President Richard Nixon and Mexico’s President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz shake hands at a ceremony on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande River after dedicating the Amistad Dam, in background. September 8, 1969 (less than two weeks before the start of Operation Intercept)
Dick’s Operation
Two months after Nixon took office as President, he decided to be true to his name. As one of his first moves as President he created ‘the Special Presidential Task Force Relating to Narcotics, Marihuana and Dangerous Drugs’.
The special task force was formed to back Nixon’s campaign promise to “move against the source of drugs.”
A police officer is photographed holding a handgun at a man accused of transporting marijuana in the back of his car outside San Antonio, Texas during Operation Intercept
Representatives from ten different federal agencies meet in closed door sessions for eight weeks assessing “the dangers of marihuana, the flow of drugs over the Mexican border, and strategies to control drug smuggling and marihuana cultivation”.
What did the task force of Dicks find?
Mexico was “largely responsible for the marihuana and drug abuse problem”…
There actions would forever change a police situation into a military war on drugs…
The man was found carrying bags of marijuana in the trunk of his car during Operation Intercept, 1969
Dicks solutions to the task force findings?
‘Operation Intercept’
“a concerted frontal attack on the illegal importation into and subsequent illegal sale and use of marihuana, narcotics and dangerous drugs in the United States.”
U.S. Border checkpoint during Operation Intercept, 1969
What this meant was nearly a complete shutdown of the border with Mexico, while agents searched every inch of space…
In a memorandum the task force took it a step further, recommending that the Mexican government “be forced into a program of defoliation of the marihuana plants.”
This new stance would force a Foreign government to alter cultural policy through military action upon its own people…
Lumped bags of marijuana are seen on a table in the federal offices with the operation’s end result collecting 3,202 pounds or 160lbs per day during Operation Intercept, 1969
Jefferson Airplane echoed cultural sentiment by writing the song Mexico about Operation Intercept. The song was quickly banned by many stations nationwide…
Lyrics to Mexico by Jefferson Airplane
Owsley and Charlie, twins of the trade,
Come to the Poet’s Room
Talking about the problems of the leaf,
And yes, it’ll be back soon
There used to be tons of gold and green
Comin’ up here from Mexico
A donde esta la planta, mi amigo, del sol?
[The translation is: “Where is the plant, my friend, of the sun.”]
But Mexico is under the thumb
Of a man we call Richard
And he’s come to call himself king
But he’s a small-headed man
And he doesn’t know a thing
About how to deal for you
How to deal for you
There are millions of you now
I mean it’s not as if you were alone
There are brothers everywhere
Just waiting for a toke on that gold
And God knows how far it can go
But thanks Uncle Charlie
For your Mexican smoke
You’re a legend Owsley
For your righteous dope
There were a half a million people on the lawn
And we sang to the faces in the dawn
How long must that damn race
Wait for the jailer’s time to end?
How long must the Panther race
Wait for the iron bars to bend?
And no no no no no nobody waits
Mexico by Jefferson Airplane
U.S. Customs agents track the nationwide marijuana market during Operation Intercept, 1969
The U.S. Customs Service supplied the following price and supply estimates based on information obtained during Operation Intercept.
Los Angeles, California –
Prices- $125-150 per kilogram rose as high as $150-175 per kilogram and $60-100 per pound. (Depending upon quality)
Supply – Available
El Paso, Texas
Price – $10 per lid (Approximately I ounce)
Supply – Readily available
Houston, Texas
Price – $1 per cigarette, $25 per lid, $120-125 per pound
Supply – Not readily available
Denver, Colorado
Price – $25 per can(Approximately 2-21/2 ounces)
Supply – Scarce
Chicago, Illinois
Price – $50-200 a kilo (Poor quality), $200 per pound (Mexican manicured), $100 per pound (Domestic)
Supply – Available, but sold “short” i.e. I pound equals 12 ounces
New York, New York
Price – $2 per cigarette, $10 per plastic bag (Approximately 1/2 – 1 ounce)
Supply – Not readily available
A storage vault in San Deigo, California seen packed with boxes of seized marijuana seized during Operation Intercept, 1969
While the supply of cannabis was affected by Operation Intercept, hard drug use and supply including heroin drastically increased domestically as a result…
“The famine itself is real enough. It fell upon the country late last spring, introducing a season of privation worse than the oldest smokers can recall…. Only marijuana, the mildest and least menacing, has disappeared from the streets even in southern California.”
-Life magazine, summing up operation intercept in 1969
After the blocks of marijuana are counted for their federal records, two federal agents are seen steadily throwing them into the flames of a furnace during Operation Intercept 1969