Back in the late 198os, the U.S. military became substantially involved in counter-narcotics operations in Latin America. And Drug Enforcement Administration had a particularly close partnership with the U.S. special operations community, which provided training and equipment to DEA agents.
Writing at the newly launched Sphere, Sharon Weinberger (full disclosure: she's my wife) takes a look at the DEA's revived paramilitary role in Afghanistan. Michael Braun, the DEA's former chief of operations, says the counter-drug war in Afghanistan is in many ways a reprise of Operation Snowcap, which involved a collaboration between DEA agents and Army Special Forces to battle cocaine traffickers in Andean nations.
These high-speed counter-drug ops are often hidden from public view. It was not until a recent deadly helicopter crash in Afghanistan -- which claimed the lives of seven American troops and three DEA agents -- that we began to learn more about the scale of the drug war in Afghanistan.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Justice)
