There is evidence that from 1951 to 1954 the French intelligence agency ran an opium distribution network to finance the hiring of mercenaries in the Indochina war (Posner 1989).

XREF: Connects to Cold War covert operations and state-sponsored drug trafficking histories, such as CIA involvement in the Golden Triangle.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 1029