Editing Golden Triangle (section)

===Drug Trafficking and Deniability:===
The CIA’s involvement in the drug trade was largely indirect, relying on intermediaries like the KMT, Hmong, and Thai officials. Agency aircraft, CIA supported/created front companies (e.g., Air America), and banking networks facilitated logistics, but the CIA maintained plausible deniability by avoiding direct handling of drugs.

Declassified documents, such as the 1972 CIA Inspector General’s report, admit awareness of allies’ drug activities but claim no policy sanctioned trafficking. However, critics argue the CIA’s failure to curb allies’ opium trade effectively enabled the global heroin surge, with Golden Triangle heroin accounting for an estimated 30% of U.S. supply by 1970.