AI Summary
5 min readIn 1990, a 22-year-old Coast Guard petty officer named Giuseppe Weller walked into a nondescript office above a bank in Portsmouth, Virginia, as an E-4—one rank below the minimum for the unit he was joining. He had no idea what he was getting into. The unit was the Drug Interdiction Assist Team (DIAT), a little-known Coast Guard program that, from the late 1980s into the mid-1990s, sent small teams of Coast Guardsmen into the jungles of South America to work alongside DEA agents and train host nation forces. They ran boats up unmapped Amazonian rivers, blew up cocaine labs, and operated in a world far removed from the Coast Guard's primary mission of search and rescue.
Why the Coast Guard Was in the Jungle
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:54) **Introduction to the Coast Guard's Secret Drug War** - Host Jack Murphy introduces the episode's premise: the US Coast Guard's little-known role in the 1990s conducting special operations in Central and South America.
- 2 (03:14) **Giuseppe's Origin Story and Path to the Coast Guard** - Weller describes his childhood as an Army brat in Europe and how a desire to return to Italy led him to enlist.
- 3 (05:10) **From Key West to a Secretive Unit** - Weller explains his early law enforcement experience and how his commanding officer recruited him for a very special, unheard-of unit.
- 4 (06:11) **Arriving at the DIAT: "Ranger School is What We're Doing"** - Weller describes walking into the Portsmouth, VA, office as an E-4 and immediately learning the unit's intense training pipeline.
- 5 (11:22) **Why the Coast Guard? The DIAT's Origin Story** - Weller explains the legal and logistical reasons the Coast Guard, not the military, was chosen for this mission.
- 6 (14:29) **The Training Pipeline: Ranger School and Spanish Immersion** - Weller details the specific training he underwent before becoming deployable, including tactical schools and language training.
- 7 (24:03) **The Mission: Piranha Boats and the Amazon** - Weller describes the challenging equipment and environment of the operation, including the unreliable Piranha boats and the mother ships.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Giuseppe Weller recounts the little-known story of the Coast Guard’s Drug Interdiction Assist Team, which worked alongside the DEA in South America conducting riverine missions, training local forces, and helping destroy cocaine labs and airstrips. He also discusses Ranger School, hunting traffickers in Bolivia, the eventual shutdown of the unit, and how that experience led him into a career in undercover and organized-crime investigations.
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"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"
00:00 - Start
01:19 - Growing Up and Joining the Coast Guard
07:44 - Joining the Coast Guard’s Secretive Drug Interdiction Unit
09:28 - Why the Coast Guard Was Sent Into South America
12:23 - Ranger School and the DIAT Training Pipeline
16:54 - Preparing for the Drug War in Bolivia
20:23 - Arriving in Bolivia After a Massive Drug Raid
26:39 - Riverine Operations Deep in the Amazon
29:38 - Blowing Up Cocaine Labs and Airstrips
31:27 - Hunting One of Bolivia’s Top Drug Traffickers
38:45 - Washington Starts Restricting the Mission
46:31 - Was the Drug War Actually Working?
55:26 - Coast Guard Operations Across Latin America
57:47 - The Beginni
Today's Sponsors:
GhostBed ⬇️
https://www.ghostbed.com/house
FOR 10% off!
Mars Men⬇️
For a limited time, our listeners get 50% off FOR LIFE, Free Shipping, AND 3 Free Gifts at Mars Men at https://mengotomars.com/
PrizePicks ⬇️
Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TEAMHOUSE and use code TEAMHOUSE and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup!
For ad free video and audio and access to live streams...JOIN OUR PATREON!
https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTeamHouse
To help support the show and for all bonus content including:
-live shows and asking guest questions
-ad free audio and video
-early access to shows
-Access to ALL bonus segments with our guests
Subscribe to our Patreon! ⬇️
https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse
___________________________________________________
GRAB JACK'S NEW BOOK "THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN"
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/803651/the-most-dangerous-man-by-jack-murphy/paperback/
Subscribe to the new EYES ON podcast here:⬇️
https://www.youtube.com/@EyesOnGeopoliticsPod/featured
Jack Murphy's book "We Defy: The Lost Chapters of Special Forces History" ⬇️
https://www.amazon.com/We-Defy-Chapters-Special-History-ebook/dp/B0DCGC1N1N/
Or make a one time donation at: ⬇️
https://ko-fi.com/theteamhouse
Social Media: ⬇️
The Team House Instagram:
https://instagram.com/the.team.house?utm_medium=copy_link
The Team House Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TheTeamHousePod
Jack’s Instagram:
https://instagram.com/jackmcmurph?utm_medium=copy_link
Jack’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/jackmurphyrgr?s=21
Team House Discord: ⬇️
https://discord.gg/wHFHYM6
"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"
00:00 - Start
01:19 - Growing Up and Joining the Coast Guard
07:44 - Joining the Coast Guard’s Secretive Drug Interdiction Unit
09:28 - Why the Coast Guard Was Sent Into South America
12:23 - Ranger School and the DIAT Training Pipeline
16:54 - Preparing for the Drug War in Bolivia
20:23 - Arriving in Bolivia After a Massive Drug Raid
26:39 - Riverine Operations Deep in the Amazon
29:38 - Blowing Up Cocaine Labs and Airstrips
31:27 - Hunting One of Bolivia’s Top Drug Traffickers
38:45 - Washington Starts Restricting the Mission
46:31 - Was the Drug War Actually Working?
55:26 - Coast Guard Operations Across Latin America
57:47 - The Beginni
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