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

One of the iconic images of the Global War on Terror is The Operator, a fierce, burly, bearded warrior who combines primitive savagery with high tech weapons and training. In the United States, these soldiers serve in a variety of units centered around Fort Bragg in North Carolina. They're the sharp point of the spear. They receive glowing praise in venues from Hollywood blockbusters and video games to executive leadership books inspired by lessons from the Special Forces to monster truck rallies. And they're profoundly fucked up.

The Fort Bragg Cartel opens with First Sergeant Mark Leshikar, a Green Beret, and Master Sergeant William Lavinge of Delta Force returning from a family vacation to Disney World with their daughters. Both men show more were coming down from a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas level drug binge: cocaine, MDMA, prescription painkillers and tranquilizers, bath salts, and plain old booze. Leshikar began suffering paranoid delusions, that they were being followed and that Lavinge was assigned to monitor him. When the car arrived in Fayetteville, Lavinge took the girls into the house. Leshikar followed, and in the ensuing incident Lavinge shot his good friend several times at close range, killing him almost instantaneously. The case was adjudicated as self-defense, Leshikar remembered as a hero, and Lavinge put on desk duty, the whole thing hushed up.

But this killing is just the entry into the massively fucked up world of the Special Forces. Operating with essentially no oversight, no accountability, large black budgets, and a truly punishing operational tempo of "F3EAD" (Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze, and Disseminate) assassinations, Fort Bragg runs on drugs and crime, with all that ills that entails. When Fort Bragg soldiers are arrested, they are released as "brave warriors who just made a little mistake". The police are entirely subordinate to JSOC, the chain of command focused on looking good above all else, and it's easy to image that trained killers deployed to the world's drug hotspots would operate as a gang at home.

After the shooting, Lavinge fell in with Thomas Dumas, a logistics soldier with the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade. Dumas used his familiarity with paperwork to move military gear off books and arrange shipments. Dumas also partnered with Freddie Huff II, a former North Carolina State Trooper connected into the Zeta Cartel. The two made a lot of money selling drugs and also did a bunch of drugs themselves. The party ran out when Dumas and Lavinge were found shot to death in a pickup truck on a remote part of Fort Bragg. That murder was unconvincingly pinned on an 20-year old gangster with no military ties. Huff was later arrested and sentenced to years in jail for drug trafficking, though in interviews he expects to land on his feet when he gets out.

Leshikar-Lavinge-Dumas-Huff are the core of this book, but the whole of Fort Bragg is rotten. Drug use is omnipresent, sexual assault frequent, and deaths of despair (suicide, overdose) or healthy soldiers just dropping dead while exercising happen all too frequently, roughly 50% higher than any other military post. in 2020 and 2021, 109 Fort Bragg soldiers died, with just 4 of those deaths occurring on military deployments!

In 2025, there are a lot of things going wrong in America. Fort Bragg seems pretty low on the list. But I think Harp makes a case that JSOC is a fundamentally rogue organization and any repair is only temporary as long as these people can get away with everything. show less

What happens when war is treated like factory, mechanical process to keep people occupied and soldiers fighting it are seen as nothing more than a raw materiel that needs to be protected while it serves its purpose and then gets discarded and left to rot.

It seems that end of Vietnam war was never seen as a warning but as a milestone - nothing after that war was ever the same, it seems.

Main thing was that public will never be given control over any government actions - military and other means of violence will for now on be professional and those people that choose to serve their country will be used by that very government in whatever means it finds it suitable.
Sole purpose is to use them to the maximum and not care what happens show more after. Because in reality, what can go bad with hundreds of military specialists trained in any conceivable means of war, when hey are sent back to their homes after suffering and witnessing who knows what atrocities (after all it is war), working hard to find various means to keep up with insane physical demands for their high mission tempo, hooked on the camaraderie and under constant threat they might be kicked out - after which ...... then what? No medical support, no brotherhood ..... no purpose.What is worse, nobody that understands.

Very much like Code over Country, author tells the story of elite troops, members of Special Forces, Delta and support organizations. It is story of people who have fallen so hard to the bottom of the pit because they could not survive without extremes of their own profession.

Author's approach differs from the book on Seal Team 6 - it gets preachy at moments only to negate oneself on follow up pages. When he talks about Delta it is always how they are all whites (yup, author says 100% white), chiseled jaw, 6 feet, quarterback types, but then few pages later you get several names of people of non-WASP origin in that same unit (I mean they have dedicated team for undercover work in the Arab world - WASP types as author describes them would stick out for miles). It is whole male team but then a little bit later you find out they have female section (and no, not Cover Girls, although I would not joke about their job it is extremely sensitive, only thing being they are not even considered for the field work) that also goes on operations (again, members of this small elite undercover team). Then army is all white and male, only to get introduced to plethora of characters - male and female, white and other ethnic groups all over the elite troops in Fort Bragg (including 82nd Abn i.e.) and nearby Fort Campbell. Not only men killing people, but also women sorting things between themselves by direct shoot outs. So this is mix of everything and everyone - because people this is Army, which is usually cross section of the society.

And then we get to the talks about diversity, because how can it be that Delta (which is 1ppm of the entire US Army, let alone whole armed forces) is not diverse - not just by race but also by gender and sexual orientation. I mean wtf. Race wise, one has to understand these guys are professional soldiers, not joining to get citizenship, not joining to gain anything than military life - they are in it for life, either as a stepping stone to higher officer rank, or as a professional soldier in the squads 'til the end of service. Whomever US Army gets to join, for college or citizenship, they are in it for 2 years, maybe 4 and that is it, they are not staying for professional career. And to complain about the fact that majority are whites - for sake of sanity, 3/4 of population is of this origin. Then there are strenuous physical requirements - few woman won their place in these elite units, but in general requirements are way above what male (with all anabolics, drugs and enhancements) let alone female physique can handle. These are low life expectancy, high risk occupations, they are not tip of the spear they are that prickly top at the tip of the spear. You cannot mass produce this in any way, they need to be selected, trained and then kept at peak performance until they are dismissed. And I wont even begin with sexual orientation - in these types of units? What?

So, when this mandatory BS is passed, what author describes is exactly that - very closed society of elite special force units, very much in need of soldiers who are then jealously protected from any external influence - police in particular. Of course this then gets abused and soon this feeling of invincibility forms and that leads to disaster. When you have a group of people trained to fight and win under most difficult of conditions, doing basically criminal work all over the world and cannot get enough of the high - of course they will turn to weird internal rituals and finally organized crime. Because what everyone needs is money and they know higher ups will protect them.

Of course this paints everyone in the units as bad as these guys are, which is not the case. But it seems that constant requirement for more aggression, more savagery in the field of battle (and constant never ending wars that just consume more and more of populace), selection criteria for psychological stability might have gone down. There is no other explanation because entire selection process, science and technology - it did not change for the last 50 years. So troops were needed, and more aggressive (or potentially aggressive) characters were given green light - because hey they will be unleashed onto the other side. So lets try (I can imagine them thinking "o how smart")

Also, as author notes, all of this drug trade had constant political support - Central Asia operations and distribution of Afghanistan narcotics to neighboring countries is extremely ominous if you ask me and reminiscent of Opium Wars between UK and China. Lowliest of the lowliest. Of course use of door kickers as support and organizers - I mean it worked for Los Zetas didn't it?

And of course, same as poison spreads in the pond all of this caused ever crazier and deadlier events in and around Fort Bragg, involving other pure criminal )not armed forces related) elements and spreading throughout the country itself. Absolutely heart-breaking story of people that went crazy after years in the heart of darkness, that blunted them and desensitized them from everything resembling normal human behavior. It is unforgivable what government did to these soldiers and their families. I hope one day they clear all of these criminal elements out.

In the background of the main story and bizarre crimes and murders author provides a lot of information on the special forces themselves, wars they were and are involved in, governments and political decisions that have influenced the policy of eternal never-ending wars that have been trademark of US since the beginning of 2000's. And drug policy - international outrage how poppy field destruction after 2022 done by Taliban will destroy Afghan economy ...... are these people for real? Disgusting.

Excellent book. If it weren't for those social comments that seem to be a requirement these days it would be 5 stars. This way it is 1 star down because ...... in this case all of that is absolute BS.

Highly recommended. show less

Can I say that I enjoyed reading a book which describes drug dealing, killings, deaths of despair, and the soldiers who are driven to them by the terrible things they experience during their service? The prose and pacing is excellent: the book really is 'compulsively readable'. It also seems very well-reported and deeply researched to me, although I'm not an expert on this subject. One challenge Harp faced is that this book is not about a cartel at Fort Bragg, its topic is really the broader issue of 'drug trafficking and murder in the special forces'. As a result, he faced the challenge of telling the stories of many different soldiers, on the one hand, while also having to produce a narrative through-line for the reader. I think he show more undertook that difficult task successfully, although as a result (and inevitably) the book does feel a but unfocused at times, especially in the second half. Another drawback of the book is the author's strong political views. Even I -- who already agree with them completely! -- felt a little lectured to in the final sections of the book. The author loses a bit of credibility as a result, since the facts he presents clearly speak for themselves. But have no doubt about it: This well-written account of aerial defenestrations, decapitated heads, absurdly audacious drug-smuggling, America's client narcostates, and the men who live through all of them is definitely a great read. show less

I still have not gathered my feelings about this book, and full disclosure, I had heard the author talk about this book when he was doing all the press for its release, so I knew it would be dark; HOWEVER, if what the author describes in this book is correct -which I have little reason to doubt given the extended investigative journalism he did for an article series before this for Rolling Stone which would have been vetted, the extensive list of citations, and that Viking's lawyers would have vetted this- it would mean that the tip of the spear of the globe's foremost military power is comprised of narco-terrorist (since the word has gained so much popularity between 2025-2026) death-squads devoted to a greater death cult where nothing show more matters.

This is certainly an extraordinary claim -and rather awkwardly phrased-, especially since the US-army already does not have a stellar reputation, but what is described here is a mass-murdering death machine victimizing -primarily- the third world, the civilians around it domestically, and it's own members, while adhering to no rules, morality or principles aside from death for its virtues and personal/corporate enrichment. Were an International Tribunal to examine this behaviour I cannot help but feel that the individuals and instiutions involved would be convicted/found liable of warcrimes, terrorism (within the actual definition of the term and within its popular conception), extermination, international drug-trafficking, and a slew of other crimes. As the author makes apparently clear, even if just domestic US law both at the federal and state level was applied to their action in the Homeland, the crimes would be equally horrific be that murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, embezzlement, fraud, international drug trafficking, warcrimes, etc, or the coverup of all these crimes with a side of racketeering and running a criminal organization.

And yet Mr Harp (Seth hereafter), with his compelling writing, narrative-building, interviews with their friends and family, and his kanck for placing the events in their context manages to humanise these monsters more than they deserve (again, if the things he alleges are true). When I use the word 'humanise' I do not mean 'excuse', instead, while describing their actions in the most scathing of terms, he gives us the background and context within which horrible killers for hire become monsters in the purest sense of the word. This is one of the reasons I rather despise Seth now, he made me understand, and even empathize the tiniest bit, with these monsters.

Beyond empathy though, what I primarily feel after this book is fear. I never thought the US-army, or any other army out there for that matter, was benevolent, but having now learned of the depraved monsters it harbors, and that if what the author describes in the first Trump term (i.e. the removal of ANY barriers or guardrails in the conduct of JSOC) combined with current events are any indications of how the second Trump administration is going to go, then we are truly at the mercy of an 'empire' and its narco death-squads both devoted entirely to death and its cult. I am not a religious man, and I am agnostic towards God, but may she have mercy on humanity; we certainly don't deserve it.

Or this may be all my fatalism and the impact of current events speaking XD Who knows?! Probably someone in the US government.

My one BIG criticism of this book is that the references, called 'Notes' in the book, are gathered in the second half of the book and only have hyperlinks going from that second half back to the text!!!!!!!!! How is that of any use, unless you are specifically reviewing the sources after the fact!!!! PLEASE, I am sure this was a decision made by the publisher to enhance the ease of read since most people do not actually look at the sources, but for a book making so many claims YOU NEED TO ADD FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES/ OR SOME FORM OF HYPERLINK GOING FROM THE TEXT TO THE SOURCE IN THE SECOND HALF!!!!!!!! I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO CROSS CHECK ALL THE CLAIMS BY GOING BACKWARDS FROM EACH SOURCE TO THE TEXT. PLEASE.

P.S. I do not currently have the time to edit this review, so please forgive any mistakes. show less

Excellent account of the relationship between drug trafficking, service member death, and US corrupt cultures of impunity regarding all sorts of anti-society behavior. Often reads like a true crime drama followed by super disturbing statistics that contextualize the violence and enable the reader to come to structural conclusions, rather than lingering in the interpersonal. The research is pretty well done, although sometimes speculation is presented as established fact. For example, the author posits COVID-19’s origin in a Wuhan lab as established fact, as well as some causal claims regarding things like the Ukraine war. While I personally am generally sympathetic to the author’s stances (I think he’s usually right) these show more accounts go uncited, and that’s a little frustrating. Compulsively readable, highly recommended, made me super mad show less

giving a bunch of white boys unlimited money, unlimited and untouchable immunity to rape, murder, and steal from anyone and everyone and that's somehow "shocking"?? surprised worse hasn't happened sooner. insane that the DEA said with a straight face that there was no Afghanistan heroin on the streets of America after 9/11??? please spare me!

Good, but disturbing read.