Mills, James. The Underground Empire: Where Crime and Governments Embrace.
Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1986. 1165 pages.
James Mills spent five years on four continents hobnobbing with DEA
agents to come up with this massive book. Even without footnotes or an index,
and more flashy dialogue than historical perspective, it's quite impressive.
The overworked DEA agents are Mills' heroes, working long hours with minimal
resources in their war against the "Underground Empire" of internationally-
organized heroin and cocaine producers and distributors. DEA has a low
opinion of the CIA -- which either mucks up the DEA's priorities through
incompetent meddling, or perhaps has its own agenda. So the war continues
against the "sovereign, proud, expansionist" Empire, which "has become
today as ruthlessly acquisitive and exploitative as any nineteenth-century
imperial kingdom, as far-reaching as the British Empire, as determinedly
cohesive as the states of the American republic. Aggressive and violent by
nature, the Underground Empire maintains its own armies, diplomats, intelli-
gence services, banks, merchant fleets, and airlines. It seeks to extend
its dominance by any means, from clandestine subversion to open warfare."
Okay, so we invest the muscle needed to stop all this, and no doubt
the world's trains will soon run on time also. But why not legalize drugs,
and tax them at a rate that reflects their social costs? No comment on this,
because Mills is content with his story of good guys vs. bad guys.
ISBN 0-385-17535-3
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