Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces

Name: Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces
Brand: Viking
SKU: 9780593655085
Price: 22.95 USD
Availability: InStock

By Seth Harp

$22.95 USD

~~$30.00 USD~~ $22.95 USD

Sale Sold out

Shipping calculated at checkout.

270 in stock

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Propulsive.” —The Washington Post

“Engrossing. . . . Truly shocking.” —The New Republic

“The Fort Bragg Cartel opens like a nonfiction thriller and never lets up. A page-turning investigation into the dark side of our forever wars.”
—Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars and Directorate S

A groundbreaking investigation into a string of unsolved murders at America’s premier special operations base, and what the crimes reveal about drug trafficking and impunity among elite soldiers in today’s military

In December 2020, a deer hunter discovered two dead bodies that had been riddled with bullets and dumped in a forested corner of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. One of the dead men, Master Sergeant William “Billy” Lavigne, was a member of Delta Force, the most secretive “black ops” unit in the military. A deeply traumatized veteran of America’s classified assassination program, Lavigne had done more than a dozen deployments in his lengthy career, was addicted to crack cocaine, dealt drugs on base, and had committed a series of violent crimes before he was mysteriously killed. The other victim, Chief Warrant Officer Timothy Dumas, was a quartermaster attached to the Special Forces who used his proximity to clandestine missions to steal guns and traffic drugs into the United States from abroad, and had written a blackmail letter threatening to expose criminality in the special operations task force in Afghanistan.

As soon as Seth Harp, an Iraq war veteran and investigative reporter, begins looking into the double murder, he learns that there have been many more unexplained deaths at Fort Bragg recently, other murders connected to drug trafficking in elite units, and dozens of fatal overdoses. Drawing on declassified documents, trial transcripts, police records, and hundreds of interviews, Harp tells a scathing story of narco-trafficking in the Special Forces, drug conspiracies abetted by corrupt police, blatant military cover-ups, American complicity in the Afghan heroin trade, and the pernicious consequences of continuous war.

View full details

10/10

an incredible book, the research and journalism that went into it is phenomenal as well as the writing, to quote will menaker it reads like a novel

Shocking and brave investigative journalism

Seth Harp captures a series of wild, real-life stories of drugs, corruption, and murder inside America’s most elite military base. He weaves together a compelling page turner and profound commentary on the true cost/futility of special operations, its impact on individual operators and their families, and the extreme culture of violence and impunity that penetrates our elite military forces. It is remarkably well sourced. If you like true crime, investigative journalism, or have an interest in U.S. foreign policy, this book is an absolute must-read.

Good Book...But...

Good book on many levels. However, I'm not sure it reveals "impunity". Rather it speaks to the omerta of Spec Ops. I think what we see are Spec Ops taking out their own garbage. For better or for worse. They police their own.

Excellent Book

This was a good read, provides a lot of military (Special Operations) history. Provides insight into the consequences of unjustified wars, especially on our soldiers.

Gossip, Military Style

As a person who was at Bragg during these years, this book was well written and fun in a depressing way. It was like sitting with your friends downtown at brunch swapping that weeks shenanigans, but one of them brought receipts (police files). For any that think this is book is just a smear campaign against the community, it isn't...we all know there are a few bad apples, and it says so in the beginning of the book. These are the stories of the bad apples, not the teetotaling Christians who joined to save America.I have read a few military, Bragg related books and this one felt the least politically slanted and was the most fun.

1 2