Formerly classified documents reveal that in 1973 the US Secret Service was investigating whether Dundee was a key staging point for the international drug trade.
Communiqus were sent around the world as the course of a major shipment of illegal substances was charted.
At the heart of the surveillance was the MS Mareantes, which had left port in the Bay of Bengal.
It was suspected of using hemp as a cover for a more illicit contraband.
On April 19, classified documents were sent from the embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, warning that the vessel could be bound for Dundee with a load of hashish a potent form of cannabis.
The documents were for the eyes of senior officials in Paris, New Delhi, Rome, Istanbul and Colombo, while the US Secret Service and Secretary of State William Rogers were also informed of the boat’s movements.
They were told that the Mareantes had declared as loading for Dundee and potentially Antwerp, Bremen and Rotterdam, with the first two identified as the “foremost ports receiving raw jute from Bangladesh”.
The US documents, made public by Wikileaks, reveal that officials initially recommended no immediate action, though they urged that agencies “remain alert to related developments”.