---
category: Country
summary: Laos is a Southeast Asian country that served as the theater for a secret
  CIA war and intelligence-connected drug trafficking operations in the Golden Triangle,
  where vault subjects Ted Shackley, Tom Clines, Michael Hand, and Bo Gritz all operated.
tags:
- Country
- Laos
- CIA
- GoldenTriangle
- DrugTrafficking
---

[Laos](/places/laos/) is a country in Southeast Asia. It is mentioned in connection with the clandestine [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) war and drug trafficking activities in the [Golden Triangle](/places/golden-triangle/).[^1]

[Michael Hand](/people/michael-hand/), co-founder of [Nugan Hand Bank](/organizations/nugan-hand-bank/) and a highly decorated [Special Forces Green Beret](/organizations/united-states-army-special-forces/) soldier, moved to the clandestine [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) war in [Laos](/places/laos/) after his first stint in [Vietnam](/places/vietnam/), according to [Ted Shackley](/people/ted-shackley/), a former station chief in Indo-China.[^1]

[Bo Gritz](/people/bo-gritz/) staged several expeditions to [Laos](/places/laos/) in search of missing POWs. During these expeditions, he reportedly stumbled upon a "massive drug network in Southeast Asia" that was intertwined with American POWs.[^1]

[Danny Casolaro](/people/danny-casolaro/) was investigating [Bo Gritz](/people/bo-gritz/)'s expose of [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) drug trafficking in the [Golden Triangle](/places/golden-triangle/) and had requested to meet with a former police officer who had information on Laotian warlord [Kuhn Sa](/people/kuhn-sa/)'s Golden Triangle drug trade proposal to the [United States](/places/united-states/).[^1]

---

[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.