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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)

#51

Post by reedjosh »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #41
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…

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.

I like decriminalization, but don't like government production.

The film idea is funny, but I still disagree with that too. As anyone can tell from my commentary, I'm a crazy no government guy, so that's just my bias.

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

#52

Post by Consultant32452 »

rkk3 wrote: post #48
Consultant32452 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/i…

I think it's important to help people understand that the stated goals of the government are completely out of alignment with their behavior. The state pretends that it wants to stop the drug trade, but its behavior is the opposite. I have no reason to believe that the CIA and other three letter agencies care one iota about sovereignty.

What the actual policy should be towards drugs is downstream of helping the public understand they are being misled systematically, and have been being misled since school.

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

#53

Post by Quenty »

croes wrote: post #47
et2o wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From another perspective, consider it probably did not cost $90 million to execute this plan. So overall, this is a net profit, and most likely cost effective.

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

#54

Post by TacticalCoder »

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]…

> 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.

Another one, maybe the biggest known one, is when the US sent 12 bn to 14 bn in the form of 100 bills (yup, in bills) using a military plane to Iraq and these bills mostly all mysteriously vanished.

12 to 14... billions.

At least 1.4 bn was found to have been stolen and stored in a bunker in... Lebanon (I don't remember if it was just located or seized). Overall an estimated 9 bn are unaccounted for I think.

(trying to insert the wikipedia and NY Times link to the story/stories but I get a "we have trouble processing your request, sorry" from HN)

There were wire transfer to the tune of billions too. But the 100 bills shrink-wrapped and flew in a military plane: you cannot make that up.

Shady stuff if any...

EDIT: like Iran-Contra, I'm pretty sure in the future movies are going to be made about these $100 bills.

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

#55

Post by elefanten »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #54
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]…

> 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. Another one, maybe the biggest known one, is when the US sent 12 bn to 14 bn in the form of 100 bills (yup, in bills) using a military plane to Iraq and these bills mostly al…

This comment begs for some sources and citations.

Edit: I have a recollection of this incident but certainly not as mysteriously inexplicable and shady as you make it out. There was some context I've forgotten. Your story rings false.

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

#56

Post by rahilb »

Quenty wrote: post #53
croes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From another perspective, consider it probably did not cost $90 million to execute this plan. So overall, this is a net profit, and most likely cost effective.

It was a top secret plan spanning multiple countries likely run by corrupt officials, I think it probably cost more than 90 million!

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

#57

Post by elefanten »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #39
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…

The point of decriminalizing personal amounts of drugs is to change police behavior because they are doing more harm than good in this area. You want to arrest the people who are dealing drugs or causing other crimes, not permanently ruining the lives of people who are doing no harm to society.

It's not strictly true that they do no harm to society. A lot of deeply addicted people are still objectively a blight on their surroundings, even if you view it as a health issue that calls for help rather than a moral issue that calls for punishment.

Let's not underplay that damage drugs and addicts do. They're not the source of the problem, they shouldn't be the focus of the solution but let's be honest.

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

#58

Post by sneak »

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…

On average, approximately 7x more people die in the US each day from use of tobacco use than do from use of opiates.

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

#59

Post by paulpauper »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #40
Consultant32452 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In response to the Fentanyl/heroin issue, State govs clamp down on legit opioid Rx, leaving Dr's too wary to Rx any effective pain meds at all. People in chronic pain now get to live their lives without any relief at all. They get ignored my news orgs who are obsessed with amplifying an opioid hysteria narrative. Go Gov.

Agree. The opiod epidemic is just the latest moral panic used to justify limitng people's rights.if you want to o.d., that's your right and your fault. OTC pain medication useless for serious chronic pain and a bigger ripoff than prescription drug companies. Opiods are safe when taken under doc guidelines. This notion that otc drugs are safe is wrong too: Otc drugs are known to cause liver and kidney problems too.

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

#60

Post by nicbou »

dorfsmay wrote: post #46
nicbou wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I didn't know there was a term for that. It's exactly what I was thinking about.
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