Oh yeah. I love it.
A group of people YOU'RE supposed to respect are actually aiding and abetting the violent Mexican drug-running cartels.
And they all pass drug tests.
It's all on the flip.
First, do you remember the report about how Drug money saved banks in global crisis?
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.
*****
"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.
"That was the moment [last year] when the system was basically paralysed because of the unwillingness of banks to lend money to one another. The progressive liquidisation to the system and the progressive improvement by some banks of their share values [has meant that] the problem [of illegal money] has become much less serious than it was," he said.
Very interesting. Because banks got their asses saved by "drug money", the problem of laundering drug money suddenly became "less serious".
Well....Wachovia has been laundering money for the Mexican cartels. For several years.
Wachovia has agreed to pay US prosecutors 160 million dollars for its failure to stop drug money being laundered to Mexican affiliates, the DEA said Wednesday.
The embattled bank admitted it failed to stop an estimated 110 million dollars from being sent from the US to Mexico by wire transfer that was used to buy cocaine-transporting aircraft.
The Drug Enforcement Administration said Wachovia-run foreign exchange houses in Mexico -- or casas de cambio (CDCs) -- were involved in the illicit trades between 2004 and 2007.
The DEA huffs and puffs and postures as if they have busted something important, which maybe they did. If you or I were arrested for even a fraction of something like Wachova has done, we'd been heinous criminals tried and sent to prison for the rest of our lives and the DEA would hold up our scalps as if they had cracked one of the bigger cases.
What did they do though?
"In light of Wachovia's willingness to acknowledge responsibility for its actions and omissions... the government has agreed to defer prosecution of the criminal charge in the information for 12 months," the agency said.
Wachovia has been allowed to buy their way out of thier mess by giving a massive dose of cashola to the Government. They call it a "fine". I call it a massive kickback. It's a slap on the wrist for Wachovia and a blast of cash for the DEA. I don't have any proof the DEA gets the money directly, but I think it's safe to assume the cash will find its way into DEA budgets or other coffers. They are slimy like that.
They are also slimy like this:
It was less than one year ago when acting U.S. DEA administrator Michelle Leonhart publicly declared that the escalating violence on the U.S./Mexico border should be viewed as a sign of the “success” of America’s drug war strategies.
“Our view is that the violence we have been seeing is a signpost of the success our very courageous Mexican counterparts are having,” said Michele Leonhart, who was recently nominated by President Obama to be the agency’s full time director. “The cartels are acting out like caged animals, because they are caged animals.”
Yep. All those dead people - the criminals as well as the innocent collateral damage are PROOF things are getting better.
Which, of course, is pure-D horseshit.
The situation in Mexico is out of friggin control.
See Mexican Navy in Texas, US Consular Staff murdered, Journalists under siege for some up to date news reports on just how out of control this shit is down there. American politicians - pregnant American politicians - have been murdered and the DEA cheers it on as mission accomplished. It's a sign!
It's like something out of a movie but President Obama's new DEA "head" thinks this is all just beautiful. We're turning the corner. It's in the last throes, blah, blah, blah.
The DEA and others opposed to fixing the situation (does that include YOU?) are to blame for this.
The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy … says that more than 60 percent of the profits reaped by Mexican drug lords are derived from the exportation and sale of cannabis to the American market. … (By comparison, only about 28 percent of their profits are derived from the distribution of cocaine, and less than 1 percent comes from trafficking methamphetamine.) … Government officials estimate that approximately half the marijuana consumed in the United States originates from outside its borders, and they have identified Mexico as far and away America’s largest pot provider.
If the Obama administration wishes to once and for all reduce this unprecedented wave of Mexican drug-gang violence, then it needs to remove the drug lord’s primary source of income — and that’s marijuana trafficking.
I don't know how to read Obama on this. My gut tells me all we are really getting are efforts to try and squelch complaining about the status quo of marijuana prohibition, while they don't REALLY want to change a goddamned thing. It has the ever-so-precious "bipartisan support".
Marijuana IS the cartels main bread and butter. Regulating it here (regulation, legalization - whatever: it's the same thing. Make it available like tobacco, alcohol, and firearms, tax it and enforce the rules)is the ONLY solution. Absolutely NOTHING ELSE will work, and NOBODY has anything resembling a better idea.
Marijuana laws are bullshit. The propaganda we are still force-fed is stupid as hell and will never, ever, ever improve at all.
It will never improve because it's based on lies and horseshit and your tax dollars - which we all have plenty of - are available to repeat the nonsense ad nauseum.
There's no actual, rational argument for maintaining the situation. Nobody can make one. All we get is that crap spewing out of the ONDCP and the DEA - 2 agencies that stand to lose BIGTIME when marijuana is FINALLY re-legalized. (Yes, it was legal before, America can stand to have it legal again. STFU.)
It's obscene that the DEA has the gall to call the violence and bloodshed "progress" while they let Wachovia simply buy their way out of what should be one of the more spectacular scandals as people are learning just how badly banks and other financial institutions have conspired to screw American commoners.
The violence and chaos seen in Mexico is predicted by the Iron Law of prohibition: the more a desired product is prohibited the worse the characters who will provide it will become and the more violence will be seen. The more effort put into prohibition, the more lucrative trafficking becomes. The more lucrative trafficking becomes, the more violent the players are, hence the fact that the Mexican cartels "armies" rival those of the Mexican State. That's my paraphrasing of it. You can read about it here in detail.
Expect the situation to get worse and worse until something is done to starve the cartels of cash. It's all about cash. The cartels aren't running some sort of benevolent service, providing marijuana to a country that can't grow it's own. They are exploiting the stupidity of American drug laws and the DEA are cheering them on as they profit from the situation directly.
And that, frankly, is that.
Please go review and consider obtaining Marijuana Is Safer....So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, as fine a compendium of current arguments for reforming this situation as you need.
I do not receive any sort of compensation for recommending that book. It' just really useful.
Doc