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How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

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Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#41

Post by hellbannedguy »

cronix wrote: post #33
saul_goodman wrote: post #10

Let's see, so they didn't nab any of the big players in the operation. So effectively they helped the biggest players by making it harder for the small to mid-tier drug cartels do conduct business. Sure, way to put the squeeze on the cartels there... A tangent to this is the way we conduct drug enforcement in the US. It's much better for police departments to wait until after the dealers make money to catch them so t…

Right, like in Oregon they recently decriminalized "personal amounts" of all drugs. Crack, heroin, meth, fentanyl, etc. Whatever you want...it's now just a misdemeanor offense like a parking ticket as long as you're under some limit. So personal amounts are "ok," but how does one obtain a "personal" amount from someone else unless they have more than a personal amount? In other words, on one hand it's illegal to deal…

In a perfect world, I would like to see all drugs decriminalized. I would like to see drugs given to people by the government free of charge. Of course they would have to sit through a common sense education movies, titled "Ok you want to ruin your life with hard drugs--fine, but sit through this educational film."

Until we get there; I am fine with small amounts of illegial drugs being an infraction.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#43

Post by apercu »

reedjosh wrote: post #36
scarecrowbob wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per the grandparent, yes "marijuana and crack prosecution" have explicitly racist elements. Specifically, the 1930s anti-cannabis is specifically anti-Hispanic, and the question of why there are massively different sentencing laws around crack and powder cocaine seems to me and most of the people I know to have many obvious racial elements.

I love this comment. This is one area where I think crying racism is actually justified. Racism is thrown around as a justification for anything today, but _real_ racist policies like: > different sentencing laws around crack and powder cocaine That persist today are almost never mentioned. Another policy that disproportionally effects blacks: > A mother will receive far more from welfare if she is single than if she…

One of the US political parties has had their strategists admit that several of their policies are racist, and that their communication strategy foments and encourages racism. This is not news, it's been publicly out there for decades.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#44

Post by haltingproblem »

reedjosh wrote: post #30

Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. > Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[2]…

NPR is using a clickbait headline. I fell for it just like you did. This conveys the opposite of what it actually is - "Govt Agents setup a fake bank in a sting to attract drug traffickers to launder money netting $90mm in cash and over 100 arrests".

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#45

Post by Spooky23 »

cronix wrote: post #33
saul_goodman wrote: post #10

Let's see, so they didn't nab any of the big players in the operation. So effectively they helped the biggest players by making it harder for the small to mid-tier drug cartels do conduct business. Sure, way to put the squeeze on the cartels there... A tangent to this is the way we conduct drug enforcement in the US. It's much better for police departments to wait until after the dealers make money to catch them so t…

Right, like in Oregon they recently decriminalized "personal amounts" of all drugs. Crack, heroin, meth, fentanyl, etc. Whatever you want...it's now just a misdemeanor offense like a parking ticket as long as you're under some limit. So personal amounts are "ok," but how does one obtain a "personal" amount from someone else unless they have more than a personal amount? In other words, on one hand it's illegal to deal…

The enforcement objectives are like a horseshoe.

The police have an incentive to get collars for petty possession, mostly to bank warrants for future trouble, and to go after big or brazen networks.

The people in the middle are mostly free of interference. I used to work in a building that was about a block away from the county court, 4 blocks from a police precinct hq. Yet I watched three guys sell drugs across the street for the two years that I worked there.

It has its ups and downs. In my state, with bail reform, woke stuff, and marijuana possession decriminalization, there has been a wave of shootings and murders as the gangs reorg and the cops are caught with their pants down.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#46

Post by dorfsmay »

nicbou wrote: post #38
cronix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, like in Oregon they recently decriminalized "personal amounts" of all drugs. Crack, heroin, meth, fentanyl, etc. Whatever you want...it's now just a misdemeanor offense like a parking ticket as long as you're under some limit. So personal amounts are "ok," but how does one obtain a "personal" amount from someone else unless they have more than a personal amount? In other words, on one hand it's illegal to deal…

That makes sense to me. Chasing consumers is a waste of time and money. The arrest itself might cause more societal damage than the drugs if it ruins people's lives or is used to target minorities.

Some people argue that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement is the main purpose of laws against drug consumers.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#47

Post by croes »

et2o wrote: post #31
reedjosh wrote: post #30

Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. > Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[2]…

This wasn’t “shady,” this was essentially a sting operation where they eventually seized 90 million dollars in cash and arrested over 100 people. Not bad. The bigger result was that it poisoned trust of banks by there kinds of criminals.

Professionals already have banks for that. 90 million dollars? These are small fishes. They only helped the bigger ones go get rid of the competition and the effect on drug trafficking is near zero.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#48

Post by rkk3 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #28
saul_goodman wrote: post #10

Let's see, so they didn't nab any of the big players in the operation. So effectively they helped the biggest players by making it harder for the small to mid-tier drug cartels do conduct business. Sure, way to put the squeeze on the cartels there... A tangent to this is the way we conduct drug enforcement in the US. It's much better for police departments to wait until after the dealers make money to catch them so t…

I think it’s bold to assume the government even wants to nab the big guys. One example is fentanyl is killing us by the thousands every year. We know who the guy is who owns the factor that’s providing most of the fentanyl and precursors to the cartels. He lives in China and runs an also legit chemical factory. He commits the crime right in the main factory in the open. We politely asked China to arrest him, but they…

> No real political pressure to do anything, no assassinations, nothing. Thousands dead every year.

Assassinating a Chinese citizen in China would be a huge overreach and a major violation of sovereignty. Not to mention it wouldn't stop the drug trade.

Instead of looking at the Liberal Hegemony playbook for a solution, they should de-criminalize and regulate. During prohibition many people were dying from additives/impurities in bootleg alcohol, now we don't have that problem.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#50

Post by reedjosh »

haltingproblem wrote: post #44
reedjosh wrote: post #30

Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. > Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[2]…

NPR is using a clickbait headline. I fell for it just like you did. This conveys the opposite of what it actually is - "Govt Agents setup a fake bank in a sting to attract drug traffickers to launder money netting $90mm in cash and over 100 arrests".

No, I'm of the same opinion of croes and saul_goodman.

> they didn't nab any of the big players in the operation. So effectively they helped the biggest players by making it harder for the small to mid-tier drug cartels do conduct business.

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