Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Excerpt from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy:


It’s the role heroin played in the Kosovo War that has intrigued many independent researchers.

Kosovo lies in the center of the Balkan Route through which nearly all Afghan heroin (the world’s most popular variety) passes through on its way to greater Europe and beyond, including the United States. The extraordinary value of the Balkans’ drug trade has been estimated to be worth anywhere from US$500 billion to one trillion dollars annually.

There’s speculation the Western-backed KLA was heavily involved in this profitable business, adding fuel to the theory that the desire to control heroin trafficking was the underlying cause of the Kosovo War.

Certainly, Kosovo Albanians are prime movers in the region’s illegal drug trade – second only to the Turkish mafia, according to US Drug Enforcement Agency officials who, in 2000, estimated that Kosovo Albanians controlled nearly half of Europe’s heroin. Those same officials said as much as 6 tonnes of heroin passed through the Balkan Route every month.

In an article by The Guardian dated March 13, 2000, columnist Maggie O’Kane said international agencies fighting the drug trade were warning that Kosovo had become “a smuggler’s paradise” and “Nato-led forces, struggling to keep the peace a year after the war, have no mandate to fight drug traffickers...who are running the Balkan route with complete freedom”.

In the same article, a former Yugoslav narcotics official described Kosovo as “the Colombia of Europe”. The official says, “The Kosovo mafia has been smuggling heroin since the mid-1980’s. But since the Kosovo War, they have come into their own.”

Perhaps the foremost authority on drug wars is Canadian economist Dr. Michel Chossudovsky, author of The New World Order, whose extensive commentaries clearly convey that “the expensive Yugoslav conflict” was “directly linked to the multi-billion drug war”.

In an exclusive interview dated June 30, 1999 in cannabisculture.com, Dr. Chossudovsky says, “Drugs serve political interests … They help finance covert intelligence operations … the Vietnam War, the generals in Haiti, the Contras, Colombian paramilitaries … Many groups are funded with drug money that serve geopolitical interests. And there is usually covert support provided by the CIA to these groups.

“It is well documented the KLA is financed by the drug trade. It also has links to the CIA, German intelligence and Islamic terrorist organizations. So Islamic terrorist organizations the West has labeled as its enemies are co-financing the KLA alongside NATO. It’s a totally absurd situation”.

Dr. Chossudovsky also alludes to drug profits being laundered to buy arms in post-war Kosovo.

Wow! Always follow the money right? And for sure drugs = money to state the obvious. This is interesting. It's all drugs and drug money funding everything. This makes total sense to me.

Irene wrote: "Wow! Always follow the money right? And for sure drugs = money to state the obvious. This is interesting. It's all drugs and drug money funding everything. This makes total sense to me."

Yep just follow the Money Trail as they say...

Edward wrote: "Yeah; the clandestine US the largest beneficiary of drug profits telling its citizens of its war on drugs; more accurately stated as its partnership with drugs. But, that would be outrageous and un..."

Totally...so best not say it. Uh oh...too late!

Thank you, Lance, for sharing this. I have heard the same from other sources.

Wouldn't be surprised if you tagged a US dollar bill, that you would discover it has passed through Kosovo on its way to fighters being paid out of Kiev, and to members of ISIS, too.

The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade

^^^ yep. That's always my rec for anyone keen on the history of drugs. Its a towering work. Dense read, meaty with facts. Tons of footnotes; indices; maps; bibliography, glossary, diagrams. For the dedicated student only! Doubtful that any kind of casual reader would have the patience to wade through it!

Whiteout: The CIA,Drugs and the Press