An official at Fort Bragg confirmed that investigators questioned fifteen soldiers in the US Army Special Operations Command about allegations of drug involvement.
Law enforcement officials, including the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, questioned the soldiers late last week at Fort Bragg. According to media reports and USASOC officials, many of those questioned were active-duty Green Berets, though it was unclear how many.
According to the Army, all 15 had been released and two had been cleared of “wrongdoing.”
“I can confirm that 15 Soldiers assigned to USASOC were questioned and then released to their command. “We have cleared two of those Soldiers of any wrongdoing,” USASOC Lt. Director of Public Affairs Col. Mike Burns said in a prepared statement. “We take all allegations seriously and are fully cooperating with the Criminal Investigation Division,” the statement said. The CID investigation is ongoing, and discussing the status of their investigation would be inappropriate.”
According to Jack Murphy, an independent military journalist and former Green Beret, the FBI was involved in the investigation that led to the arrests, and one soldier was investigated for human trafficking-related crimes involving minor girls.
In recent years, the Special Forces community around Fort Bragg has seen a string of violent deaths.
In 2018, Delta Force soldier William J. Lavigne shot Special Forces soldier Mark Leshikar to death in his home. The two men had previously been friends, and an investigation determined that the shooting was in self-defense.
Lavigne and Army veteran Timothy Dumas were discovered dead on a Fort Bragg training range in December 2020. Their deaths were ruled homicides.
In those cases, no arrests have been made.