Global Research

The Central Intelligence Agency, which profited from the crack cocaine epidemic it fueled in the 1980s, is behind hip-hop’s glamorization of drugs, according to former cocaine kingpin Rick Ross.

The reformed drug dealer, who was unaware his cocaine sources were connected to the CIA until an exposé by the late journalist Gary Webb, said the agency has weaponized mainstream hip-hop to influence America’s youth into pursuing drugs without fear of consequences.

“…They were the guys who were behind me when I was selling drugs,” Ross said of the CIA. “And now they’re behind hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll.”

It’s been well documented that the CIA makes monstrous profits from the international drug trade, which likely funds many of its black operations.

For one thing, the trade of opium, which is used to produce heroin, was nearly extinct in Afghanistan prior to the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, but by 2006 the country’s opium trade had increased 3200% and was supplying 92% of the world’s supply.

“Under the interim government of Hamid Karzai, opium poppy cultivation once again began to skyrocket and opium markets were restored,” Kurt Nimmo wrote. “According to the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), opium cultivation increased by 657 per cent in 2002 in relation to its 2001 level.”

“The UNDCP estimated 2002 opium poppy cultivation would cover an area between 45,000 and 65,000 hectares.”

In comparison, Afghan opium cultivation in 2001 only covered an estimated 7,606 hectares.

Karzai, who was long suspected as the kingpin behind the country’s booming opium trade after the 2001 invasion, was on the CIA’s payroll for years, the New York Times reported.

And Canadian economist Michel Chossudovsky explained that the CIA used the invasion to resurrect its lucrative Golden Crescent drug trade it operated in Afghanistan during the ’80s when the agency was backing the Mujahideen rebels to fight the Soviet Union, which had invaded the country in 1979.

The Taliban had interrupted the drug trade when it came to power.

“Heroin is a multi-billion dollar business supported by powerful interests, which requires a steady and secure commodity flow,” Chossudovsky wrote. “One of the ‘hidden’ objectives of the war was precisely to restore the CIA-sponsored drug trade to its historical levels and exert direct control over the drug routes.”

The CIA was also smuggling cocaine into the U.S. from Central America back in the ’80s to fund the Contras in Nicaragua, and Rick Ross was selling that very cocaine without knowing its origins.

Nowadays, the CIA can keep demand for narcotics high by using hip-hop to glamorize drugs.

And one of the rappers who pushes the drug life has not only “borrowed” his stage name from Rick Ross, but also his persona.

The rapper “Rick Ross” even has a track entitled “Coke Like The 80’s” on his latest album scheduled for release on Nov. 24.

But he made his money through music, not drugs.

Rick Ross has a statement for the rapper:

To William Roberts, aka “Rick Ross,” who’s using my name, I’m inviting you in, to come with me: Let’s fight this culture, let’s fight this penitentiary culture that hip-hop’s been spreading. Let’s make a difference.

You and me need to come together and you need to tell them that you didn’t make your money selling drugs and making music is how you became famous.

There’s nothing wrong with making music, just as there’s nothing wrong with being a correctional officer, if that’s what you did, but so many of our friends who look up to you and look up to me are out on the streets thinking that they can go out and sell drugs and parlay that into a record career. I don’t know if you know that they’re not going to make it, but I know.

They’re going to wind up in prison with prison sentences three or four times what they should be because this “War on Drugs” is no joke.

I have 10 or 11 friends still in prison right now with life sentences, including one that you even know, Big Meech. I know how much you respect me and care about me, otherwise you wouldn’t have took my name. Take a chance with me now and let’s make a difference.

And even if William Roberts, aka “Rick Ross,” doesn’t decide to come with me and join hands, then the rest of the artists out there, let’s just come together: Professor Griff, KRS-One and so forth. Let’s join hands and change this thug culture, let’s change this hip-hip to prison pipeline.

Let’s make it happen right now, today, let’s do it. And not just you, the whole hip-hop community, I’m asking all of you, let’s all come together and change these laws right now and end this senseless “War on Drugs.”

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