neighborhoods,
01:13:27there was a lot less crime.
01:13:30The days of sharing
01:13:30with the Italians,
01:13:31they're over now.
01:13:32Y'all hear me?
01:13:33Over.
01:13:34This is our time now.
01:13:35This is our time.
01:13:36Now you had the emergence
01:13:37of these gangs
01:13:39that were cutting out
01:13:41the mob.
01:13:42It created these turf wars
01:13:43and these battles.
01:13:45What I'm saying,
01:13:45first, though,
01:13:46we got to sit together, though.
01:13:47Without killing each other.
01:13:48His objective
01:13:49was to form
01:13:49some kind of network
01:13:50where they can work together
01:13:52rather than kill each other.
01:13:54This business is ours now.
01:13:55All the way.
01:13:57That's it.
01:13:58That's it.
01:13:58But before he can see
01:13:59his dreams of unity fulfilled,
01:14:02he's arrested in Vegas.
01:14:06Matthews jumped bail
01:14:07on July 2, 1973
01:14:09and has never been seen again.
01:14:12To add to the mystery,
01:14:15the testimony of nine
01:14:16of his French Connection suppliers
01:14:18is suppressed
01:14:19for national security reasons
01:14:21by the CIA.
01:14:22Frank Matthews
01:14:26may be one of the few
01:14:27of the big drug kingpins
01:14:29who actually got away.
01:14:31But unlike Matthews,
01:14:32most of the guys
01:14:33who were involved
01:14:34in the drug trade
01:14:35were getting hammered
01:14:36with these huge sentences.
01:14:38Possibly the most enduring legacy
01:14:40of Nixon's war on drugs
01:14:42is a series of laws
01:14:43passed in New York State.
01:14:45Life sentence for pushers.
01:14:47We saw guys coming in
01:14:48who were like
01:14:49low-level street dealers
01:14:51with 20, 30 years' time.
01:14:54Under what are known
01:14:55as the Rockefeller drug laws,
01:14:57anyone caught
01:14:58with more than
01:14:58four ounces of drugs,
01:15:00even marijuana,
01:15:02faces a 15-year-to-life sentence.
01:15:04It's the same
01:15:05as second-degree murder.
01:15:06Other states
01:15:07soon follow suit.
01:15:09Rockefeller drug laws
01:15:10reverberate to this day
01:15:12because 90% of the people
01:15:15who were arrested
01:15:16under those laws
01:15:17were black and brown.
01:15:37Before the man
01:15:38who declared
01:15:39America's war on drugs,
01:15:41the battle has come
01:15:42to an early end.
01:15:43The irony of Nixon
01:15:48championing a war on drugs
01:15:50is his own criminality.
01:15:52The guy leaves office
01:15:53in disgrace.
01:16:01For their roles
01:16:03in the Watergate scandal,
01:16:04four of the key architects
01:16:05of the war on drugs
01:16:07will go to prison.
01:16:08The former attorney general
01:16:10who spearheaded
01:16:11Operation Eagle,
01:16:13John Mitchell.
01:16:15The senior advisor
01:16:16who introduced Nixon
01:16:17to Elvis,
01:16:19Bud Krogh.
01:16:20The president's chief counsel,
01:16:23John Ehrlichman.
01:16:25And the former prosecutor
01:16:27who first made his name
01:16:28trying to take down
01:16:29LSD guru,
01:16:30Timothy Leary,
01:16:31G. Gordon Liddy,
01:16:32will be sent
01:16:33to a Connecticut
01:16:34federal prison.
01:16:35And it's here
01:16:37where one of the strangest
01:16:38connections in the history
01:16:40of the war on drugs
01:16:41will be made.
01:16:51The federal prison
01:16:53at Danbury, Connecticut,
01:16:541974.
01:16:57Richard Nixon's
01:16:58dirty tricks mastermind,
01:17:01G. Gordon Liddy,
01:17:02is here serving time
01:17:04for his role
01:17:04in the Watergate break-in.
01:17:06When Gordon Liddy
01:17:07found himself
01:17:08in federal prison,
01:17:08he found a fellow inmate there,
01:17:10Carlos Lader.
01:17:14Carlos Lader,
01:17:16a Colombian car thief
01:17:17who will soon change
01:17:18the face
01:17:18of the drug trade.
01:17:20Liddy had all these ideas
01:17:21about the will to power,
01:17:23to impose your will
01:17:24on circumstances
01:17:26and do heroic things
01:17:27as an individual.
01:17:29Lader was completely
01:17:30inspired by this man.
01:17:31This weird admiration
01:17:33society built up.
01:17:35Carlos Lader
01:17:35started dressing like him,
01:17:37started talking
01:17:38about the same ideas,
01:17:40and Carlos Lader
01:17:41would then get out
01:17:42and basically flood
01:17:44America with cocaine.
01:17:46And as a founding member
01:17:47of Pablo Escobar's
01:17:49Medellin cartel,
01:17:50he'll revolutionize
01:17:51a new drug trade.
01:17:52The power dynamics
01:17:59that forged
01:17:59the war on drugs
01:18:00will now reverberate
01:18:02across five decades.
01:18:04Sometimes people say
01:18:05that the war on drugs
01:18:07really wasn't about drugs,
01:18:08and they state that
01:18:09like that's news.
01:18:10Okay, 1, 20.
01:18:13Roland, he's up in the corner.
01:18:14It's only news to people
01:18:16who just haven't been
01:18:17paying attention.
01:18:18Of course it wasn't
01:18:19about drugs.
01:18:20It was a fraud.
01:18:24It was a political maneuvering
01:18:27that was designed
01:18:28to keep certain aspects
01:18:30of the culture under control.
01:18:36In many ways,
01:18:37the counterculture
01:18:38was a product
01:18:38of the CIA LSD program
01:18:42that released it
01:18:43into the populace.
01:18:44All of these
01:18:45individual experiences
01:18:47that people had
01:18:48taking LSD collectively
01:18:50completely altered society.
01:18:53What's really remarkable
01:18:54is that a lot
01:18:56of these patterns
01:18:57that have their origins
01:18:59in the 1960s
01:19:00become cyclical.
01:19:02virtually all of the CIA
01:19:07activities abroad
01:19:08always came on the backs
01:19:10of drug smuggling
01:19:12and drug financing.
01:19:14And we're going to see
01:19:16those relationships
01:19:18develop again and again
01:19:19throughout the war on drugs.
01:19:22The war on drugs
01:19:24is not about one thing.
01:19:25It's about many things
01:19:26in relationship
01:19:27to each other.
01:19:27on the next episode
01:19:45of America's War on Drugs.
01:19:48Pablo Escobar
01:19:49had tremendous
01:19:50political ambition.
01:19:52If you're going to mess
01:19:53with Pablo,
01:19:53Pablo will kill you.
01:19:55This is an outlaw regime.
01:19:57They're flying
01:19:58secret shipments
01:19:59of weapons down
01:20:00and then coming back
01:20:02with cocaine.
01:20:04I'm going after
01:20:05the drug dealers
01:20:06that they were protecting.
01:20:09We were really
01:20:10playing Russian roulette
01:20:12with our lives.
01:20:13And you,
01:20:14it went all the way
01:20:16to the White House.
01:20:18You basically have
01:20:19a secret CIA operation
01:20:21laid there.
01:20:23It was really hard
01:20:23for me to fantasize
01:20:25that something so small
01:20:26could be so valuable.
01:20:28It was like,
01:20:29this is what
01:20:30I was made for.
01:20:30It was like,
01:20:31this is what
01:20:31I was made for.
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