The Fort Bragg Cartel

Advance Praise for The Fort Bragg Cartel “A propulsive and deeply troubling account of military involvement in the drug trade, both domestically and abroad.” —The Washington Post “The Fort Bragg Cartel focuses on the sleazy world of a couple of U.S. Army special operators who got heavily into dealing drugs and using them in vast quantities. . . . It seems that we all are doomed to continue finding new ways to pay the bills—physical, emotional, financial, moral—of wars that never seem to end.” —Thomas E. Ricks, The New York Times Book Review “[An] explosive investigation into drug dealing, murder, and suicide within America’s special operations forces groups, notably superelite Delta Force. . . . A book to be taken seriously by the country’s political class and military establishment.” —Jeff Calder, The Atlanta Journal Constitution “The Fort Bragg Cartel opens like a nonfiction thriller and never lets up. A page-turning investigation into the dark side of our forever wars.” —Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars and Directorate S “A searing and absolutely essential exposé about the toll that decades of war has taken on our soldiers, our military, and our government. Harp has produced a stunning, masterful work of reporting that every American should read. Riveting and unforgettable.” —Christopher Leonard, New York Times bestselling author of Kochland and The Lords of Easy Money “By turns informative, explosive, and provocative, The Fort Bragg Cartel reveals in gritty detail how drugs have corrupted the U.S. Army’s most elite units from the inside out.” —Sean Naylor, New York Times bestselling author of Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command “A deeply reported, terrifyingly vivid plunge into the drug-fueled underbelly of life in the U.S. military’s elite special forces. The psychic cost of killing in the name of America haunts every page. This is an anti-war book for our time.” —Jeff Goodell, New York Times bestselling author of The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet “With The Fort Bragg Cartel, Seth Harp offers a chilling glimpse inside the rotten core of American empire. This book lays bare the secretive cult of U.S. special forces and follows a trail of murder, drug-smuggling, and corruption, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the pine forests of North Carolina. The Fort Bragg Cartel is at once a meticulous investigation of rampant criminality and impunity within Delta Force, a tragic study of young people chewed up and spat out, and a dire warning of the devastation wrought at home and abroad by forever war.” —Noah Hurowitz, author of El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Infamous Drug Lord “A fantastic book, the best I have seen on the global war on terrorism and the wreckage it left behind. The depth of Harp’s reporting is awesome.” —Andrew Cockburn, author of The Spoils of War: Profit, Power, and the American War Machine “A page-turning true crime story that tracks the downward spiral of drug-addled lunatics trained by an immoral government to kill innocent people for political reasons. The implications of this book are more important than ever as the U.S. moves towards fascism in the age of Trump.” —Christopher Ketcham, author of This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West “A blistering exposé of criminality within the U.S. Army’s Special Forces. . . . Harp’s investigative rigor and visceral storytelling make this a disturbing must-read for anyone seeking to understand the full cost of America’s overseas conflicts.” —Publishers Weekly “In 2020, two bodies were found near Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Harp’s chronicle of a group of soldiers, all of whom were damaged by their experiences in the Middle East, is a tale of drugs and murder and illustrates how such emotional damage can lead to tragic consequences. Harp, an Iraq War veteran and investigative reporter, also shows how colleagues seeking to protect their ‘brothers in arms’ only made matters worse.” —Booklist “An unsettling read, the book will nevertheless enlighten anyone concerned about U.S. foreign policy and the role of the military in it. A scathing exposé of drug trafficking, homicide, and suicide in the U.S. military.” —Kirkus Reviews “[Harp] knows the law and the military and brings a muckraker’s sensibility to his subject. His revelations keep coming, page after page.” —The Shepherd Express