Opium production in Afghanistan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan/
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Afghanistan is, as of March, 2010, the greatest illicit opium producer in the entire world, ahead of Burma (Myanmar) and the "Golden Triangle". Afghanistan is the main producer of opium in "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S. occupation started in 2001. Based on UNODC data, there has been more opium poppy cultivation in each of the past four growing seasons (2004–2007) than in any one year during Taliban rule. Also, more land is now used for opium in Afghanistan than for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 92% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.^[1] This amounts to an export value of about $4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, drug traffickers.^[2] In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.^[3] In addition to opiates, Afghanistan is also the largest producer of hashish in the world.^[4][5]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/25/drugs-united-nations-afghanistan
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In 1989, the United States invaded Panama as part of Operation Just Cause, which involved 25,000 American troops. Gen. Manuel Noriega, head of government of Panama, had been giving military assistance to Contra groups in Nicaragua at the request of the U.S.—which, in exchange, allowed him to continue his drug-trafficking activities—which they had known about since the 1960s.^[12][13] When the DEA tried to indict Noriega in 1971, the CIA prevented them from doing so.^[12] The CIA, which was then directed by future president George H. W. Bush, provided Noriega with hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as payment for his work in Latin America.^[12] However, when CIA pilot Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, documents aboard the plane revealed many of the CIA's activities in Latin America, and the CIA's connections with Noriega became a public relations "liability" for the U.S. government, which finally allowed the DEA to indict him for drug trafficking, after decades of allowing his drug operations to proceed unchecked.^[12] Operation Just Cause, whose ostensible purpose was to capture Noriega, pushed the former Panamanian leader back into the town asylum along with Papal Nuncio where he surrendered to U.S. authorities. His trial took place in Miami, where he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.^[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Hasenfus
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