Through interviews with former narcotics agents, politicians, and bureaucrats, this exposé documents previously unknown aspects of the history of federal drug law enforcement from the formation of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) up until the present day. Written in an easily accessible style, the narrative examines how successive administrations expanded federal drug law enforcement operations at home and abroad; investigates how the CIA comprised the war on drugs; analyzes the Regan, Bush, and Clinton administrations’ failed attempts to alter the DEA's course; and traces the agency's evolution into its final and current stage of “narco-terrorism.”    "Doug Valentine belongs to that precious remnant of journalists and historians with the wisdom to see our time, the integrity and courage to write about it, and the literary grace to bring it all chillingly alive."  —Roger Morris, member of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, who resigned in protest over the invasion of Cambodia "An indispensible resource for those who wish to understand the politics of drug enforcement in America; and for those with any sense of the subject's real importance it is a gripping read as well." —Peter Dale Scott, author, Drugs, Oil and War, and coauthor,  The War Conspiracy Douglas Valentine is a former private investigator and consultant and the author of The Hotel Tacloban , The Phoenix Program , The Strength of the Wolf , and TDY . He lives in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. The Strength of the Pack The Personalities, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA By Douglas Valentine Trine Day LLC Copyright © 2009 Douglas Valentine All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-9799886-5-3 Contents Author's Notes, xi, Cast of Main Characters, xv, Chapter 1: The Shadow of the Wolf, 1, Chapter 2: The McDonnell Case, 11, Chapter 3: Connoisseurs of Chaos, 16, Chapter 4: Turning to Tartaglino, 28, Chapter 5: Symbolic Strategies, 35, Chapter 6: The Big Picture, 47, Chapter 7: A New York Narcotic Agent in Saigon, 62, Chapter 8: Rude Awakenings, 78, Chapter 9: Espionage Intrigues, 93, Chapter 10: The First Infestations, 101, Chapter 11: Angels and Archangels, 117, Chapter 12: The Politics of Enforcement, 133, Chapter 13: Shock Treatment, 147, Chapter 14: Chasing the Dragon, 162, Chapter 15: New York, New York, 177, Chapter 16: Capitol Capers, 193, Chapter 17: Covert Intelligence, 208, Chapter 18: The Parallel Mechanism, 222, Chapter 19: Myles to Go, 234, Chapter 20: The DEA, 245, Chapter 21: The Dirty Dozen, 261, Chapter 22: The Serpent in My Garden, 275, Chapter 23: Political Drug Wars, 290, Chapter 24: If at First, 307, Chapter 25: Going Underground, 325, Chapter 26: George White's Ghost, 342, Chapter 27: Enter the FBI, 356, Chapter 28: The Age of Narco-Terrorism, 373, Chapter 29: The View from the Top, 388, Epilogue, 404, Photographs & Documents, 413, Acronyms, 447, End Notes, 449, Bibliography, 505, Personal Sources, 513, Index, 517, CHAPTER 1 The Shadow of the Wolf In April 1968, the Johnson Administration combined the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) with the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (BDAC) to create the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). With that action, the age of the freewheeling federal narcotics agent came to a close. The strength of federal drug law enforcement would thereafter reside in the Pack, not the Wolf. But for all its sophistication, the newfound BNDD would still require extraordinary people to lead its 670 agents scattered in some 100 field offices, most in the United States. The preeminent personality would be the director of the organization. The odds-on favorite for the job was Henry L. Giordano, the ultra-conservative commissioner of the FBN. Also in the running was John Finlator, the iconoclastic director of the BDAC. Both were appointed acting associate directors of the BNDD upon its creation, with the tacit understanding that one would be chosen director. Instead, when the day of reckoning came Attorney General Ramsey Clark announced the appointment of thirty-eight year old John E. Ingersoll as the BNDD's director. Clark never even considered Giordano because of "widespread corruption among FBN agents at the time." Other candidates were considered, Clark said, but Ingersoll "offered a clean break with a past that had ended in corruption and, I hoped, a new progressive, scientific based approach to drug control in a time of deep social unrest." Ingersoll would be the organization's only director throughout its brief and tumultuous five-year existence. Clark's decision stunned and humiliated Giordano, and knocked many a proud FBN agent to his knees. Indignities were heaped upon insults. To begin with, the FBN, with its 38-year tradition of hunting down the world's top heroin traffickers, had been forced into a shotgun weddi