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

In this unsettling debut investigation, journalist and Iraq War veteran Harp delivers a blistering exposé of criminality within the U.S. Army’s Special Forces. Focusing on Fort Bragg, N.C., home to Delta Force and other elite military units, Harp uncovers a culture steeped in drug trafficking, weapons theft, and cover-ups. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentation, Harp alleges that soldiers returning to Fort Bragg from Afghanistan smuggled opioids and other narcotics into the U.S., sometimes in collaboration with Mexican cartels, and engaged in reckless, often violent behavior on the base—much of it fueled by substance abuse—that the military swept under the rug. A detailed history of the Army’s entanglement with Afghanistan’s opium trade and harrowing accounts of drug-fueled parties at Fort Bragg full of racist behavior frame Harp’s discovery of a shocking number of deaths on the base: 109 from 2020 to 2021 alone, many of them unexplained. Harp’s investigative rigor and visceral storytelling make this a disturbing must-read for anyone seeking to understand the full cost of America’s overseas conflicts. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn, CAA. (Aug.)