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

In December 2020, two bodies were discovered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. One was Master Sergeant William "Billy" Lavigne, a Delta Force member and veteran of classified assassination operations who struggled with crack cocaine addiction, dealt drugs on base, and had committed violent crimes. The other was Chief Warrant Officer Timothy Dumas, a quartermaster who stole guns and trafficked drugs into the United States, and had written a blackmail letter threatening to expose criminality in the special operations task force in Afghanistan. Investigative reporter Seth Harp, an Iraq war veteran, began investigating the double murder and discovered numerous other unexplained deaths at Fort Bragg, additional murders connected to drug trafficking in elite units, and dozens of fatal overdoses. Using declassified documents, trial transcripts, police records, and hundreds of interviews, Harp documents narco-trafficking in the Special Forces, drug conspiracies involving corrupt police, military cover-ups, American involvement in the Afghan heroin trade, and the consequences of continuous war on military personnel and operations.