New Orleans, Louisiana (MMD Newswire) December 1, 2009 — Author of 2009 memoir Desert Don : The Truth Behind the Group of Young Soldiers who turned Iraq from Chaos to Cartel confesses to his part in a drug and alcohol black market which he claims runs rampart on U.S. bases in Iraq today. Beau LeJeune, a 26-year-old New Orleans native, claims he was included in a handful of soldiers who profited from drug and alcohol distribution in the war torn country, not to include prostitution, which he claims was prevalent, but which he never profited from.
In an October interview LeJeune states “…we started by just drinking the liquor that our families or our girlfriends would send. Six months later the demand became so high we were smuggling liquor from Baghdad and bringing in drugs using Iraqi translators. Before my apprehension we were using two Blackhawk’s weekly as rumrunners and pushing our translators so hard that they had to outsource. Even then I didn’t think it would end with my being imprisoned.”
In October of 2004 LeJeune and a small contingency of men were arrested for the theft of weapons from a U.S. armory on Balad airbase deep inside the Sunni Triangle. Although LeJeune claims he had no intentions of stealing U.S. weapons to trade to the enemy he does admit it can be easily construed as just that. “I’m not sure why the weapons were brought to me after they were stolen, but at the time I was in the middle of a lucrative alcohol and drug trade with the Iraqi locals. As soon as the command put two and two together their initial thought was high treason.”
While three of LeJeune’s comrades were finally charged with lesser crimes and sentenced to unknown years in prison, LeJeune himself was released without being charged after being in military police custody for five months. Though LeJeune was thankful to be freed he says he has no illusion of what the release of his memoirs will bring. “I never helped with the investigation, never made a statement, so the book will be a revelation for everyone, even my prosecutors. Once they have all the details, I assume they’re going to come back after me.”
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