“The Fort Bragg Cartel”:
Book Exposes US Special Forces’
Involvement in Drug Trafficking and Murder
Amy Goodman / Democracy Now!

(August 16, 2025) — As President Trump threatens to use US special forces against drug cartels abroad, a new book, The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, reveals some of the most secretive and elite special forces in the Army are heavily involved in narco-trafficking themselves.

“There’s at least 14 cases that I’m tracking of Fort Bragg-trained soldiers who have been either arrested, apprehended or killed in the course of trafficking drugs in the last five years or so,” says author Seth Harp.

The book also looks at “how US military intervention often stimulates drug production,” including in Afghanistan, which he says became the biggest narco-state in the world during the 20-year US occupation.

“Most of the drug trafficking and drug production was being carried out and done by warlords, police chiefs, militia commanders, who were on the US payroll in a corrupt structure,” says Harp.

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