August 17, 2021
7,455,785
108,646
13,563
1.64%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
The rumours have circulated for decades. Did the CIA flood the inner cities of the US with crack cocaine in the 1980s? Was the American government actually responsible for the crack epidemic?
Often dismissed as a conspiracy theory, but passionately believed by huge sections of the population – the idea that US intelligence agencies knowingly protected drug traffickers and played a role in bringing cocaine into the US is one of the most often repeated stories of the War on Drugs.
But what is the truth to these allegations? It turns out the real story is perhaps even stranger than the street-level gossip.
This is how one reporter exposed a web of CIA cover-ups, and how the rest of the media destroyed him for doing so.
Check out the VICE World News playlist for global reporting you won't find elsewhere
Watch more from this series:
How Mexican Drug Cartels Make Billions
The Deadliest Cartel in Mexico
Why Mexican Cartels Use American Guns
Click here to subscribe to VICE
About VICE:
The Definitive Guide To Enlightening Information. From every corner of the planet, our immersive, caustic, ground-breaking and often bizarre stories have changed the way people think about culture, crime, art, parties, fashion, protest, the internet and other subjects that don't even have names yet. Browse the growing library and discover corners of the world you never knew existed. Welcome to VICE.
Connect with VICE:
Check out our full video catalog
Videos, daily editorial and more
More videos from the VICE network
Click here to get the best of VICE daily
Like VICE on Facebook
Follow VICE on Twitter
Follow us on Instagram
The VICE YouTube Network:
Motherboard
VICE Sports
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.