The Heroin Warlord of Pakistan: Armed Tribesman, the CIA, & a Smuggling Empire

5000 armed tribesman at his beck and a call. A mountain compound in a lawless territory. A seat in Pakistan’s parliament bought and paid for. And a heroin and hash empire that stretched from the mountains of Afghanistan to million dollar mansions in Long Island. Ayub Afridi started life as a poor, illiterate truck driver in a mud hut and turned a trucking company into a global drug trafficking operation. And once the Soviet Union went to war with Afghanistan, his control of Pakistan’s tribal areas perfectly positioned him to become a kingmaker. The guns went up in his trucks, the the opium came down to be refined into heroin that would stretch across the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices