Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA

Nestled in the Golden Triangle of China, Burma, and Nepal, the Wa nation has existed and thrived for over five decades. Like mountain peoples from Chechnya to the Ozarks, the Wa like to do things their own way. A tribal authority called the United Wa State Army (or UWSA) controls their native terrain. The UWSA makes laws, defends the motherland, and builds roads and schools. It even issues driver's licenses. In every sense, it is a government. And as a nation, its armed forces command 30,000 troops and 20,000 reservists, more than the militaries of Sweden or Kenya. The Wa possess high-tech weaponry: cannons, drones, and missiles that can knock jets out of the sky. Yet the one difference from their nation and those that surround them is their preferred commodity: drugs.

Illegal drugs are indeed one of the UWSA's top revenue sources. Over the years, tons of narcotics produced on Wa soil have hit the black market and traffickers have smuggled them onto American shores. Their ability to have a functioning government, economic system, and freedom from their neighbors derives from their sophisticated, profitable, and illegal trade. Yet, the origin story of this narco-army is smudged with American fingerprints. Not only did the CIA create the conditions for its inception, but one of its foremost leaders was a DEA asset.

In Narcotopia, Patrick Winn investigates and uncovers the true story of Wa, untangling the relationship between the DEA, CIA, and Wa people. The result is a saga of an indigenous people who have tapped the power of narcotics to create a nation where there was none before and the covert operations of US intelligence to transform and undermine it for their own agenda.