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

Delta Force formed in 1977 under Colonel Charles Beckwith, who modeled it on the British Special Air Service (SAS) alongside whom he worked in Malaysia. Following the Vietnam War, it became the core of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), created without publicity in 1980. Delta Force’s first mission, Operation Eagle Claw, in Iran, failed dramatically and resulted in eight deaths and lasting damage to President Jimmy Carter’s reputation. Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, expanded special operations and placed Delta Force at the center with SEAL Team Six, the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the Activity. These “shadowy” (38) units were under a short chain of command with few steps between them and the President.

Harp describes the formation of Delta Force alongside 1970s congressional oversight of the CIA, arguing that the military’s clandestine activities faced less scrutiny. The Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations shifted covert action toward JSOC during Central American wars and the “global war on drugs” (40), guided by a 1984 memo that authorized killing in “preemptive self-defense” (40). The New York Times revealed the existence of JSOC, describing it as “mostly a nighttime operation” (41) and quoting concerns it could become “a uniformed version of the Central Intelligence Agency” (41), while then-Senator Joe Biden publicly noted that politicians were “aware of the existence of the special operations units [and] trying to learn more” (41).