by Seth Harp
Viking
8/12/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9780593655085
A groundbreaking investigation into a string of unsolved murders at America's premier special operations base, and what the crimes reveal about drug trafficking and impunity among elite soldiers in today's military
In December 2020, a deer hunter discovered two dead bodies that had been riddled with bullets and dumped in a forested corner of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. One of the dead men, Master Sergeant William "Billy" Lavigne, was a member of Delta Force, the most secretive "black ops" unit in the military. A deeply traumatized veteran of America's classified assassination program, Lavigne had done more than a dozen deployments in his lengthy career, was addicted to crack cocaine, dealt drugs on base, and had committed a series of violent crimes before he was mysteriously killed. The other victim, Chief Warrant Officer Timothy Dumas, was a quartermaster attached to the Special Forces who used his proximity to clandestine missions to steal guns and traffic drugs into the United States from abroad, and had written a blackmail letter threatening to expose criminality in the special operations task force in Afghanistan.
As soon as Seth Harp, an Iraq war veteran and investigative reporter, begins looking into the double murder, he learns that there have been many more unexplained deaths at Fort Bragg recently, other murders connected to drug trafficking in elite units, and dozens of fatal overdoses. Drawing on declassified documents, trial transcripts, police records, and hundreds of interviews, Harp tells a scathing story of narco-trafficking in the Special Forces, drug conspiracies abetted by corrupt police, blatant military cover-ups, American complicity in the Afghan heroin trade, and the pernicious consequences of continuous war.
Reviews:
"A propulsive and deeply troubling account of military involvement in the drug trade, both domestically and abroad." --The Washington Post
"Engrossing. . . . Harp chronicles some of the more troubling goings-on in this haunted region and the secretive, self-destructive warrior culture that has defined it for decades. . . . Truly shocking . . . Harp digs into the region's thrumming undercut of plunder and violence, tracing a bloody trail that includes bullet-riddled bodies, sexual assault, a suspicious drowning, and a severed head. In July 2022, one man even fell from the sky." --Jasper Craven, The New Republic
"[An] explosive investigation into drug dealing, murder, and suicide within America's special operations forces groups, notably superelite Delta Force. . . . A book to be taken seriously by the country's political class and military establishment." -- Jeff Calder, The Atlanta Journal Constitution
"Unlike most of what passes for military affairs journalism, Harp's book refuses to abide by the worshipful clichés or even the occasional 'bad apple' explanations. To the contrary, Harp paints a picture of Fort Bragg--and with it, the entire military-industrial-carceral complex--that, in keeping with his opening vignette, shows it to be not only pernicious or criminal but downright fratricidal. And this fratricide, far from being contained within the darkest corners of the warfare state, is actively reinforcing an ever more war-addled United States." -- Lyle Jeremy Rubin, The Nation
About the Author:
Seth Harp is an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent. A contributing editor at Rolling Stone, he has reported from countries including Iraq, Syria, Mexico, and Ukraine for Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, The Intercept, The Daily Beast, and The Texas Observer. His work has been supported by residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo, and he is a 2025 ASU Future Security Fellow at New America. Before becoming a journalist, Harp practiced law for five years, and was an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Texas. During college and law school, he served in the United States Army Reserve and did one tour of duty in Iraq.